バルト三国への旅 2 (A Travel to the Three Baltic Countries 2)

旅行3日目、8月15日は、リトアニアのかつての首都トラカイの、ガルヴェ湖の小島に浮かぶトナカイ城を目指しました。

August 15, the 3rd day of the travel, we headed for the former capital, Trakai. It is famous for its castle standing on the small island in the Lake Galve.

トラカイ城

Trakai Castle

後ほどヴィリニュスに戻り、旧市街の外れで昼食。

Later we came back to Vilnius to have a lunch on the outskirts of the old city

昼食後、旧市街を自由散策。

出発地点は市役所前。ちょうど二階建ての市内観光バスが止まっていた。

After lunch, we had free time to walk around.

We started our walk in front of the city hall, where a sightseeing two-storied bus was stopping.

旧市街地を大聖堂に向かって歩く。

We walked along the old city street toward the Cathedral.

旧市街地のお店で、クッキーにおウマ模様をつけるローラーを購入して、ネリス川沿いを歩いてホテルに戻る。ネリス川の反対側から、前日観光したゲディミナスの丘が見えた。

We bought a cookie roller with horse patterns in one of a cute shop in the old city. Then we walked along the Neris River toward our hotel, looking up Gedimino Hill across the river.

川沿いが散策路になっていて、お天気が良く少し暑かったけれど、川風が気持ち良かった。下の写真がホテルの対岸。

There was a nice walking road along the riverside. It was so sunny that the river wind was cool and nice.

The below picture was the scenery across the river just in front of our hotel.

この日は自由食だったので、僕らは日本から持っていた食材を使い部屋で夕食を済ませ、早めにベッドに入り、しっかり眠った。時差ボケで疲れが出始めていたので、これは大いに助かった。

This evening, we did not have any fixed plan to eat dinner. We took some Japanese food we had taken with us from Japan and went to bed early so that we could take a good amount of rest, which we really needed.

旅行4日め、8月16日、ホテルを出てカウナスに向かう。カウナスでは、旧日本領事館（杉原千畝記念館）を訪れる。今回の旅行で一番寄りたかったところです。

August 16, the 4th day of our travel, we left our hotel and first headed to the former Japanese consulate in Lithuania (Chiune Sugihara Memorial House) , our main purpose of this travel.

当時使用されていた国旗。

杉原千畝と子供達の写真。

僕の写真を入れた、命のビザの記念写真。

The Japanese flag was exactly what they were using during the war.

Sugihara's and his childrens' pictures.

What was called, Visa for Life, with my picture in it!

再現された杉原千畝の執務室

The reproduced office of Chiune Sugihara.

記念館を出たあと、カウナスの街を散策。

After leaving the museum, we sightsaw the old city of Kaunas.

カウナス城。

Kaunas Castle.

この日の昼食はカウナスの広場のそばのレストランで、赤カブのスープに、メインはリトアニア風水餃子、コルドゥナイ。赤カブのスープは色がショッキングだけれど、味は穏やか。コルドゥナイも優しい味で、量が少し多かったけれど、美味しく頂いた。

For our lunch, we stopped by a nice restaurant by the side of the park. The first course was a soup with beets, whose color was shocking but taste was OK. The main dish was Koldunai, quite similara to chinese dumplings. Though it was served a little too much for us, we enjoyed it, too.

午後はシャウレイに向かう。広人とした牧草も広がり、家畜の姿を目にするようになりました。

In the afternoon, we drove to Siaulai. We started observing a spacious meadow with various domestic animals.

シャウレイでは、大小無数の十字架が立つ巡礼地、世界遺産の十字架の丘が有名です。

In Siaulai, a hill with so many crosses is famous as a pilgrimage site and a world heritage, too.

僕は信仰心がないせいか、聖地というより、十字架のゴミの山に見えて、十字架の丘の方より、西から広がる雲の雄大さに心を動かされた。

I may lack faith. This place does not look sacrid at all, rather it looked like a massive pile of cross garbage.

Acturally I was more impressed by the clouds sprading from the west than the disorganized pile of crosses.

国境を越えてラトヴィアに入った。宿泊はリガのラディソンBLUラトヴィア。旧市街のすぐそばに、デーンと立っている。旧ソヴィエト時代には、西側報道陣達の宿泊所だったそうだ。

ここに三泊したけれど、部屋が狭くて、ルームクリーニングも行き届かず、あれこれとトラブルが相次いだ。

We crossed the border and entered Latovia.

Our hotel was Radisson Blu Latvia Hotel in Rigas. We stayed there for three night but the room was the smallest of the three hotels during this travel and the rooms were not celeaned properly (for one night, at all). We had other troubles with our room kea and the hot water, too. This hotels was the definately worst of all.

夕食はホテルレストランで、ポタージュスープ、牛肉のサイコロステーキ、それにチョコレートケーキだった。味は悪くなかったけれど、チョコレートが苦手なれいこさんは、デザートは周りのフルーツとソースしか食べていなかった。

On this evening we had supper in the hotel restaurant. The first course was potato soup. The main dish was blocks of beef. The dessert was a chocolate cake. The taste was generally fine but Reiko did not like chocolate and ate only small fruits surrounding the cake.