The town in Latvia a set of great-grandparents grew up in

Monday, June 29th:
My first stop was the “Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania”. It is a history and archaeology museum in a recreation of a former palace. The remains of the former brick foundation are in the basement or first level. It was finished in 2009. I took a break at about 3 to go outside to a nearby cafe. Then I went back in to the museum for less than an hour more. There was a good amount of English descriptions and artifacts. I only ate restaurant food 3 times on this whole trip. Then I hiked to the Neris River, crossed a bridge, went down to the shore, and paid 15 Euros for a boat tour on the Neris River that left at 6:10pm. The boat could hold about 12 people. The boat had a roof. Then I tried to ride the bus but the credit card machine wouldn’t work, the driver wouldn’t accept cash, and I got off at the next stop.

Tuesday, June 30th, 2026
My first stop was the Vilnius Choral Synagogue. The building was completed in 1903, restored in 2010. It is not a huge place. (I am Jewish according to heritage only. I quit observing the religion. This should be the 613th least interesting thing about me). My second stop was the Museum of the culture and identity of Lithuanian Jews. My next stop was the “Vilnius Picture Gallery” branch of the Lithuanian National art museum. The place has a few sort of good old landscape paintings and a lot of old portrait paintings. My next stop was the “Radvilas Palace” which contains an art museum with some old master paintings. The current building was built in 1635-1653. My ticket for the Radvilas Palace let me into another nearby branch of the art museum which had photographs from the “Kharkiv school of Photography” in Ukraine. Then I walked through the Gates of Dawn on the way to the bus station. I had dropped my stuff and the baggage holding desk at the bus station before my first museum. Yeah, you can pay to leave your stuff at the bus station, watched by employees. They don’t have self-serve luggage lockers like in the big train stations I saw in Germany. My bus to Trakai left at 6:10pm. My apartment was at “Argo Trakai”. The owners also operate a Georgian restaurant next door. I had my second restaurant food there.

Wednesday, July 1st, 2026
I walked to Trakai Island Castle, arriving about 20 minutes before they opened. The last major restoration was finished in 1987. Workers were fixing or installing a brick walkway in the courtyard. I didn’t pay for the phone app with an audio guide. There were many display cases with artifacts from and not from the castle – furniture, ivory objects, highly decorative smoking pipes, plates and mugs made with big coins pressed into them, stuff made with tiny beads. Then I had time for the Karaim Museum. It is a small place with just 3 rooms but had a big pamphlet with a good amount of English descriptions. Then I paid to enter the restored portions of the peninsula castle, even though few tourists go here. I suppose I could have been as happy if I had skipped it. They used the restored towers to do educational activities with kids demonstrating early hand operated printing presses, pottery making, and possibly other uses. 3 towers were open. Then I picked my luggage up from the hotel and hiked to the train station to catch my trains to Kaunas. On my way, a rainstorm started. I had to switch trains on the way in place called Lentvaris. I missed my second train. It was my fault. I had an advance ticket for both trains. I was able to buy another ticket from the machine and catch the next train. I wasted about just under ten Euros and an hour and ten minutes. I stayed at “Resume Apartments” at 3 E. Ožeškienės gatvė, Kaunas. It was a nice, modern looking room with a miniature refrigerator and two electric-induction stove burners, and enough utensils and dishes.

Monday, June 29th:
My first stop was the “Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania”. It is a history and archaeology museum in a recreation of a former palace. The remains of the former brick foundation are in the basement or first level. It was finished in 2009. I took a break at about 3 to go outside to a nearby cafe. Then I went back in to the museum for less than an hour more. There was a good amount of English descriptions and artifacts. I only ate restaurant food 3 times on this whole trip. Then I hiked to the Neris River, crossed a bridge, went down to the shore, and paid 15 Euros for a boat tour on the Neris River that left at 6:10pm. The boat could hold about 12 people. The boat had a roof. Then I tried to ride the bus but the credit card machine wouldn’t work, the driver wouldn’t accept cash, and I got off at the next stop.

Tuesday, June 30th, 2026
My first stop was the Vilnius Choral Synagogue. The building was completed in 1903, restored in 2010. It is not a huge place. (I am Jewish according to heritage only. I quit observing the religion. This should be the 613th least interesting thing about me). My second stop was the Museum of the culture and identity of Lithuanian Jews. My next stop was the “Vilnius Picture Gallery” branch of the Lithuanian National art museum. The place has a few sort of good old landscape paintings and a lot of old portrait paintings. My next stop was the “Radvilas Palace” which contains an art museum with some old master paintings. The current building was built in 1635-1653. My ticket for the Radvilas Palace let me into another nearby branch of the art museum which had photographs from the “Kharkiv school of Photography” in Ukraine. Then I walked through the Gates of Dawn on the way to the bus station. I had dropped my stuff and the baggage holding desk at the bus station before my first museum. Yeah, you can pay to leave your stuff at the bus station, watched by employees. They don’t have self-serve luggage lockers like in the big train stations I saw in Germany. My bus to Trakai left at 6:10pm. My apartment was at “Argo Trakai”. The owners also operate a Georgian restaurant next door. I had my second restaurant food there.

Wednesday, July 1st, 2026
I walked to Trakai Island Castle, arriving about 20 minutes before they opened. The last major restoration was finished in 1987. Workers were fixing or installing a brick walkway in the courtyard. I didn’t pay for the phone app with an audio guide. There were many display cases with artifacts from and not from the castle – furniture, ivory objects, highly decorative smoking pipes, plates and mugs made with big coins pressed into them, stuff made with tiny beads. Then I had time for the Karaim Museum. It is a small place with just 3 rooms but had a big pamphlet with a good amount of English descriptions. Then I paid to enter the restored portions of the peninsula castle, even though few tourists go here. I suppose I could have been as happy if I had skipped it. They used the restored towers to do educational activities with kids demonstrating early hand operated printing presses, pottery making, and possibly other uses. 3 towers were open. Then I picked my luggage up from the hotel and hiked to the train station to catch my trains to Kaunas. On my way, a rainstorm started. I had to switch trains on the way in place called Lentvaris. I missed my second train. It was my fault. I had an advance ticket for both trains. I was able to buy another ticket from the machine and catch the next train. I wasted about just under ten Euros and an hour and ten minutes. I stayed at “Resume Apartments” at 3 E. Ožeškienės gatvė, Kaunas. It was a nice, modern looking room with a miniature refrigerator and two electric-induction stove burners, and enough utensils and dishes.

Thursday, July 2nd
My first place was the Kaunas Choral Synagogue. It is not a huge place. The attendant asked me where I am from. At first it sounded like he was asking whether I am frum (frum = religious in Yiddish). I forgot to try talking Yiddish to him or anybody on the trip. The building was originally completed in 1872. All the synagogues had a Torah arc on one side, and a bima (raised platform for reading the torah) in the middle or between two big aisles closer to the front than the back. My next place was Kaunas Castle. The place is not huge. There is just one wall and one restored tower with a basement and 3 floors above the basement. I paid to go inside. Then I went to the adjacent park and saw where the two rivers in Kaunas meet. I saw few buildings close to this place along the rivers on the other side of the rivers. The landscape across the rivers looked unnaturally lacking in trees and plants. Then I passed various churches and monuments. I went inside one open church that might have been Cathedral-Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul. I had a pre-reserved English talk/guided tour of the “Amsterdam School Museum”. “Amsterdam School” is a style that might be similar to Art Deco; the place is an approximately 1,506 square foot condominium, formerly owned by a successful Jewish family, which has been restored and filled with Amsterdam School style furniture and ornaments. There were 17 others there. The place had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a combined dining room and living room with a sliding divider containing translucent glass windows. Some of the family and their close relatives were killed. The tour lasted about 2 hours. You have to take your shoes off when you enter and put them in a closet. It is a good place. Then I sat on a bench and then went to the M.K. Čiurlionis Museum of Art. It is an art museum featuring drawings and paintings by the artist Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (September 22, 875 – April 10, 1911), a Lithuanian composer, painter, choirmaster, cultural figure, and writer in Polish. I under-appreciated the place. Nothing I saw was too spectacular. Additional there were some ancient coins and little metal bars used as currency, 2 old maps, a few old artifacts… I looked at a few books full of photographs and pictures of artwork, which were by the seating area of a cafe inside the museum… Then I passed various streets and churches on the way to Town Hall Square, then back to the apartment I reserved. Unfortunately I didn’t make time for the Town Hall and the archaeology museum inside. Maybe I didn’t miss much.

Friday, July 3rd, 2026
First stop was the “Sugiharos House”, Former home and workplace of Chiune Sugihara (1/1/1900- July 31, 1986), former Japanese ambassador to Lithuania before the brief first Soviet takeover, Nazi invasion and second long Soviet takeover. He issued enough Japanese visas in about July 18-September 4th, 1940 to save approximately 4,500, 5,000, or 6,000 people, depending on the source. The place is furnished like a house. They give you shoe covers you have to put on over your shoe. I found it easier to take my shoes off before putting the shoe covers over my socks. I saw two pairs of shoes by the door. Then I got a bolt ride to the Lithuanian Ethnographic Museum. It sort of reminds you of Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, except that the houses and structures were all or mostly wood and owned by average to poor or mildly successful people. One house was owned by Jews. Another was owned by Tatars. The Devil’s museum I had assumed I would see, was temporarily closed when I was in Kaunas, according to google maps, although I didn’t show up to find out for sure. The place is big. Then I took a Bolt ride to another big grocery store and bought some supplies along with superglue because the fabric glue wasn’t working. At the apartment, I drank from a bottle of water. I didn’t not try drinking tap water. This water tasted sour and terrible. I looked at the label. It showed that the water had 650 milligrams of sodium! Oh my god. I poured almost the whole bottle of water down the drain. What a waste of money.

Saturday, July 4th, 2026
First I dropped my stuff off at the baggage storage desk at the bus station in Kaunas. I might have paid 8 to 10 Euros. Then I took the bus to Devintas Fortas/ Kaunas IX Fort / Kaunas Ninth Fort. This was built as a fort in 1887-1913, then used as a prison in 1924-1940. Then Nazis used this place as a killing place. They shot and burned about 30 thousand to fifty thousand people here, in multiple shootings, in 1941-1944. Then in 1944, they made 64 victims dig up and burn the remains of the victims. The 64 prisoners escaped. Some were re-captured and killed. There is a museum here about the construction of the fort, you can see some prison cells, and some space dedicated to the nazi’s mass shootings. Then I took a Bold ride to the bus station, picked my luggage up, and waited for my bus to Riga. The bus left at 2:40pm. I had an advance ticket. Unbelievably, the bus arrived in Riga almost an hour sooner than the given time on the ticket. After dropping my stuff off at the apartment I reserved, I bought some cherries, strawberries, lettuce, and cucumber at a farmers marked outside next to the market buildings that were originally built to hold blimps or zeppelins. There were multiple vendors selling a lot of cherries, strawberries, and blueberries, a few plums and a lot of little cucumbers and some other produce. It all looked like it could have been grown nearby. I didn’t see anything exotic. Read carefully; you are not necessarily supposed to have a “good time” at a museum or memorial at the site where nazis did a series of mass shootings.

Sunday, July 5th, 2026
I took a Bolt ride at 7:30am to pick up the rental car I had reserved. My first stop was Bauska Castle. Originally built in about 1439-1450. Restoration was started in 1874. They make you put on shoe covers right when you enter. portion that is fully restored has display cases with a suit or armor, old weapons, a few old coins in bad condition, and some random artifacts, recreations of old clothing from about the 1500s, 2 courtyards, a kitchen on the 2nd floor, bedrooms, a big dining room, a big hall or room whose use is not known. I had my 3rd restaurant food at the castle’s cafe, in a separate building right next to the parking lot. My next stop was Rundale Palace. It was built in 1736-1768. Restoration was completed in 2015. I paied ot enter the palace. I saw all or most of the rooms. I wrote in my notes that the place has 45 rooms, but the internet says the place has 130 rooms. I did not count how many rooms the place has. I saw the special exhibit on flower shaped artwork, with some artificial flower bouquets each bigger than a washing machine, and a series of rooms filled with antiques from about the 1600’s to the 1900’s. Then I went into the fancy landscaped gardens. I did not try seeing the garden comprehensively. I had been standing or walking too much, and I could hear distant thunder, the sky was half full of dark gray clouds and the other half was full of white clouds with just a little bit of blue sky and I might have felt a few raindrops. On my return trip, I spent too long driving around the street near the airport, where the speed limit was ridiculously low, trying to find a gas station following the directions from google maps. Then I got a Bolt ride back to the apartment I had reserved.

Monday, July 6th, 2026. My first stop was the Riga Synagogue Peitav Shul. It is the only functioning synagogue in Riga. It was originally built in 1905 and restored in 2009. Like the other synagogues, it has a separate bima (torah reading platform) between two aisles near the middle but closer the ark (the closet for holding the torah) than the back of the room. Also I was able to climb the stairs to the women’s section on the second floor which is like a balcony overlooking the sanctuary below, and the basement has what seems to be a second davening area. I can only guess that my next stop might seem like some off-putting minor abomination to a certain kind of Jew who is reading this. Don’t worry, religious buildings are not spiritually meaningful to me. I paid to go into a St. Peters church, a German-reformed or protestant church (I won’t bother looking up what this even means now) originally built in the 1400’s. The restored tower is 405 feet tall at the tip. I took the stairs three flights to an elevator that takes visitors the rest of the way to an observation area. The next stop was the “Jews in Latvia Museum.” The audio-guide took about 2 hours. The place is only 3 rooms. Then I passed by the Freedom Monument, guarded by two soldiers at the time I was there. Then I squeezed in the Riga Ghetto and Holocaust Museum. I arrived at about 3:45pm. I didn’t have time to read everything. They closed at 6pm. Then I went to the ruins of the former Great Synagogue of Riga. It is in what now looks like a small park. There is a memorial plaque right on on the edge of the ruins, and another separate memorial about 50 to 100 feet away. Tow women were there, sitting on the ledge which looked like it cold have been the remains of a wall; the top edge is smooth enough to sit on. One of them had a little white dog that approached me and was barking too much. Fortunately one of the women restrained the dog and I don’t tolerate being approached by dogs well. Then I stopped at a Rimi grocery store in a nice modern looking indoor shopping mall with 4 floors. All the grocery stores I shopped at had multiple brands of pre-toasted buckwheat/ kasha, and a big selection of mineral water, carbonated and non-carbonated.

Tuesday, July 7th, 2026
I picked up the rental car I had reserved at the airport in Riga. I was given another Nissan Juke. Today was my trip to Ludza, the town my 1st great-grandparents on my grandfather on my dad’s side. There are no freeways in Latvia. Outside Riga, I just encountered two lane roads. The main roads I drove on were all paved good and better than a lot of the roads near me in Michigan. Every so often on the main roads, I had to slow down a lot and go through a traffic circle. I left at about 9:30am. When I arrived at the door of the building containing the apartment I had reserved, I realized it had a number pad, but I didn’t have a code. Then I realized the door was unlocked and there were little sticks of wood by the bolt making it stay unlocked. Then I screwed up and made the door lock and got locked out. Then I got massively lucky and my host found the code. Then I went to the Jewish cemetery and walked past the house my great-grandfather might have grown up in. I spent an hour and 20 minutes looking at grave markers. I didn’t identify the graves of any ancestors.

Wednesday, July 8th, 2026
My first stop was the Ludza local history museum. There is a room with taxidermied local animal species, rock specimens, ancient artifacts, description of the castle that only some of the outer walls are still standing, short biographies of successful people from Ludza, a room with some artwork. Then I got a staff member to show me the old houses and small buildings that had been moved onto the property. I forgot to as about an English town guided tour. Later in the day I passed a group of no more than 5 people who seemed to be given a tour by this same museum staff member. After the museum, I went to the restored Ludza Great Synagogue. It is not a huge place. It is an extensively restored wood building with a balcony on the inside overlooking the first floor, which would have been the women’s section. You have to put shoe covers on right when you enter. Then I hiked to the ruins of the castle. The castle was built I about 1433 and badly damaged or mostly destroyed in about 1654. Currently, there is a raised walkway near the remains of the outer walls. I encountered two staircases leading up/down to/from the ruins, the stairs I went up, and another staircase I went down on the opposite side. Then I went back to the apartment. Then I drove out to where google maps shows is the memorial at the site of the nazi mass shooting of about 800 Jews by Cirma Ezers / Cirma Lake. I n approximately August 1941, Nazi Einsatzgruppen gathered about 800 to 900 Jews together, and marched them to a site by this lake, just under 5 miles from the middle of Ludza. Like in other mass shootings in the genocide, victims were forced at gunpoint to dig a big pit, then victims were machine gunned and buried in the pit. Approximately 1,200 Jews total from Ludza were killed. As I was driving, the pavement ended and I was on a dirt road. Then I saw a sign in Latvian pointing toward the sight. I turned onto a path. Then I parked the rental car and got out. I was expecting the memorial to be right next to a road or path. I walked at least 1/8 to ¼ of a mile on the path. I did not find it. Google maps showed the spot a certain number of feet away. Maybe I should have gone off the path. I didn’t go off th epath. The woods were on one side. A field was on the other side and woods were maybe 300 feet further. The plants in the field were at least 4 feet high. A semi-big black stray dog stared approaching me at a fast walking speed and started barking. I tried pretending to throw something. I yelled out and an older couple was nearby. An older guy called out to the dog. The dog finally lost interest and went away. Maybe I could have got mauled or bitten. Maybe I could have had a heart attack and died. Then I started to drive a short distance. Then I tried getting out of the car and searching. Then the dog was approaching again!! I was close enough to the car. I made a mad dash to get in the car just as the dog quickly trotted past!! Oh my god. I didn’t think to have pepper spray with me. Pepper spray is legal in Latvia. I drove back to the apartment!! In Ludza, I was able to walk to the memorial for the Ludza ghetto, then bought some bottled water and supplies. Then I had time for a well landscaped semi-big city park and then a brick path by a lake. The path went under some squared-arched shaped sculptures. On my left was a strip of grass and few trees and then the lake. On my right was a road and the bottom of the hill the remains of the castle are on.

Thursday, July 9th, 2026
It was time to drive back to the car rental place in Riga and drop the rental car off. My first stop was at the same place I stopped on my trip to Ludza, at a parking lot by an outhouse, an observation tower, and a trail and a sign about the animals in the park the path is part of. At another point, I stopped at a parking lot by a lake, a big plot of mowed grass, two outhouses, and a memorial about fighters in the was for independence in 1918-1920. Then I stopped at a gas station and at a final gas station to buy gas just before dropping the rental car off. The gas stations I stopped at all had a little building with a nice bathroom. I left Ludza at about 9:30am, dropped the rental car off at just after 3pm, got a Bolt ride to my second apartment in Riga and had time to pass various monuments in the guidebook. My second apartment was in the same building as my first time in Riga but a different apartment, Pasta iela 6 A, Riga.

Friday, July 10th, 2026
My first stop was the rebuilt House of the Blackheads. The original building was used by a society of unmarried men traders of German descent called “Black Heads”, named after Saint Maurice, who was supposed to be a dark brown or black man from Egypt. The place is a museum with antiques and information on history, the building, the traders, and so on. My next stop was the “Museum of the occupation of Latvia”. There was a lot a read and any artifacts from deported Latvians. I sat on a bench after and I tried to not rush right from one place to another. Then I went to the Latvian National Museum of Art. Everything was made by artists from Latvia. It is almost all paintings and drawings. I don’t remember whether I saw any sculptures. Then I went to the Riga history museum in the restored Riga castle. Unfortunately I arrived at 7pm but they closed at 8pm. I didn’t give myself time to see the place comprehensively. I probably would have been as happy if I had skipped the place but I squeezed it in due to fear of missing out.

Saturday, July 11th, 2026
My first stop was the Corner House KGB museum. I had an advance ticket for an English guided tour, at 10pm. The first room has multiple panels with information, and videos of interviews of older people who had survived harassment from the KGB. The guide took us to and told us about the execution chamber, and room victims were first taken to, the prison cells, and the courtyard. This was all in the basement. Originally, the building was built in about 1911 as an apartment building. Then I went to the Art Museum Bourse. It has a room full of old Dutch master paintings and some old German paintings; another few rooms have objects from India, a few old Egyptian objects, old Greek painted ceramic vessels but most were in bad condition, a display case of ancient roman coins, old porcelain figurines from the 1800’s to 1900’s… my final major stop was the Latvian was museum. The place is extensive. I spent most of the two hours I was there in the part about World War I… Then I walked by the canal in a park and checked to see if there was a boat tour. I paid 15 Euros for an approximately 1-hour boat tour on the canal and the Daugava river and back to the starting point. I had thought about skipping the boat ride and trying to walk buildings with art Nouveau decorated facades. I had a better time because of the boat ride.

Sunday, July 12th, 2026
My flights back to Detroit Metro worked out fine.

I read the whole thing 🙂. Nice trip report. Of the 3 Baltic Republics, I have been to Estonia and Latvia but not Lithuania. I would love to make it there some day.

I'm glad you got to visit your ancestral routes.

I'm sorry to hear about dog interactions but am glad those were very minor parts of your trip.

I remember the KGB Museum in Riga particularly well. In 2017 (I think), the staff played the role of the KGB. The front desk person was unfriendly, gave suspicious glances, and asked for identity papers. I passed another staff member who looked at me suspiciously and asked me a few probing questions. The tour guide, happily, was kind. I happened to be in Latvia at the time of the Latvian Song and Dance festival. We were in the courtyard of the building where prisoners and the arrested were brought through heavy gates to the facility. The gates were closed, but we could heard singing and cheering on the other side of the gates. The guide opened the gates to reveal a parade of singing, dancing Latvians in traditional dress. From a former site where the Soviets sought to crush Latvian identity and culture, we watched a joyful expression of that identity and culture. It was a really cool travel moment.