We left our little piece of seclusion, but not before photographing our shy little van, and a bumblebee and a ladybug having a meeting on a thistle, and one of those little wooden shrines right beside our parking area.
You meet some big brutes on the highway — and slow!
We were thinking "Where did he come from?"
... and then we looked to our right!
We then drove through Vilnius, intending to go to a couple of points a little to the north. One is the supposed Geographical Centre of Europe. This was announced by a group of French scientists in 1989 to be at N 54° 54', E 25° 19', which puts it about 26km north of Vilnius, in Bernotai (aka Purnuškės). Okay, this point is a moveable feast, as different countries join the European Union — and it was calculated without taking due notice of Malta, so they're about 100 metres out if you accept their calculations. Well, Lithuania does — but a lot of other countries also claim the geographical midpoint. Nevertheless, it's sufficiently quirky for us to want to visit. On the way up to it, Suzie commented that her brother Clyde wouldn't much like it here — she had seen no golf courses as we came through. Guess what — the 'Geographical Centre of Europe' is slap bang in the middle of a golf course, very near the seventh tee!
On 1 May 2004, when Lithuania officially entered the European Union, the Lithuanian sculptor Gediminas Jokubonis, unveiled his star-capped white granite column on this site.
As we were leaving, a funny yellow bus came down the hill from the restaurant — it was loaded with a wedding party out to have fun while getting photographs taken.
After being dead centre, we had heard of another site, only about 10 kilometres away (along a very rough, dusty dirt track for a couple of those kilometres), set up in 1991 by a Lithuanian sculptor, Gintaras Karosas, to 'give an artistic significance to the geographical centre of the European continent'. Europos Parkas is 55 hectares of open parkland in which are displayed over 100 works by artists from 34 countries. To be perfectly honest, we were somewhat underwhelmed by most of the sculptures, although a few were worth noting. Warren has a strange habit of taking some of his best photos when he is not particularly enthused by the subject material — and his photos here were surprisingly good! Probably the problem was that virtually the first sculpture we saw was 'LNK Infotree' by Karosas, which is 'acknowledged by Guinness World Records [as] the world's largest artwork of TV sets'. When first set up, it might have had merit, but today it is a sadly mouldering shadow of its former self, full of spiders' webs and with weeds growing up through it. The fallen statue of Lenin within it, politically significant at the time, is no longer even recognisable, having crumbled amongst the weeds. Most of the TV sets have disappeared, and their previous existence is only marked by a low metal railing outlining where the maze used to be. And this is our overall impression of the park's exhibits — many of them lack the most basic of maintenance!
Some of the sculptures are clever, quirky, even brilliant and inspired. There is a grouping of roofed firewood stacks set up by Karosas near the restaurant, obviously used for burning, which is entitled 'Continuously Changing'. Another is of a young girl holding a balloon above her head, with her pigtail sticking to the balloon, by Evaldas Pauza, and titled 'Electricity'. And there is a small statue of a seated naked old man, with a very long pointed nose — 'Pinocchio', also by Pauza.
'With moustaches' by Evaldas Pauza
'The Place' by Gintaras Karosas
'Drinking Structure with Exposed Kidney Pool'
by Dennis Oppenheim
'Chair Pool' by Dennis Oppenheim
'Sitting Policeman' by Evaldas Pauza
'Point of Ambivalence' by Ales Vesely
'Small Monument for Humanity' by Adri A.C. de Fluiter
'Requiem for a Dead Pony' by Laurent Mellet
'Catch the Wind' by Strijdom van der Merwe
One of those ridiculously-stretched limos at the gates
of Europos Parkas, having real difficulty manoeuvring ...
or perhaps it was applying to become an exhibit?
We left and went back to the highway to go to a parking spot we had noticed on the way, only to find it inhabited by a rather disreputable drunk! So we decided to make for Camping Vilnius, not far from the old city. A good choice — it was well set up, comfortable, with good internet. We weren't going to stay beyond the morning, because most of the on-street parking in Vilnius is free on Sundays.
More dust on the way out!
The best art-work we saw all day!
More dust on the way out!
The best art-work we saw all day!
Distance driven — today, 133 miles ( 214 km ); to date, 25,412 miles ( 40,897 km )
You are very good at finding places of interest .. I guess lots of tourists and locals would have visited the sculptures when they were first placed in the flush of enthusiasm for the European Union. How quickly the world changes, and not always for the better. Is it still hot? Your campground looks cool and inviting.
ReplyDeleteThink we've beaten the heat -- the temperature in Vilius was getting up to around 26 degrees -- which the locals might think of as a heat wave!
ReplyDeleteI liked the catching the wind leaves very much and also the statue of Pinnochio as an old man, sans clothing, and the toddler with ice cream. Your camp site looked good-loved the washing lines! 26 is a liveable temperature. It is in the mid to low teens here at present and the wood fire and warm jackets are the way to go! Also the swimming pool, filthy though it is is absolutely chockkers with all the rain we've had. The latest term for the EU is GREXIT!. Shocking, but understandable on everything b ut humanitarian grounds-even the refugees are thinking of exiting back to LIBYA so it must be bad! Tony Abbott goes on with his foot in mouth statements. It's time they replaced the poor devil I think.Lotsa love Cathy J
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