Large Feasting, small dining...

If you have ever spent any amount of time with me at any of my homes; you know I have never had a dining room. Of course, that has never stopped me from entertaining. In order to feed my friends and family, number notwithstanding, I have always used my coffee table as my dining table.

I not only felt welcomed in Lithuania, I felt right at home. Everywhere we went we were met with feasting of the highest order. Huge amounts of amazing food and drink...and we all cozied in around the coffee table. I enjoyed it there, as much as here.

Welcome to Vilnius

Janes Lithuania (15)
Originally uploaded by jstrong.

I am back at work and our wonderful trip seems like a glorious daydream. But it was very real. Pete now knows the Welch clan is not his only large family. We were met at the "aeroharbor" in Vilnius by his and Edward's family & Sabina's family, all carrying beautiful flowers. It was quite moving.

Of course we were in Vilnius less than 10 minutes & we were stopped by the policia. I used a little judgment & did not call them what I was thinking. Pete, of course, jumped out & was Mr. Chicago Cop. They were not impressed...but they did allow us to continue on to the hotel.




The hotel we stayed at was the Apia hotel(www.apia.lt) in the Old Town section of Vilnius. The hotel was charming, not air conditioned, but that was ok. This is a nice section of the city to stay in, as we were able to walk or be peddled wherever we wanted.




More later.

Wonderful, wonderful, Copenhagen...

Well we are finally home; quite jet-lagged, but the trip was more than we could have hoped for. The journey home was difficult. I will not bore you with the details, but the result was 3 hours of total sleep in 48 hours. Not good. The good part was an unexpected chance to tour Copenhagen.


It is quite a city. Pete says he thinks it could handle Katrina with just a little dust blowing around.


There are bikes everywhere. You can rent, borrow, use or purchase bikes at any point in the area. There are repair kiosks. They are serious about their biking.

We are just glad to be home. I hope to review the trip. It was too wonderful to ignore. I just need to get my "bearings" first.