hill of crosses
Oct 17th, 2017, 07:06 AM
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Fly to Vilnius. Take a train or bus to the town of Šiauliai. From there, take a local bus to the hill and walk 2km or so to the hill. Or take some local excursion tour from Vilinus. Or just rent a car in Vilnius. You could fly to Kaunas instead of Vilnius if that is somehow more convenient, but I think Vilnius is a more significant and interesting city beyond being your way in.
It seems an awfully long way to go just to see this little hill! The hill is worth seeing for sure if you are in Lithuania. But I'd hope you'd be seeing more of Lithuania or the Baltics and/or Poland on the same trip, not just the hill.
It seems an awfully long way to go just to see this little hill! The hill is worth seeing for sure if you are in Lithuania. But I'd hope you'd be seeing more of Lithuania or the Baltics and/or Poland on the same trip, not just the hill.
Oct 17th, 2017, 09:01 AM
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I'll admit this did not do all that much for us, and we only had to make a very small detour while driving through Lithuania to see it.
OTOH, perhaps you have a very special symbolic reason for wanting to visit. We didn't.
OTOH, perhaps you have a very special symbolic reason for wanting to visit. We didn't.
Oct 17th, 2017, 10:30 AM
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The Hill of Crosses is a monument to defiance of communism. The history of the hill is that locals starting putting up crosses in a field, in defiance of the Soviet laws. So the crosses would be removed; soon more would come back.
Today it's kind of a tourist diversion, but it is really striking. When I was there, local kids were graduating from high school, and a lot of them were out there taking graduation pictures. So it's an important site to the locals, too.
Today it's kind of a tourist diversion, but it is really striking. When I was there, local kids were graduating from high school, and a lot of them were out there taking graduation pictures. So it's an important site to the locals, too.
