Fear-of-Heights Reunion

Germany, about 1947. Dad also saved this postcard issued by the Bavarian Railway.

Departure

Kaunas, Lithuania, July 30, 1928. The American Consul to Lithuania (front row, third from left) and his wife (holding flower bouquet) leave Lithuania at the end of their diplomatic mission. The Consul wrote: 

The official waiting room at the station was open in our honor and we met the people there who had come to bid us goodbye.  All the diplomats and consuls came, including the Soviet charge d'affaires [Simon Rabinovich] with who we had never had official or social intercourse. All our other friends were of course also present ... Lily received large quantities of flowers and everybody wished us a pleasant trip. Mr. Smetona sent a beautiful bunch of roses with a young lady and one of the President's adjuncts. Photographs of the assembly with us in the center were taken. As the train pulled out, countless handkerchiefs were waving. We were deeply impressed by all these marks of affection and good will on the part of our Kovno friends. Lily broke out in tears as we crossed the Nieman railway bridge a moment later. ... We went to bed early in our two first-class compartments in the German sleeping car.

 Thanks to the Consul's Granddaughter for making this photo and narrative available to us.

Romanticism

Between Naples and Rome, May 1984. People have visions of what European train travel looks like. This is how I remember it.

Route 66

Part, by rail.

Winter Station

Germany, about 1947. Here's another postcard from the Bavarian Railway.

Back to the USSR

Travel posters from Soviet, government-run travel agency.

Miniature Reunion

Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin, July 9, 2014. There's a lot to unpack here.

Sooty

Black Hills, South Dakota, July 1966. We ride the 1880 Train.

"The Dancing Diplomat"

John Boehner's account of his visit to Lithuania.

More here.

(Today, US tanks arrived in the Baltics, as promised.)

Bavarian Railway Postcard

*     *     *     *     *

Germany, about 1947. My Dad saved a packet of postcards issued by the U.S. Army in the postwar, American-occupied zone. I don't know whether Dad visited the places photographed for the cards, bit it's likely he did.

East Glacier

Glacier National Park, Montana, July 1970. Although we visited the park five times, we only once made the trip to East Glacier. The drive from our lodgings in Many Glacier was indirect and tedious, and there wasn't much to do there besides visit Glacier Park Lodge.

"Fools," not "Idiots"

Estonia's transport minister characterizes members of the Lithuanian government who want to pull out of a high-speed rail project if "Rail Baltic" bypasses Vilnius, the capital.

Let's set it up in the basement.

Suburban Chicago, December 1961. There's room for many things in the basement.

An Exciting Departure

Schweinfurt, Germany, August 1948. Lithuanian scouts from the Schweinfurt DP camp depart for the National Scouting Jamboree. My Dad's twin sister, Jonė, is in the first window on the left. She's in the top row, third from the left.

Kiddie Train

Addison, Illinois, June 1961. Most amusement parks featured children's trains. The train at Adventureland followed an especially long route.

History, in Color

"Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943."

Related by Marriage: Arriving by Train

Los Angeles, California, 1952. Mr. Irene's Dad arrives at Union Station for a weekend's leave from the Camp Irwin base.

Do you remember the Kiddieland train?

Melrose Park, Illinois, Autumn 1962. The train tracks circled Kiddieland's parking lot.

Don't-Miss-the-Train Reunion

 

Stuttgart, West Germany, August 1985. I traveled to Stuttgart to participate in a conference about medieval maritime commerce. I was happy to visit the city because my Dad studied there after the war. I stayed in a suburban hotel and rode the train into the center each morning. I've never seen cleaner train stations.

Sentimental Value

A friend popped in for a lovely visit yesterday. In the course of reviewing some of the old photos I have scanned for this blog, we stumbled upon the original snapshot of the 1936 Kaunas flood. My Dad had described that flood earnestly to his Father, Vytautas, who was traveling in Belgium, in a note that filled the back of the photo.

Vytautas's trip to Belgium loomed large in our family's history. Perhaps in the mid-1930s, people considered a trip from Lithuania to Belgium a big expedition. I suppose for people who lived in a country that was the size of West Virginia, a journey that took longer than a few hours was significant. My Mom, for example, remembers packing lunches, blankets, and other "long distance" supplies for the train trip from Mom's hometown of Kaunas to Mariampolis, where her maternal Grandparents lived. Those two Lithuanian cities stand about one hundred kilometers apart.

Alternatively, maybe the Belgian trip glowed in everyone's memory because it represented a significant milestone in Vytautas's career. Vytautas, who was an officer in the Lithuanian Army, traveled to Belgium to purchase supplies for the Army. (I've wondered why Vytautas was not in uniform when he traveled to Belgium.)

Just as I'd been thinking about that Belgian trip again, my Toronto Cousin last night coincidentally sent me a photograph of the souvenir brass bell that Vytautas brought from Bruges in 1936 as a gift for his wife, my paternal Grandmother Tatjana.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 2012. The brassy gal from Bruges has stayed shiny.

Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for making this photo available to us.