Greetings from Marijampole, Lithuania
From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Country #65 – Track #1,842
Editor’s note: We still have people picking countries where I have already trackchased as the country that will be NEXT on my list! I can only surmise that these people have REAL lives and don’t have the time to do the proper research needed to be successful in these contests. I’ve got no problem with that at all. However, they shouldn’t give up. Some day they WILL (might?) win and the rewards will be theirs. I recommend these fans click on the link of my past countries visited, which is always offered in the contest entry materials. As a service to my readers I always provide a top line background of each country I visit. If you’d like to learn a little more about Lithuania the country check out the “background” information I prepared for you. It appears at the bottom of this report. I have condensed this section so you can get a good “feel” for this European continent location. Most of the material comes from Wikipedia. THE KEYS TO THE TRIP Thanks to my helpers out there, you know who you are………….more in “Boots on the Ground”. You’ve got to be kidding…You’re not kidding?………….more in “Wednesday – Day 3”. No, not the luggage police again………..details “Friday – Day 5”. This is the 65th time I’ve said this…………..more in “Sunday – Day 7”. When mama’s happy………..details “Tuesday – Day 9”.
ADVANCE PREPARATION THE RACE Marijampole! I had never heard of it. Over time I have developed a very complete list of European racing contacts. These guys and gals know what’s happening and when. This resource and good old Google came up with an autocross race in Marijampole, Lithuania. Of course I was interested in Lithuania because I had never seen a race there. If all came off as planned Lithuania would become my 65th different country to host my trackchasing hobby. The remaining countries, that race, are becoming a rare breed. I won’t be able to add new countries to my list at the pace I have in the past. Nevertheless, I don’t think we’ll ever stop traveling internationally. There’s just too much to see and do. THE VISA Compared to Russia (trackchasing country #64) and their $300 per person travel visas getting to Lithuania would be a breeze. The U.S. State Department website told me that all we needed was a valid passport. By the way, our passports expire, after ten years, in May, 2014. There’s only one problem with getting a new passport. We have to plan carefully for the time period when we can be without our passports during the replacement process. We travel abroad so much that even giving up our passports for 2-3 weeks could be troublesome. TIME ZONES The first part of our trip takes us to Germany. Germany is eight hours ahead of our California Pacific time zone. Then when we move onto Lithuania the time change becomes nine hours. We’re on a 10-day trip. By the end of our adventure we will be pretty much on European time. That will make the next week back in California just a little more challenging. BOOTS ON THE GROUND I got help from Demark of all places in planning my trip to Lithuania. Jorgen Ring-Johnson had helped me in the past. For this trip he recommended I contact Donatas Lieses, a resident of Lithuania. Donatas was most helpful in first confirming a race and then providing a complete schedule of activities. I did email several Lithuanian race officials. Of the few who did get back to me the language barrier seemed nearly insurmountable. They wanted to help but English wasn’t their language and Lithuanian wasn’t mine. Los Angeles to San Francisco to Frankfurt, Germany to Hahn, Germany to Kaunas, Lithuania and back! Folks the above description is just the airline portion of this trip. It doesn’t include extensive use of the German train system and about 150 miles of bus riding. Making one of these trips “work” can be a lot more complicated that what it might seem like. As you can see from this travel schedule we are making a serious commitment to add my trackchasing country #65 and Carol’s #33. Between us that’s 98 country visits! The next leading trackchasing couple can account for less than half those totals. CURRENCY Do you know the official currency of Lithuania? It’s the Lithuania Litas (LIT). As we speak my iPhone currency app tells me I can get about 2.65 LIT for one U.S. dollar. We ended up getting about $200 U.S. in Lithuanian currency at an airport ATM. The real challenge will be spending it all before we leave the country. If we don’t the remaining currency will be difficult to turn back into spendable cash. WEATHER Coolish but nothing to worry about. The weather forecast changes every day. At least the temperatures, expected to range from 65-80, are a lot warmer than the frigid temps that greeted us in the U.K. last month. Rain is in the forecast throughout the trip but the “percentages” change every day. They race in the rain over here so I’m not too concerned about a rain cancellation. If I can last until June 3, 2013 without a rainout I will set a personal record. It will be TWO YEARS since my last rainout!! Some day, in the not too distant future, my airline sponsorship program will change. When that happens my “turn on a dime” flexibility will change. Without that flexibility my rainout numbers will increase. The perfect sized trip. The trip began on a high note with a stay at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco. Following that we’ll spend an overnight on an airplane getting to Europe. Then it’s three nights in Germany, three nights in Lithuania and another night in Germany. That makes a 10-day/nine-night trip, which should get the job done. With the exception of the Hyatt Regency (Priceline $189/$85) the rest of our hotel stays were arranged through Booking.com. If you’re coming to Europe and want to stay in unique places along the way I highly recommend these folks. I made all of our reservations in advance and did it all on my computer. As we go along I’ll tell you about these unique properties. We won’t be using rental cars much. For this ten-day trip we’ll have a rental car for only three of those days. The rest of the time we’ll use public transportation, i.e. trains and buses. There are certainly pluses and minuses to using public and private transportation modes. As you read along you can decide which you think is the best. NAVIGATION I’ll be using my iPhone Google Maps app for navigation. I didn’t bring a single paper map with me to navigate this trip. Can you imagine having such a long and detailed trip and not using a traditional paper map? Why don’t I carry maps? I don’t need too to make these trips work. We’ll sink or swim with my iPhone’s Google Maps capabilities. In advance of this trip our son J.J. hooked me up with a “data plan” covering 300MB of usage. Note: During our entire 10-day trip we used only 120MB of data. That was with constant use of email, weather updates, Google Maps and everything. Everything on my phone, except actual calling is covered by the data plan. Do you think of your cellular phone as a phone first or an information source? I rarely think of my phone as a “phone”. To me it’s a machine that can answer just about every question I can think of while I’m on the run. THE TRAVELING COMPANION Recently we were at a dinner party with friends that we don’t see often. One of them asked Carol if she goes trackchasing with me very much. Carol modestly replied “Sometimes”. I don’t think she was giving herself enough credit. No, she does not routinely travel 250,000 miles each year as I do. However, she does average about 100,000 miles of travel for herself every twelve months. I guess if you travel that much you are at least a “sometimes” traveler and maybe a lot more! On this trip Carol will be seeing racing in her 33rd different country. If I had to guess I would say she and I have traveled to sixty or more countries together. For a couple of kids who met in college and made their first trip to any foreign country, a camping effort in Manitoba, I think that’s pretty good. THE SUMMARY The United Nations classifies Lithuania as a “Northern” European country. However, during this trip I heard it referred to as both an Eastern European and a Central European country. All I know is this. With Lithuania is wrapped up I will have seen racing in 32 different European countries. This leaves me with just 12-15 “realistic” “new” countries where I might be able to see racing. For my stage in life that’s a perfect number. Many of those countries are “out there” either politically, geographically, culturally or “all of the above”. That will just make the challenge of seeing them all the more fun. Pre-Lithuania I plan my domestic trackchasing trips out a week or maybe two at the most. On Monday of a domestic trackchasing week I could literally find myself in any of our fifty states by the following weekend. However, foreign travel planning is a bit different. For most foreign trips I’ll begin planning a couple of months ahead of time. I might need more lead-time if I’m dealing with visa issues. I will systematically go through the above checklist. Each trip revolves around the confirmation of a race. When the race is confirmed it’s full speed ahead to make airline arrangements, book hotel space, rental cars and all the rest. Monday – Day 1 – (San Clemente to Los Angeles to San Francisco) This trip was supposed to begin on Tuesday. However, when flights looked too tight for comfort on Tuesday morning we shifted to a Monday night departure strategy. We made that decision about twelve hours in advance of departure. Flexibility is the key to my airline sponsorship program. I guess having a “flexible” spouse helps too! Carol had been warned we might have to leave a day early. Priceline.com jumped in at the last minute and put us up at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in San Francisco. That made leaving a day early an easier pill to swallow. Tuesday – Day 2 – (San Francisco to Frankfurt, Germany) Tuesday went by pretty fast. Days like this go by quickly. We slept in late at the luxurious Hyatt Regency. We ate Asian food for lunch at the San Francisco airport. Then we caught a 10-hour flight from SFO to Frankfurt, Germany. My sponsors saw fit to upgrade us to business class. That’s about a $4,000 U.S. ticket if you don’t have the proper sponsorship support. I know the Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers can cover expenses like that but I’m a retired pensioner living on a small fixed income….or something like that. When we woke up from our cocktail laden, succulent foodstuffs, 100% laydown bed experience it was Wednesday and we were in Germany! Wednesday – Day 3 – (Frankfurt to Klotten, Germany) Our ten-hour plus flight landed in Frankfurt at 10 a.m. Frankfurt Main International Airport (FRA) is a major airport much like Chicago or New York is in the U.S. I’ve been in and out of FRA many times. That helps a lot when it comes to navigating the ins and outs of a trip like this. Our plan was simple. However, when we travel to a foreign speaking country some simple plans are harder that what you might expect. Considering we had just landed in a spot some nine hours ahead of our own time zone in California we would be doing our best just to stay awake. Our race in Lithuania is scheduled for Sunday. Today is Wednesday. Since we were flying standby on our airline partners we came in a couple of days early. This way we could turn our trackchasing trip into a full-fledged 10-day European vacation. Folks, that’s what international trackchasing is all about. I relied on my friends at TripAdvisor.com to help with travel advice. I asked them where a good place to “hang out” in rural Germany for a couple of days would be. We could have stayed in big city Frankfurt but having been there before I chose the beauty of the German countryside. In conjunction with my TripAdvisor friends we decided on the small town of Klotten along the Mosel River. From there we could take river cruises and visit castles. I used Booking.com to come up with a quaint little hotel, the Pension Dorfschank in Klotten for the first two nights of being in Europe. We would need to ride two trains. The first took us on a 90-minute ride from Frankfurt to Koblenz. There we had a 45-minute layover before heading out to Klotten. While we were in the Koblenz train station waiting for our next train we learned we had to pay one euro each (about $1.30 U.S.) to use the toilets! I love Europe but I don’t like this practice. Somewhat surprisingly each “toilet rental” comes with a 50-cent coupon for use at stores inside the train station. What will they think of next! We arrived in Klotten by 4 p.m. The small town was as old and quaint as you’re ever going to see. Don’t miss the photos of Klotten as it sits high above the Mosel River. We took advantage of our arrival time to walk all over town. Our room was modern and large, especially by European standards. We finished off our long day of travel with a German dinner at a riverfront restaurant where little English was spoken. Nevertheless, enough English was used so that we didn’t and never will starve to death. One of the things I enjoy most about these trips is simply the ability to create my own plan. Carol’s good with whatever I come up with although I always ask for input/approval. Picking a hotel (based upon previous user’s comments and critiques), making travel arrangements by train with the advice from TripAdvisor experts and just making a trip like this happen caters to my creative juices. I like this type of trip planning because I know so few people can and would do it this way. Thursday – Day 4 – Klotten, Germany Carol arrives in Klotten, Germany One of the very best ways to see things is to walk. That’s why I love my powerwalks when I’m on the road. Being in a place like Klotten, Germany is the absolute perfect place for this. It was a crisp clear spring morning and there wasn’t much activity going on. While Carol readied herself for the day I covered most of the town. I most enjoyed the river walk and the budding vineyards. Breakfast was included in our room rate as it would be for most of the days of this trip. When you think the hotel rate includes breakfast for two the charge becomes most reasonable despite Europe being a very expensive place overall to visit. Carol and Bert, Klotten hotel owner. At breakfast we met “Bert” the hotel proprietor with his wife Crista. They’ve owned the place for six years after operating a bar in Spain for five. Bert, from Holland originally, prefers Germany because Spain is too hot to work in. Breakfast consisted of meats and cheeses, hard-boiled eggs and breakfast drinks. That along with cereal (which the Pension Dorfschank did not have) is the standard European breakfast fare. Bert turned us onto the idea of a river cruise and castle tour. Everything would begin in the nearby and much bigger town of Cochem (pronounced Coke-em. It was just three kilometers (about two miles) up the road. We could ride the train just one stop to get to Cochem. This was when Bert recommended we walk. I had already covered three miles in my morning powerwalk. What was another two! So off Carol and I went walking along the bike path that parallels the Mosel River toward Cochem. Walking five miles by 10 a.m. is a good deal of activity. Soon the bike path turned into a road shoulder on a fairly busy two-lane highway. At least we were facing traffic. I could see we would not walk back as there was no shoulder on the other side of the road. I only walk facing traffic in situations like this. Soon we were in Cochem (don’t miss the photos). In Cochem we took a fun and interesting castle tour. This was followed by an lunch at one of those stereotypical European cafes. There we sat and watched the people go by for a very long time. Today was the one and only day, out of ten, where we encountered any rain. It wasn’t much and didn’t last long. However, I used the surprise rain shower and resulting cool weather to buy myself a jacket. Everyone needs a military style field jacket right? At 3 p.m. it was time to hop on our river cruise to Beilstein. We rode on the top deck where the view was the best. Soon we pulled into Beilstein and walked straight up hill to their castle, which were mainly just the ruins of a castle. However, we were proud of ourselves to be one of only a very few folks who were willing to go straight to the top. Don’t miss the pictures. Following our castle tour it was time to find an outdoor café and drink some wine. Yes, these international trackchasing trips can be tough. We needed to be on the final boat back to Cochem at 6 p.m. We normally show up early for this type of thing. That was why when we arrived at the boat dock at 5:35 p.m. we were surprised to see a very large group of people boarding the boat. While Carol fished for our tickets the lines were untied and our boat sailed away with us running up the dock after it! We had missed the boat by 15 seconds. Later we would confirm the boat was scheduled to leave at 5:30 p.m. not 6 p.m. as we had thought. Now we were “upstream without a paddle” as the saying goes. However, the gatekeeper was not as concerned as us. “Don’t worry, there’s another boat in five minutes”, he told us. How could that be? The printed schedule said there were no more boats today back to Cochem. Nevertheless, in five minutes another boat came along and we were the ONLY TWO PEOPLE to get on it. All’s fair in love and river cruising. While we were on this castle tour I noticed something that seemed far out of the norm. Every third person, and there were a lot of people, had a dog on a leash. I’m not really a “dog person”. I don’t think I saw two of the same breed. There were a LOT of dogs in the area. Once back in Cochem we would ride the train back to our hotel in Klotten. It was all of a three-minute ride. Nevertheless, it gave us some practice at using the automatic kiosk train ticket dispenser. We found we could use our credit cards here to buy our tickets. While waiting for the train we ran into the one and ONLY American English speaking group on the entire trip. This was a family of four vacationing in Germany from Maine. The woman approached me and asked if I spoke “just a little bit of English”. When I replied that I did a huge smile came across her face. We talked for several minutes and the common thread we had with these people who live nearly 3,000 miles away from us in the U.S. was Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine and, of course, the Spud Speedway in Caribou! We wrapped up the evening at a lovely Italian restaurant in Klotten. The place was small with just 6-7 tables. In Europe the servers never come past and ask you how you are doing or if you need anything else. On the other hand, they won’t bring you the check until you ask for it. You can stay at your table for hours, and some people do, just enjoying the experience. One of our entrees was pizza. O.K., it was MY entrée. Carol had a tuna salad. The owner was entertaining. He told us the picture on the takeaway pizza box of a young man twirling pizza was George Clooney. Maybe it was. The owner also came by and gave us complimentary yogurt after dinner drinks. It was a very nice evening in such a small and beautiful German village. Friday – Day 5 – Klotten, Germany to Hahn Airport. Today would be the first of two transit days that would put us in reach of Lithuania, trackchasing country #65. In order to get to some faraway places like this country a systematic step by step approach is used in insure maximum touring enjoyment and overall cost effectiveness. And some thought trackchasing was a simple process! As you know I have a goal of doing 45 minutes of aerobic exercise often. How Often? I want to exercise for at least three times the number of days that I trackchase. In 2012 I went trackchasing on 74 different days. That means in order to meet my goal in 2012 (actually I didn’t have this goal in 2012) I would have had to exercise 222 days! Wow. Where do I come up with these goals? However, if you don’t set aggressive but reachable goals maybe you should. Nevertheless, I have exercised each of the past two days in Germany. This involved 45 minutes and more of power walking around the town of Klotten. Not only is this good for the cardiovascular system it is an excellent way to see things around town up close. You won’t want to miss the photos I took all along the way. The town features vineyards everywhere. This morning I climbed all the way to the top of a mini-mountain for a close up view of the castle that overlooks Klotten and the river Mosel. Next up was breakfast at our eight-room hotel, the Pension Dorfschank. What was most memorable here? In the small dining room there were two tables of nearly twenty German-speaking people. It was 9 a.m. However they talked so loudly and continuously that Carol and I could not even carry on a conversation. We have seen this “loud talking” several times already during this trip. Observing other cultures and then comparing that behaviour to what your own culture considers “normal” is quite interesting. When it was time to check out another “cultural” item it bit us in the butt. At most of the restaurants we’ve eaten in credit cards are not accepted. They don’t say “we don’t accept credit cards”. When a card in presented for payment they simply reply, “I don’t have a reader”. Whatever. It means the same thing. Haven’t these folks heard that cash is on the way out? We paid our two-night hotel bill in cash and moved on down the tracks. That’s right. Today we would be riding the train from Klotten to Koblenz. From Koblenz we would catch a bus to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport. Buying train tickets at the automated machines is really quite easy. “English” is an option and THEY accept credit cards. Once in Koblenz we had time for an off-site lunch of Thai food. The server was fantastic. I told him we didn’t have all that much time and he served us ahead of three groups that had arrived before us. If you don’t ask you don’t get. He didn’t accept credit cards either. I had ridden the bus from Mainz, Germany, last December, to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport on the way to Greece. Just like then today we paid the driver (11 euros per person for the one way ride) in cash. The bus was modern and only about one-third full. The one-hour ride passed quickly with Carol writing postcards and me reading until the book fell out of my hand because I fell asleep. Why were we going to the Hahn airport? Good question! Often times when you don’t know why someone is doing what they are doing think money. I see my trackchasing fellow competitors doing goofy things all the time and the reason is often caused by money. Frankfurt’s Hahn airport is a “secondary” airport. Ryan Air accounts for virtually all of the flights in and out of the former air force facility. Ryan Air has crazy insane low fares. How low? We paid less than $90 U.S. per person for round-trip airfare from Frankfurt, Germany to Kaunas, Lithuania including one checked bag. These two cities are 917 miles apart. Driving one-way was estimated at about 15 hours. Gasoline, at European prices even with a fuel efficient car would have cost somewhere in the $500-600 U.S. range let alone taking thirty hours to cover the distance and needing a rental car for two days. No, Ryan Air cannot be beat. However, “Nothing is free except a kick in the butt” (vintage Carol’s father pretty much from the first day I ever met him). With Ryan Air EVERYTHING is extra including something as simple as a soft drink. We’re gone on this trip for ten days. That meant we couldn’t just “carry on” all of our clothes. Of the $175 U.S. that Carol and I paid for our airline tickets forty dollars went to pay for one round-trip checked bag. The limit on the weight of our checked bag was 15 kilos or 33 pounds. Our carry-ons would be free if they weighed less than 10 kilos or 22 pounds. Folks, considering the weight of our EMPTY luggage that doesn’t leave much for the contents. I hate paying for checked luggage. I’ve done that less than five times in my life. I have never paid “excess weight” fees. I think that’s what jackets are for. I routinely jam the sleeves of my winter coats with as much poundage as is possible. Nevertheless, Carol and I were still going to be “overweight”. What could we do? When we arrived at the Hahn airport I walked across the street to the B&B Hotel. It’s only 50 meters from the airport terminal. I stayed here in December. We’ll be staying at the B&B in four days on our way back home from Lithuania. I had a question for them. Would they allow us to store some clothing until we checked in next Tuesday. I fully expected them to say “No”. However, they said, “Yes”! With that we went to a locked conference room and stuffed my UCLA jacket until it looked as if a body were inside. We kept just enough to complete our four days in Lithuania. I was relieved. I love to spend money I just don’t like to waste money and I think paying for checked bags and overweight bags is wasting money. This was another positive example of “If you don’t ask you don’t get”. Carol and I spent the evening at the “My Place” hotel. Remember you can take this hotel information and run it through TripAdvisor or Booking.com to see if the situation might work for you. The Hahn airport is literally out in the middle of nowhere. Hotels and restaurants are hard to come by. Nevertheless, we used TripAdvisor.com to find “Come Prima” a nearby Italian restaurant. The one and only English language review gave it five stars. However, the hotel clerk told me there were no Italian restaurants in the area until I showed her the TripAdvisor review on my iPhone. Then she “remembered” it was a small place within a couple of blocks. No 5-star racing for Come Prima from this crowd. The service was indifferent and the food somewhat bland. I would be stretching to give those elements three stars. However, it was reasonably priced and the entire four tables in the place made it “homey”. Tomorrow is getaway day to Lithuania. I can’t recall our having ever been there although we might have driven through on the way to Latvia where the most beautiful girls in the world come from (along with Japan!). Saturday – Day 6 –Hahn Airport to Kaunas, Lithuania to Marijampole, Lithuania. The event of the day would be getting to Kaunas (pronounced co-ness), Lithuania on Ryan Air. Ryan Air is a discount airline. Their base fares are beyond dirt cheap. However, in order to get that low fare you have to be watchful of all of the “extras”. With that in mind we boarded our hotel shuttle for the five-minute ride to the Frankfurt Hahn airport. The coup of YESTERDAY was getting NEXT Tuesday night’s hotel to let us store our dirty clothes and other things in one of their locked storage rooms. We wouldn’t need that stuff until four days later when we checked into the “B&B” hotel just 50 meters from the front door of the Hahn airport. We had paid to check one bag on Ryan Air. Our bag’s weight allowance was 15 kilos or about 33 pounds. That bag came in at 14.7 kilos. That’s 0.3 kilos or less than a pound under the limit saving us nearly a $100 U.S. fine for being overweight. Our carry-ons had a weight limit too. That limit was just 10 kilos or 22 pounds. My rolling carryon bag with computer laptop ate up most of that limit. Ryan Air provides a handy scale for passengers just before they board the plane (how convenient!). My bag weighed 9.8/9.9 kilos, just a few ounces under the limit. Carol wouldn’t weigh her bag…….because it was heavier than mine. Don’t worry about us. We are travel professionals. Except for those financially crazy passengers who paid 10 euros to board the plane early everyone else boarded on a first come first come first served basis. We would be flying nearly 1,000 miles from Frankfurt to Kaunas, Lithuania. The flight attendant was nice enough to give us exit row seating for two reasons. Why? First, because I am tall and secondly because we spoke English. A non-English speaking passenger was beside himself at not being allowed to sit in the exit row with its massive extra legroom. Beyond the draconian luggage policies, I enjoyed flying on Ryan Air. This was Carol’s first ever experience with them. Now Carol LOVES Ryan Air. She likes the “ala carte” pricing strategy. She especially enjoyed the five pages of food and drink offered by Ryan. This ranged from a meatball sandwich or hot dog to Pringles potato chips and green olives. She also dived into the duty free shopping catalog coming up with a beautiful gift for Astrid’s next birthday. Welcome to Kaunas, Lithuania! When we landed in Kaunas the first order of business was to pickup our rental car. In Germany we had stuck entirely to trains and buses. The Eurocar rental car people were way ahead of us. One of their reps was waiting for us when we entered the terminal with the universally recognized (in the trackchasing world anyway) placard reading, “Randy Lewis”. I tried to tell Carol that this level of service was reserved for V.I.P.’s only. However, she has been married to be long enough to cut through the BS. We were soon led to our rental car in the parking lot. It was small red Hyundai four-cylinder model. It’s not much but we won’t be driving the little 5-speed much more than 200 miles over the next three days. The car was given to us with just a quarter of a tank of fuel. We needed to return the car with that same amount of gas. I don’t like this approach at all. Despite Carol having a Bachelor of Science degree in math and my being pretty good at numbers too we can never get this equation figured out. The rental car company always beats us on the fuel when they do it this way. To top things off the rental car rep asked if we could drop him off at home! Otherwise, he would have to wait thirty minutes for a bus. Every trip has a “first”. I had never been asked to do that before but was happy to accommodate. We dropped him in the parking lot of a Hypermart (think Wal-Mart superstore). I always enjoy touring foreign stores especially mass merchandiser outlets. This one, especially the grocery section as modern and beautiful. Folks, much of the world is catching up with America in what we have enjoyed for decades. It will feel good to be back into a car after a few days of nothing but trains and buses in Germany. Our welcome at the Kaunas airport was a nice touch. We won’t break any speed records in our little Hyundai and don’t want too. We did stop to get some gas shortly after we picked up the car. We spent 96.24 LITs or about $36.22 U.S. This bought us 20.26 liters or 5.35 gallons. That comes to about $6.77 U.S. per gallon. When I hear Americans bellyaching over $3-4 U.S. per gallon gas prices I can’t help but smile inside at their limited range of understanding. Last year I ran into an Englishman in France who accused the U.S. of “giving their gas away”! By the way this would be the one and only time we would buy gas. Can you imagine taking a 10-day trip to Europe and paying just $36.22 U.S. for gasoline? That’s unheard of! It was three o’clock and we hadn’t eaten since 9 a.m. Just on the horizon was a McDonald’s. I am nearly 100% against eating in an American fast food chain when traveling in a foreign country. I’ve seen and read about too many trackchasers doing this to save money and/or satisfy their ever so basic culinary tastes. However, today we simply had a graving for grease. Additionally, with all stores signs in 100% Lithuanian finding anything else would have taken too much time. Everything tasted just like the Mickey Ds back home on the block. The fries might have been the best I have ever tasted from any McDonalds I’ve been too. From there we used my Apple iPhone’s GPS capability to direct us some 80 kilometers to Marijampole. This town is home to the 9.1 (TripAdvisor score) rated Europa Royale Marijampole hotel. The drive reminded me of something we had experienced in both Latvia and Estonia two countries just to the north of Lithuania. Imagine you are driving on a tw0-lane highway out in the country. If someone wants to pass on a road like that here, they simply drive up the MIDDLE of the road. The vehicle being passed as well as any oncoming traffic is expected to move at least half of their vehicle to the shoulder of the road. The car doing the passing simply drives up the middle as if Moses had parted the Red Sea. Yes, seeing and doing this is absolutely crazy behaviour. Checking into our Marijampole Lithuanian hotel. Checking into the hotel was fast and easy. Once we have visited our room it was time to take a walk around the immediate area. Remember, this was Saturday night. Folks, I am sad to report the area was as dead as a doornail. Many of the TripAdvisor reviews on this hotel stated it was in the center of Marijampole. One even went as far to say it WAS the center of Marijampole. Oh my. There was simply nothing going on. There were virtually no people around at all. We did run across a movie theatre but the elderly ticket taker told us none of the movies were in English or featured English sub-titles. Frankly, I don’t think she even understood what I was asking her. After the better part of an hour we were back at the hotel. That is where we had our dinner. I didn’t want to pass up the highly recommended “Svytury’s” Lithuanian beer served on draft tonight. I don’t drink that much beer and am not a beer expert. However, a cold Svytury’s tasted great. Now you’ve read about what has occurred over the past few days of this trip. Everything we’ve done is in preparation for tomorrow, race day! We don’t travel clear across this great big world of ours just to see a few hours of racing though. When we go international trackchasing the journey is the enjoyment. The destination is simply used to keep score. Sunday – Day 7 – Marijampole, Lithuania to Vilnius, Lithuania. Today is race day in a country where I have never seen any racing. I have only been able to say that on 65 different days in my life. This trip, up to now, has focused on touring Germany and now Lithuania. Even on race day we’ll have some very fun and interesting touring activities away from the racetrack. Walking not riding in a car is similar to walking a golf course rather than riding in a golf cart. You just see so much more. Today I took a walking tour around the city of Marijampole, which is the location of today’s racing. I see a lot during my power walks. When one travels to foreign countries (emphasis on the word “foreign”) things just don’t work the same way as they do back home. That’s fine with me. I don’t leave America to find “America” where I’m going. This morning just getting out of the hotel was a challenge. The automatic opening front doors were not “automatic” at this hour. The desk clerk had to direct me to a side door. Even though it was only 6:30 a.m. the streets were vacant of any pedestrians or cars on this Sunday morning. The few people who were out and about were almost all women. Don’t miss the pictures from my walk around this Lithuanian city. It is often the case that the cities I end up visiting were places I had never ever heard of until I began planning one of these trips. Marijampole, a city of 47,000 is the seventh largest city in Lithuania. The city actually looks much smaller. Many of the buildings and houses are old. The architecture is some of the blandest I can recall seeing. Most of the businesses simply have their name on the building (in Lithuanian of course) without graphics or pictures showing what the business might be selling. This makes it nearly impossible to know what the business is even about. Research tells me that Marijampole is the capital of Marijampole County in the south of Lithuania. The city was occupied by Russia from 1945 through 1989. During that time the town’s name was Kapsukas. During WWII the city was occupied by Germany. In 1941 between 5,000 and 8,000 Jews and people from other backgrounds were murdered. Their bodies were placed in mass graves along the nearby Sesupe River. On brighter news, today’s racing was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. According to Google Maps our hotel was just four minutes from the track. How’s that for solid logistical planning in a foreign country. We showed up at the track a few minutes before start time. Admission was just ten Lithuanian Litas per person (about $4 U.S. each). Parking was tight but I found a spot in the paddock area. From there we just went exploring all over the place. The area had received a good deal of rain just before we arrived in Lithuania. Rain was in the forecast but luckily it didn’t happen. Virtually the entire facility was damp clay/dirt including the spectator areas. If it had rained today the place would have been a huge mud hole! Luckily, I have developed a friendship of racing fans/officials from all over Europe and the world for that matter. Jorgen Ring-Anderson from Denmark put me in touch with Donatas Liesis who resides in Lithuania. Donatas confirmed the event and sent me a race day schedule. I simply cannot thank Jorgen and Donatas enough, and all the other people who help me when I need it. We would be watching a combination of the 2013 Lithuanian autocross championships, the 2013 North European Zone Cup autocross championships and the Baltic Countries Cup of autocross championships!! From what I could tell from the printed scheduled there would be one heat race for each car and a final event. The racing would take place on a dirt road course with some elevation changes. I’m going to guess the entire course was nearly a mile long. The races began with “standing starts” from a concrete pad. Just 5-7 cars started most races. The racing distance was short, just 4-5 laps. I could probably count this track as having a “mixed” surface but I’ll count it as a dirt road course since the concrete area was only used for the start. All of the announcing was done in Lithuanian over a very robust P.A. system. I was happy to get a brief “trackchaser mention” even if it was in Lithuanian. Most of the fans stood on damp ground. There was a small grandstand but the people in that stand stood too. Why? So they could see over the fans standing at the fence line. I would estimate there were some 1,000 fans in attendance. A highlight was visiting the concession stand during intermission after the heat races were completed. Using my iPhone app “Translator” we were able to figure out that “alus” was beer and “mesainis” was hamburger. Without the translator there was no way we would have known the word for anything. We went with two Lithuanian beers, a bag of sour cream potato chips and a concoction that Carol guessed was hominy grits! It was all good. The racing was efficient. There was one flip that I caught on video just as it was happening. Two primary classes were competing including small 1600cc (or something close) production cars and buggies/cross karts. Without understanding the announcer it was difficult to tell what they called these classes. The best way to understand what the racing looked like is to view the videos. I got racing footage from just about every nook and cranny available to the spectators. You’ll also see photos of every unique person on the grounds and most of the cars in the paddock area. It was a fun day of racing under cloudy skies and temps in the high 60s with a strong breeze. Lithuania makes country #65 for me and #33 for Carol. That’s 98 country visits for the two of us. None of our fellow competitors is even in the same zip code in this important trackchasing category. The racing was pretty well wrapped up by mid-afternoon. That was good for one reason. The Amber Cirkus (yes, “Cirkus) was playing in Marijampole just ten minutes away. I had seen posters advertising the event. Who wouldn’t want to go to the circus in a foreign country? This was a small circus. However, tickets were nearly three times the price of admission to the races. The entire event was done in just one smallish tent. This was going to be fun. Once inside we encountered some form of “black lighting”. I have no idea why they used this type of lighting. Not only did it make it 20-30 degrees warmers inside the tent than outside it gave us a headache just to be inside the tent. We used our sunglasses to nullify some of this unusual lighting and its effect on us. Don’t miss the pictures of the circus to see what this lighting did to my photographs! Nevertheless, the circus was entertaining. Most of the 7-8 performers had 2-3 routines. I can guarantee you this. I couldn’t come close to doing ANYTHING these folks did so routinely. Following the circus we did some local shopping at another Hyperlink. I was most impressed with the modern retail stores of Lithuania. They were bigger and offered a broader selection than most stores in the U.S. At this point we headed to Vilnius, Lithuania the country’s capital. We would get to spend two nights here. Monday – Day 8 – Vilnius, Lithuania. Today would be a full day of touring in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania and the surrounding area. One of the very best things, if not the very best, is getting to tour these foreign countries I’ve been visiting over the past few years. I hope the reader can fully understand that trackchasing takes me to these countries, but the fullest enjoyment comes from watching the people, eating the food and seeing the places. Before breakfast I started the day with another power walk. In a city the size of Vilnius it’s easy to get lost on one of these walks. Luckily, I noted a couple of landmarks that allowed me to find my way back to the hotel. Don’t miss the pictures. Following a delicious breakfast that was part of our hotel room rate we prepared for a four-hour tour. Having made arrangements in advance the tour company sent a car to our hotel to pick us up. Trakai Castle Touring Once at the tour headquarters we prepared for the “Tour to Trakai”. Trakai is a small city just 40 minutes outside of Vilnius. The main attraction is the Trakai island palace. Please don’t miss the pictures of Trakai and their famous castle. Following the tour we arrived back in Vilnius a city of some 500,000 people. We spent most of our time in the “old town” section. In most older cities old town is the most interesting place to visit. There were several things to take note of. We were surprised at the number of younger people in the “twenty-something” age range. We saw almost nobody in our age demographic. We’ve also seen virtually no Americans excepting one young family from Maine at a train station in Germany. This is not unusual. We rarely see or hear many Americans during our travels. Where are they? I’ve begun to use my iPhone’s Google Maps app to guide us around while we are walking. Is there anything this machine won’t do? I’ve also started using my “TripAdvisor” in foreign countries as I do Yelp! back home. It provides restaurant recommendations and nearby locations. Could it be any easier to tour a place like Lithuania. For dinner we settled upon a Thai restaurant called Briusly. If you come to Vilnius, Lithuania don’t miss this one. From the outside it looked like a Seattle grunge bar. The surroundings were somewhat rundown but we decided to give it a try based upon the TripAdvisor recommendations. With my “data plan” for my iPhone we could use TripAdvisor to get restaurant recommendations. TripAdvisor recommended Brisuly’s. Brisuly’s was a winner! Although no one else in the place was older than thirty-five we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We started with drinks including a “Black Russian” Carol’s favorite drink. Don’t know what goes in a “Black Russian”? It’s vodka and Kahlua. We followed that with one of the best orders of calamari (fried squid) we’ve ever had. Our entrees with shrimp and chicken (separately) were served with rice and coconut curries. Delicious and gourmet. We did run into something for the third time on this trip. We ordered an item on the menu only to find out the restaurant was out of that choice. When was the last time that happened to you in the U.S.? Three times seemed like a trend. Tonight we wanted the chocolate soufflé. At first the server took our order only to come back with the bad news that they didn’t have anymore of this dessert. As a substitution she recommended their cheesecake. That sounded good. Bring it on! However, the server soon returned to tell us there was no more cheesecake. With that we asked for our check. Lithuania borders Russia. Two months ago we were in Russia. Russia was VERY expensive. However, Lithuania is very inexpensive. Tonight’s dinner with three cocktails, a sumptuous appetizer and two entrees were just under $20 U.S. per person. Most of the places we travel are more expensive than the U.S. Lithuania is quite a bit less expensive. With a great dinner finished we took a leisurely walk out of old town back to our hotel a distance of less than a mile. The weather is comfortable and the company most enjoyable. Tuesday – Day 9 – Vilnius, Lithuania to Kaunas, Lithuania to Frankfurt Hahn Airport. Today we began the slow process of returning home. However, before that part of the trip got into full speed ahead we had time for one more city tour. Yesterday’s tour took us outside of Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius for some castle touring. Today we would take a city tour of Vilnius. This would allow us to get some background on the area we had been walking around for the past two days. Just like yesterday the tour company picked us up at our hotel. That was convenient. We were on an open-air bus with about ten other tourists. Everyone had a headset that spoke to them in one of eight different languages. The weather was nice and we enjoyed this somewhat brief 80-minute tour. Following the tour we stopped off at a major indoor “market” to see if Lithuania had anything that needed to be brought back to San Clemente. Carol is not so much for these kinds of shopping arrangements. I, on the other hand, always enjoy getting a good bargain. Carol knew we had a limited supply of Lithuanian Litas on hand. Of course, that was by design. Any Litas left over would likely fall into the “Lewis museum of unused foreign currencies” since it’s difficult to redeem many foreign currencies acquired through an ATM. It will be nearly impossible if Lithuania moves to the euro in 2014 or 2015 as planned. Nevertheless, I spotted a bargain of sorts for granddaughter Astrid. I can’t tell you what is was so as not to spoil the surprise. Other course, nothing is a market like this can be purchased with credit cards. This left us with just 20 Litas to our name or about eight U.S. dollars. Before we headed out on the road back to our outbound flight from Kaunas, Lithuania we needed some lunch. Many of the places we had eaten at in Lithuania did not accept credit cards. Often times sit-down service was slow. This would dictate where we could eat. Growing up as a boy in the small town of East Peoria, Illinois I never would have guessed that BOTH international money constraints and medical needs would dictate my luncheon location. Truthfully, as a boy in East Peoria I would have been hard-pressed to identify the location of virtually ANY of the 65 trackchasing countries I have now visited. However, as one goes along in life, one learns. If they don’t then they stay in the same place. Eight U.S. dollars was not likely to get us lunch for two even in a place like Lithuania where “stuff” is cheaper than most places in Europe. We needed a place that would accept credit cards “for sure”. That place was McDonalds and there was one just ahead. What about our “medical needs”? That translated into being able to go to the bathroom. Mickey D’s has good bathrooms. However, in Lithuania you must first buy something before you can use the bathroom. We found the “bathroom code” on our receipt. With that both the international currency issue and our medical needs were solved. We saw others who showed up at McDonalds for the free internet connection! From there we used my iPhone’s Google Maps capability to find our car back at the Hotel Rinno. It looked as if somewhere over the past three days we had acquired a parking ticket. Since the “ticket” was printed in Lithuanian we’ll just hold tight to see if anything ever comes of it. At this point my iPhone doubled as a car GPS and easily got us out of the capital city of Vilnius and on our way to Kaunas. We arrived three hours early for our Ryan Air flight over to Frankfurt. That gave me time to go outside for my 45-minute powerwalk. Remember getting enough exercise compared to the amount of trackchasing I do is one of my 2013 trackchasing goals. When I returned it was time to clear security for our flight. The only challenge was meeting Ryan Air’s somewhat draconian baggage weight limits. We had to be under 15 kilos (about 33 pounds) for our one checked bag and 10 kilos (about 22 pounds) for each of our one and only carryon bags. We did some “mixing and matching” and storing stuff in the sleeve’s of my newly acquired “field jacket” and were good to go. Boarding Ryan Air flights is “first come first served” like Southwest Airlines used to be. However, as I have mentioned in the past Europeans are not so good at respecting lines aka ques. O.K., I’ll be honest. I love my European friends but many of the folks over here really suck at respecting the line. They should try that stuff on the east coast. They’d get shot! Carol may be small in stature but she subscribes to the political thinking that “nobody gets anything for nothing”. That being the case she put on her very best blocking moves at every opportunity. Even though she barely pushes the scale past 100 pounds she can “move people around” when needed and this afternoon it was needed. Wow! One on the plane we used our “prior Ryan Air knowledge” to exploit the system. Soon we were sitting in exit row seats just was we were on the Ryan Air outbound flight. Hint: It helps to speak English. Despite the luggage limits Carol LOVES Ryan Air. When mama is happy we are all happy. What does she like best? Two things. She likes the idea there are FIVE pages of items in the onboard food and drink category. If they don’t have it you don’t need to eat or drink it. We’re talking meatball sandwiches, hot dogs, olives and Red Bull! Additionally, she loves the onboard shopping experience. Again granddaughter Astrid came out a winner. Don’t worry about Mitch. Carol has her eye on a “duty-free” selection for him on the flight back to San Francisco. When our flight landed in Germany from Lithuania it was just as if we had flown from Grand Rapids to Lincoln, Nebraska. There were no customs or anything like that to clear. We simply picked up our one piece of checked luggage and headed to our hotel. We had beaten Ryan Air at the “luggage game” one more time! To top off our good fortune our hotel was just 30 meters from the terminal. I had stayed at this hotel last December when I was headed to Thessaloniki, Greece. The more experience I get the easier these trips become. If you fly out of or into Frankfurt’s Hahn airport you won’t be able to beat the B&B Hotel for convenience. It’s a good value too. One of the biggest coups of the trip was coming up with the idea to store some of our dirty laundry and excess clothing at the B&B Hotel for the four days we would be in Lithuania. This was a key to our success in beating Ryan Air’s luggage weight limits. When we checked into the B&B this afternoon we found all of our “stuff” just as we had left it in conference room #108. I guess it’s a universal fact that nobody is interested in stealing dirty laundry. It was time to look for dinner. A recommendation from the desk clerk had us taking a half-mile walk to the GastHaus restaurant. This would turn out to be a gem. German restaurants can be expensive. However, tonight we had escargot as an appetizer a huge entrée salad for Carol and a tri-pasta selection for me and two drinks for under $40 including tip. The food was absolutely gourmet. When we walked back to the hotel after 9 p.m. it was still light out. We spent the next several minutes back in our hotel room figuring out how we could compress 10 days worth of clothing for two people into one rolling bag that serves as my carryon for most trips. Soon that task was completed and we hit the sack for our ninth and final night in Europe. Wednesday – Day 10 – Frankfurt Hahn Airport to Frankfurt Main Airport to San Francisco to Los Angeles and back to San Clemente. Some ten days ago we hopped on a plane to San Francisco to begin this trip. Frankly, that seems like about ten MONTHS ago or more. Although I am accused of being an “easy grader” I would have to say everything went according to the advanced plan. Sometimes the most fun can be had when things don’t go according to plan. However, this was a very laid back trip where we had plenty of time to see things, eat things and do things. Today we began the long “process” of getting home. We awoke just thirty (30) meters from Frankfurt’s Hahn airport. Following breakfast at our “B&B” hotel (that’s the hotel’s name not a description of the hotel type) we walked across the street to get the bus to the Frankfurt Main International Airport. Flying into “Frankfurt Main” is a popular route from the U.S. Flying from Frankfurt’s Hahn airport is a very cheap way to fly all over Europe with Ryan Air. There’s just one little logistical hiccup involved. The airports are 72 miles apart. Not to worry because there is frequent modern bus service between the airports. For 14 Euros per person each way one can make the 90-minute journey conveniently. That’s what we did this morning. We even got a “bonus” ride. The driver spoke mostly German and very little English. I thought he said in English we’ll be stopping at terminals 1 and 2 as in we will be making TWO stops. However, after we made ONE airport stop we soon started driving away from the airport. Luckily, we were early for our flight. The next stop was the train station in downtown Frankfurt. Having taken trains out of here in the past I was familiar with the drill. We would simply stay on the bus and return to the Main airport about 45 minutes later than if I had not misunderstood the driver. From there we boarded a flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco. Heading West makes the flight just a little bit longer because we normally fly into the wind. The distance on that flight was nearly 5,700 miles alone and would take 11 hours. Overall, we flew about 12,000 miles on this trip. It doesn’t take Carol long, at that rate, to cover her 100,000 miles each year. She’s the hardest working woman in trackchasing! Once in San Francisco clearing customs was a snap with our Global Entry capabilities. Regardless of how many passengers are re-entering the country or how long the lines are we go to a special area. There we have our fingerprints read, answer via touchscreen about four questions and we are through customs in a minute or so. If you’re going to travel as much as I do then putting the right “systems” in place makes the travel aspect so much easier. From San Francisco we hopped a flying machine to Los Angeles. From there we were back in the sleepy little city by the sea, San Clemente by about 10:30 p.m. That was about 24 hours after our wakeup call came at the B&B Hotel. Another successful and fun trip was in the rearview mirror. It was now time to look out the WINDSHIELD of my trackchasing mobile at my next foreign trip. When would that be? Stay tuned….you’ll be one of the first to know. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Randy is a freelance journalist who winters in San Clemente, California and sometime flies in coach. And so it goes from country #65. I hope you’ll tune in when country #66 becomes a reality. It is a glimmer in my eye right now. Lithuania – Country #65!! RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Lifetime Trackchasing Countries # 1 – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – Peoria Speedway – Mt. Hawley, (oval) – Track #1, Peoria, Illinois – circa 1954 (age 5) # 2 – CANADA – Cayuga Speedway (oval) – Track #174, Nelles Corner, Ontario, Canada – July 31, 1988 (Dick Trickle winner) # 3 – AUSTRALIA – Parramatta City Raceway (oval) – Track #180, Granville, New South Wales, Australia – November 17, 1989 (accompanied by Carol) # 4 – UNITED KINGDOM – Northhampton International Raceway (oval) – Track #378, Northhampton – June 26, 1999 (accompanied by Carol, Kristy, Jim) # 5 – NETHERLANDS – Driesum Racetrack (oval) – Track #839, Driesum – May 5, 2005 (accompanied by Roland Vanden Eynde) # 6 – BELGIUM – Bellekouter oval (oval) – Track #841, Affligem – May 8, 2005 (accompanied by Roland Vanden Eynde) # 7 – FRANCE – Circuit de Croix en Ternois (road course) – Track #843, Saint-Pol sur-Ternoise – May 8, 2005 (accompanied by Roland Vanden Eynde – 2nd new country in one day!) # 8 – GERMANY – Nurburgring (road course) – Track #844, Nurburg – May 13, 2005 (accompanied by Carol, Roland Vanden Eynde) # 9 – NEW ZEALAND – Western Springs Speedway (oval) – Track #1,134, Western Springs – December 26, 2006 (accompanied by Carol) # 10 – MEXICO – Triovalo Bernardo Obregon (oval) – Track #1,281, Tiajamulco de Zuniga, Jalisco – October 14, 2007 (accompanied by Carol, J.J., Roger Ward) # 11 – BARBADOS – Bushy Park Racing Circuit (road course) – Track #1,296, Bushy Park – December 9, 2007 # 12 – THAILAND – Bira Circuit (road course) – Track #1,300, Pattaya – January 19, 2008 # 13 – SOUTH AFRICA – Durban Grand Prix (road course) – Track #1,315, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal – February 24, 2008 (accompanied by J.J. and Will Van Horne) # 14 – JAMAICA – Dover Raceway (road course) – Track #1,322, Brown’s Town St. Ann – March 24, 2008 # 15 – SWEDEN – Sturup Raceway (road course) – Track #1,335, Malmo – May 10, 2008 (accompanied by Carol) # 16 – DENMARK – Ring Djursland (road course) – Track #1,336, Tirstrup – May 11, 2008 (accompanied by Carol) # 17 – CZECH REPUBLIC – Automotodrome BRNO (road course) – Track #1,381, Brno – September 13, 2008 # 18 – AUSTRIA – Lambrechten Stock Car Track (road course) – Track #1,382, Lambrechten – September 14, 2008 # 19 – IRELAND – Tipperary International Raceway (oval) – Track #1,388, Rosegreen – October 26, 2008 (Carol and I visited this track earlier in the year) # 20 – GUYANA – South Dakota Circuit (road course) – Track #1,390, Timehri – November 2, 2008 (accompanied by Carol) # 21 – CHINA – The Guia Circuit (road course) – Track #1,392, Macau – November 16, 2008 (accompanied by Carol) # 22 – COSTA RICA – Autodromo La Guacima (road course) – Track #1,398, La Guacima – November 30, 2008 # 23 – ANDORRA – Grandvalira Circuit (road course) – Track #1,404, Port d’Envalira, Andorra – January 17, 2009 # 24 – ARGENTINA – Circuito Efren Chemolli (oval) – Track #1,406, Buenos Aires, Argentina – January 31, 2009 (shared with Jerry Fisher) # 25 – QATAR – Losail International Circuit (road course) – Track #1,408, Doha, Qatar – February 13, 2009 # 26 – BAHRAIN – Bahrain International Circuit (road course) – Track #1,410, Sakhir, Bahrain – February 27, 2009 (accompanied by Carol) # 27 – UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Dubai Autodrome (road course) – Track #1,411, Dubai, United Arab Emirates – February 28, 2009 (accompanied by Carol) # 28 – COLOMBIA – Autodromo de Tocancipa (road course) – Track #1,415, Tocancipa, Colombia – March 22, 2009 # 29 – SPAIN – Motorland Aragon (road course) – Track #1,416, Alcaniz, Spain – March 28, 2009 # 30 – PORTUGAL – Circuto de Murca (road course) – Track #1,417, Murca, Portugal – March 29, 2009 # 31 – ICELAND – Kapelluhraum (road course) – Track #1,420, Hafnafjorour, Iceland – April 25, 2009 (shared with Will White) # 32 – HUNGARY – Hungaroring (road course) – Track #1,426, Mogyorod, Hungary – May 8, 2009 (accompanied by Carol) # 33 – SWITZERLAND – Hock Ybrig (road course) – Track #1,427, Hoch Ybrig, Switzerland – May 9, 2009 (accompanied by Carol) # 34 – ITALY – Vighizzolo d’Este Stock Car Track (road course) – Track #1,428, Vighizzolo d’Este, Italy – May 10, 2009 (accompanied by Carol) # 35 – DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – Autodromo Mobil 1 (road course) – Track #1,515, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – December 6, 2009 (accompanied by Carol) # 36 – MALTA – Ta’Qali Race Track (road course) – Track #1,521, Ta’Qali, Malta – February 7, 2010 (accompanied by Carol) # 37 – FINLAND – Lake Pidisjarvi Ice Track (road course) – Track #1,524, Nivala, Finland – February 20, 2010 # 38 – JAPAN – Suzuka Circuit (road course) – Track #1,530, Suzuka, Japan – March 21, 2010 # 39 – CHILE – Autodromo de Interlomas (road course) – Track #1,531, Temuco, Chile – April 18, 2010 # 40 – MOROCCO – Circuit de Marrakesh (road course) – Track #1,535, Marrakesh, Morocco – May 1, 2010 (accompanied by Carol) # 41 – BRAZIL – Circuit de Caruaru – Aryten Senna (road course) – Track #1,540, Caruaru, Brazil – May 16, 2010 (accompanied by Carol, Jerry Fisher and Katina Spencer) # 42 – ESTONIA – Laitse Rally Park (road course) – Track #1,571, Laitse, Estonia – July 24, 2010 (accompanied by Carol) # 43 – LATVIA – Bikernieki (road course) – Track #1,572, Riga, Latvia – July 25, 2010 (accompanied by Carol # 44 – GUATEMALA – Autodromo Pedro Cofino (road course) – Track #1,580, Alotenango, Guatemala – August 15, 2010 # 45 – EL SALVADOR – El Jabali (road course) – Track #1,582, Quezaltepeque, El Salvador – August 22, 2010 (accompanied by Carol) # 46 – ROMANIA – Bradu (road course) – Track #1,603, Bradu, Romania, El Salvador – October 16, 2010 # 47 – BULGARIA – Closed Route – Burgas (road course) – Track #1,604, Burgas, Bulgaria – October 17, 2010 (accompanied by Lyubomir and Plamen Simeonov) # 48 – SOUTH KOREA – Korea International Circuit (road course) – Track #1,605, Yeongam, Jeollanam-Do, South Korea – October 24, 2010 # 49 – PHILIPPINES – Batangas Racing Circuit (road course) – Track #1,608, Batangas, Philippines – November 21, 2010 # 50 – NORWAY – Lyngas Motorbane (road course) – Track #1,648, Lier, Norway – April 30, 2011 # 51 – MALAYSIA – Sepang International Circuit (road course) – Track #1,656, Sepang, Malaysia – May 28, 2011 # 52 – INDONESIA – Sentul International Circuit (road course) – Track #1,657, Babakan Madang, Boder, Indonesia – May 29, 2011 # 53 – LUXEMBOURG – Alzingen (road course) – Track #1,711, Alzingen, Luxembourg – September 4, 2011 (accompanied by Carol) # 54 – POLAND – Tor Slomczyn (road course) – Track #1,713, Slomczyn, Poland – September 11, 2011 (accompanied by Carol) # 55 – SINGAPORE – Marina Bay (road course) – Track #1,714, Singapore, Singapore – September 24, 2011 (accompanied by Carol) # 56 – URUGUAY – Piriapolis Grand Prix (road course) – Track #1,724, Piriapolis, Uruguay – November 12, 2011 # 57 – SRI LANKA – Pannala Race Track (road course) – Track #1,732, Pannala, Sri Lanka – February 12, 2012 # 58 – ECUADOR – Autodromo Internacional de Yahuarcocha (road course) – Track #1,736, Ibarra, Ecuador – March 11, 2012 # 59 – SLOVAKIA – Slovakia Ring (road course) – Track #1,742, Orechova Puton, Slovakia – April 29, 2012 # 60 – MONACO – Circuit de Monaco (street course) – Track #1,746, Monte Carlo, Monaco – May 13, 2012 (accompanied by Carol) # 61 – CROATIA – Automotodrom Grobnik (road course) – Track #1,762, Rijeka, Croatia – June 23, 2012 # 62 – PERU – Autodromo La Chutana (road course) – Track #1,802, Lima, Peru – October 21, 2012 (accompanied by Carol) # 63 – GREECE – Serres Circuit (road course) – Track #1,807, Serres, Greece – November 4, 2012 # 64 – RUSSIA – Moscow Central Hippodrome (oval) – Track #1,824, Moscow, Russia – February 23, 2013 (accompanied by Carol) # 65 – LITHUANIA – Marijampole Autokross Track (road course) – Track #1,842, Marijampole, Lithuania – May 12, 2013 (accompanied by Carol) The International Big 3. During the last 5 ½ years, I have added 56 trackchasing countries to my list. That’s an average of nearly one new country every month for more than five years. 2013 continues as another great year of international trackchasing. Lithuania checks off all the countries of Northern Europe. From here, at least in Europe, it’s going to be a process of running around Eastern Europe to add more countries to my resume. My goal for the year is to add four new countries. We’ll see how that goes. 2013 Country List Russia Lithuania Lithuania becomes the 32nd European continent country where I’ve seen racing. There are a handful of countries I still have to see on this continent. I’m a big fan of Europe overall. In some ways, geographically speaking, moving from one European country to the next is similar to traveling from one American state to the other. Compared to jumping all over the world it’s not all that difficult. Lithuania – FAST FACTS* Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the largest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden and Denmark. It borders Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Kaliningrad Oblast (a Russian exclave) to the southwest. A QUICK BACKGROUND ON LITHUANIA. Lithuania has an estimated population of 3 million as of 2012, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The Lithuanians are a Baltic people, and the official language, Lithuanian, is one of only two living languages (together with Latvian) in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. SOMEWHAT RECENT HISTORY Prior to the global financial crisis of 2007–2010 and now in its aftermath, Lithuania has one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union. Lithuania is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, a full member of the Schengen Agreement and NATO. Lithuania is also a member of the Nordic Investment Bank, and part of Nordic-Baltic cooperation of Northern European countries. The United Nations Human Development Index lists Lithuania as a “very high human development” country. Lithuania will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2013. After a re-estimation of the boundaries of the continent of Europe in 1989, Jean-George Affholder, a scientist at the Institut Géographique National (French National Geographic Institute) determined that the Geographic Centre of Europe is located at 54°54′N 25°19′E. The method used for calculating this point was that of the centre of gravity of the geometrical figure of Europe. This point is located in Lithuania, specifically 26 kilometres (16 mi) north of its capital city, Vilnius. Lithuania’s climate, which ranges between maritime and continental, is relatively mild. Average temperatures on the coast are −2.5 °C in January and 16 °C (61 °F) in July. In Vilnius the average temperatures are −6 °C (21 °F) in January and 16 °C (61 °F) in July. During the summer, 20 °C (68 °F) is common during the day while 14 °C (57 °F) is common at night; in the past, temperatures have reached as high as 30 °C (86 °F) or 35 °C (95 °F). Some winters can be very cold. −20 °C (−4 °F) occurs almost every winter. Winter extremes are −34 °C (−29 °F) in coastal areas and −43 °C (−45 °F) in the east of Lithuania. The average annual precipitation is 800 mm on the coast, 900 mm in the Samogitia highlands and 600 mm in the eastern part of the country. Snow occurs every year, it can snow from October to April. In some years sleet can fall in September or May. The growing season lasts 202 days in the western part of the country and 169 days in the eastern part. Severe storms are rare in the eastern part of Lithuania but common in the coastal areas. The longest measured temperature records from the Baltic area cover about 250 years. The data show that there were warm periods during the latter half of the 18th century, and that the 19th century was a relatively cool period. An early 20th century warming culminated in the 1930s, followed by a smaller cooling that lasted until the 1960s. A warming trend has persisted since then. Since Lithuania declared the restoration of its independence on 11 March 1990, it has maintained strong democratic traditions. In the first general elections after the independence on 25 October 1992, 56.75% of the total number of voters supported the new constitution. The Lithuanian head of state is the President, elected directly for a five-year term and serving a maximum of two consecutive terms. The post of president is largely ceremonial; main policy functions, however, include foreign affairs and national security. The president is also the commander-in-chief of the military. The President, with the approval of the parliamentary body, the Seimas, also appoints the Prime Minister and, on the latter’s nomination, the rest of the cabinet, as well as a number of other top civil servants and the judges for all courts. The current Lithuanian head of state, Dalia Grybauskaitė was elected on 17 May 2009, becoming the first female President in the country’s history. This marked a dramatic shift in Eastern European politics after its European neighbour, Latvia, elected their first female political leader late in the previous decade. MILITARY The Lithuanian Armed Forces is the name for the unified armed forces of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Armed Forces consist of some 15,000 active personnel, which may be supported by reserve forces. Compulsory conscription ended in 2008 and Lithuania now relies solely on professional armed forces. The Lithuanian Armed Forces currently have deployed personnel on international missions in Afghanistan (over 200), Kosovo (1) and Somalia (1). In 2003, before joining the European Union, Lithuania had the highest economic growth rate amongst all candidate and member countries, reaching 8.8% in the third quarter. In 2004 – 7.4%; 2005 – 7.8%; 2006 – 7.8%; 2007 – 8.9%, 2008 Q1 – 7.0% growth in GDP reflects the impressive economic development and as a result is often termed as a Baltic Tiger. However, 2009 marked a dramatic decline in GDP at -14.74% attributed to overheating of the economy. In 2010, the rate was 1.33%. As of June 2013, the unemployment rate is 10.4%. Lithuania has a flat tax rate rather than a progressive scheme. In 2007, personal income tax was reduced to 24% and a reduction to 21% was made in January 2009. Lithuanian income levels are lower than in the older EU Member States. Structurally, there is a gradual but consistent shift towards a knowledge-based economy with special emphasis on biotechnology (industrial and diagnostic). Also mechatronics and information technology (IT) are seen as prospective knowledge-based economy directions. Among other international companies operating in Lithuania are: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Societe Generale, UniCredit, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Phillip Morris, Kraft Foods, Mars, Marks & Spencer, GlaxoSmithKline, United Colors of Benetton, Deichmann, Statoil, Neste Oil, Lukoil, Tele2, Hesburger and Modern Times Group. TeliaSonera, ICA and Carslberg. The litas, the national currency, has been pegged to the euro since 2 February 2002 at the rate of EUR 1.00 = LTL 3.4528 and Lithuania is expecting to switch to the euro on 1 January 2015. Since the Neolithic period the native inhabitants of the Lithuanian territory have not been replaced by any other ethnic group, so there is a high probability that the inhabitants of present day Lithuania have preserved the genetic composition of their forebears relatively undisturbed by the major demographic movements, although without being actually isolated from them. The Lithuanian population appears to be relatively homogeneous, without apparent genetic differences among ethnic subgroups. According to 2009 estimates, the age structure of the population was as follows: 0–14 years, 14.2% (male 258,423/female 245,115); 15–64 years: 69.6% (male 1,214,743/female 1,261,413); 65 years and over: 16.2% (male 198,714/female 376,771). The median age was 39.3 years (male: 36.8, female: 41.9 The official language is Lithuanian. Other languages, such as Russian, Polish, Belarusian and Ukrainian are spoken in the larger cities. Yiddish is spoken by members of the tiny remaining Jewish community in Lithuania. According to the Lithuanian population census of 2001, about 84% of the country’s population speak Lithuanian as their native language, 8.2% are native speakers of Russian and 5.8% of Polish. More than 60% are fluent in Russian, while only about 16% say they can speak English. Most Lithuanian schools teach English as the first foreign language, but students may also study German, or, in some schools, French or Russian. RELIGION As per the 2001 census, 79% of Lithuanians belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. The Church has been the majority denomination since the Christianisation of Lithuania at the end of the 14th century. Some priests actively led the resistance against the Communist regime (symbolised by the Hill of Crosses). Lithuania was historically home to a significant Jewish community and was an important center of Jewish scholarship and culture from the 18th century, until the community, numbering about 160,000 before World War II, was almost entirely annihilated during the Holocaust. The community numbered about 3,400 at the end of 2010. The World Bank designates the literacy rate of Lithuanian persons aged 15 years and older as 100. As of 2008, 30.4% of the population aged 25 to 64 had completed tertiary education; 60.1% had completed upper secondary and post-secondary (non-tertiary) education. According to Invest in Lithuania, Lithuania has twice as many people with higher education than the EU-15 average and the proportion is the highest in the Baltic. Also, 90% of Lithuanians speak at least one foreign language and half of the population speaks two foreign languages, mostly Russian and English. As with other Baltic nations, in particular Latvia, the large volume of higher education graduates within the country, coupled with the high rate of spoken second languages is contributing to an education brain drain. Many Lithuanians are choosing to emigrate seeking higher earning employment and studies throughout Europe. Since their inclusion into the European Union in 2004, Lithuania’s population has fallen by approximately 180,000 people Basketball is the national sport of Lithuania. The Lithuania national basketball team has had significant success in international basketball events. Having won a total of 9 medals in the EuroBasket, the World Championships and the Olympic Games, it is ranked 5th worldwide in FIBA Rankings. Lithuania has produced a number of NBA players: Arvydas Sabonis, Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Žydrūnas Ilgauskas, Darius Songaila, Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Linas Kleiza and current NBA prospects Donatas Motiejūnas of Houston Rockets and Jonas Valančiūnas of Toronto Raptors. Arvydas Sabonis was the first Lithuanian to be inducted into the prestigious Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. When it comes to non-Olympics sports, Viktorija Čmilytė, the chess player, has grown to fame owing to her Grandmaster and Woman Grandmaster titles. In 2011, Čmilytė has become the champion of the European Woman Chess Championship. Jurgis Kairys, the most renowned Lithuanian aviator, has won the bronze in unlimited freestyle aviation in the 2011 FAI World Aerobatic Championship. The other famous Lithuanian sportsman is Žydrūnas Savickas who is currently nominated as the Strongest Man in the World. Another notable Lithuanian athlete in mixed martial arts is Marius Žaromskis. With the launch of the first indoor ski slope in Baltics Snow Arena the rise of popularity in winter sports is widely expected.
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TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – San Francisco, CA (SFO) –363 miles San Francisco, CA (SFO) – Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) – 5,680 miles TRAINS AND BUSES We rode all over Germany on trains. That was fun. Then we road a bus from Frankfurt’s Main Airport to Frankfurt’s Hahn Airport. Trains – 313 miles Buses – 72 miles AIRPLANE Frankfurt (Hahn), Germany – Kaunas, Lithuania (KUN) – 994 miles RENTAL CAR #2 Kaunas International Airport – trip begins Marijampole, Lithuania Kaunas International Airport – 404 kilometers or about 189 miles AIRPLANE Kaunas, Lithuania (KUN) – Frankfurt (Hahn), Germany – 994 miles BUS Frankfurt (Hahn), Germany – Frankfurt (Main), Germany (FRA) – 72 miles AIRPLANE Frankfurt (Main), Germany (FRA) – San Francisco, CA (SFO) – 5,680 miles San Francisco, CA (SFO) – Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – 363 miles Total air miles – 14,074 (6 flights) Total rental car miles – 189 (1 car) Total train miles – 313 (several trains) Total bus miles – 144 (2 buses) Total miles traveled on this trip – 14,720 miles That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report 
65th Trackchasing Country Naming Contest
LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT LITHUANIA – TRACKCHASING COUNTRY #65?
Ryan Air – love ‘em or hate ‘em…………..more in “Saturday – Day 6”.
Passport control.
One day to get used to each hour of time zone change.
Thanks Jorgen and Donatas.
THE TRANSPORTATION
OVERNIGHT ACCOMMODATIONS
THE RENTAL CAR
My iPhone will suffice on this trip.
Carol and I will be riding the rails, flying the skies and busing ourselves through both Germany and Lithuania.
My “world map” is filling up fast.
These trips take a bit more planning.
Having a “flexibility of mindset” is a valuable asset.
We were getting in the right position to make this adventure happen.
It always helps to get good advice.
Trains.
From the Frankfurt airport we bought train tickets from the DB travel office. This is a booking location that offers travel advice and sells train tickets. To begin the trip I preferred doing business with these folks (for the hand holding) than using the train ticket machines. However, as the trip continued we would use the automated kiosk train ticketing machines several times.
You’ve got to be kidding.
This hobby lets me use my personal creativity.
Walking and more walking.
It’s always fun to talk to these small hotel owners.
This might have been one of our more dangerous activities.
Just an hour or so of rain during the entire trip.
Let’s go riverboat cruising.
Don’t be at the airport when your ship comes in.
Dogs!
We don’t see many Americans on these trips.
Naw! That couldn’t be George Clooney.
We’re headed toward Lithuania now.
Lithuania or bust.
Ryan Air – love ‘em or hate ‘em.
The placard read “Randy Lewis”…that sounds like a V.I.P. to me.
Our car was small, slow and red.
This was an international first.
When was the last time you paid nearly $7.00 U.S. per gallon?
I don’t do paper maps.
Marijampole is not New York City.
I’ve only been able to say this 65 times in my life.
This is the way to see things.
I started my day early, by my standards with a morning exercise powerwalk. Let me give you my definition of powerwalking. I walk as fast as I can without running for a minimum of 45 minutes. Why not just run? My joints won’t take the pounding anymore.
I had never heard of Marijampole.
Finding the track was easy.
Thanks for the help.
Now it was just time to walk around and enjoy.
I had never had hominy grits at a racetrack.
We weren’t done touring today.
We had plenty of time for touring on this trip.
Information is power.
Power equates to good food!
Random or a trend?
We weren’t done touring just yet.
One last shot at shopping.
Where could we eat that would satisfy our international currency needs and medical requirements as well?
Is that a parking ticket?
Just one more chance to beat Ryan Air’s luggage policy.
First come first served does not mean it’s O.K. to cut in line.
When mama’s happy…..
This was convenient.
One last gourmet dinner.
Had we really been gone for ten days?
We were taking the bus home.
Due to the logistics involved we had to switch from the bus to an airplane at some point in this return trip.
Not it’s time to look out the windshield.
In the aftermath of World War I, Lithuania’s Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, declaring the establishment of a sovereign state. Starting in 1940, Lithuania was occupied first by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As World War II neared its end in 1944 and the Germans retreated, the Soviet Union reoccupied Lithuania. On 11 March 1990, a year before formal break-up of the Soviet Union, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare the restoration of independent State of Lithuania.
GEOGRAPHY
Lithuania is located in Northern Europe. It covers an area of 65,200 km. It has around 99 kilometres (61.5 mi) of sandy coastline, of which only about 38 kilometres (24 mi) face the open Baltic Sea and which is the shortest among the Baltic Sea countries; the rest of the coast is sheltered by the Curonian sand peninsula. Its maximum elevation is Aukštojas Hill at 294 metres (965 ft) in the eastern part of the country.
CLIMATE
POLITICS
ECONOMY
DEMOGRAPHICS
ETHNIC GROUPS
Ethnic Lithuanians make up about four-fifths of the country’s population and Lithuania has the most homogenous population in the Baltic States. The population of Lithuania stands at 3,244,600, 83.9% of whom are ethnic Lithuanians who speak Lithuanian, which is the official language of the country. Several sizable minorities exist, such as Poles (6.6%), Russians (5.4%), and Belarusians (1.3%)
LANGUAGE
HEALTH
As of 2012 Lithuanian life expectancy at birth was 70.7 years for males and 80.7 for females, and the infant mortality rate was 6.2 per 1,000 births. The annual population growth rate increased by 0.3% in 2007. At 30.4 people per 100,000, Lithuania has seen a dramatic rise in suicides in the post-Soviet years, and now records the third highest suicide rate in the world. Lithuania also has the highest homicide rate in the EU.
EDUCATION
By constitutional mandate, ten years of formal enrollment in an educational institution is mandatory, ending at age 16. 26 percent of the 1999 state budget was allocated to education expenses Primary and secondary schools receive funding from the state via their municipal or county administrations. The Constitution of Lithuania guarantees tuition-free attendance at public institutions of higher education for students deemed ‘good’; the number of such students has varied over the past decade, with 68 percent exempted from tuition fees in 2002.
SPORTS