Our Journey from Ukraine to the Baltics 
via Trains, Planes and Automobiles 

February 9-21, 1999

 

My wife Beverly and I finished with Ukraine 99, our medical and optometric mission to Transcarpathian Ukraine and proceeded to visit our brethren in Lithuania and Estonia. There is no easy from western Ukraine to the Baltics because a regular visa is required for train passengers traveling through Belarus.  To get the visa we had to go to Kiev. But, we found that there was as twice weekly flight from Kiev to Vilnius, Lithuania.  So, we took an overnight train to Kiev from Khust. Then flew to Vilnius, then had a chauffer drive us to Kaunas, the home of Henrikas Klovas.  In the following three set of photos we would like to share this trip with you.

Crossing the Carpathians from Mukachevo 
to Lvov. A blizzard was beginning. We just 
missed one of the centuries biggest storms

A trestle  

 

In Kiev - monument to the victory of the 
Soviet army over the Nazi's. The statues depicts
the Mother Country--Rodina

Pecharskaya Lavra, viewed across 
the Dnieper River 

 

On our Air Ukraine flight from Kiev to Lithuania!  Our 
30 seater plane had only a handful of passengers, 
some of whom were from Chicago

Our meetings with a Lithuanian Publisher for 
future booklet printing

The charming "Freedom Street" in Kaunas. Kaunas
reminded us of a mini-Paris

Henrikas and Beverly

Cathedral of the Warriors

 

Hit Counter

A high elevation Carpathian settlement viewed
from our train in almost blinding snowfall

 

A winter wonderland

A church just restored in Kiev

Ice fishing on the Dnieper River

A cold drab day

In Kaunas, Lithuania.  Henrikas Klovas and
 Beverly in front of the Red Cross Hospital

Cathedral of the Warriors in Kaunas

Winter street scenes of Kaunas

Henrikas wife Vijole and daughter Vidmante with grandson Dovydas

Vidmante showing me book about Lithuanian landscapes