May 2023.
Back in Kaunas I kindly let Mrs RM catch the bus from the station back towards the Old Town, where we had a rather austere and old-fashioned tea in Kauno Bokštas near the Millers Turret.
I presume that’s “Mothers Meatballs“, about £8, and like everything we had in the Baltics good quality and freshly cooked.
I had a glass of something Lithuanian and hazy and strong and got gently reprimanded for approaching the bar to see what it was.
I also got reprimanded by Mrs RM for not straightening up the teddies before I took this shot,
as she cruelly compared my efforts to the one taken by John B White.
Never trust anyone with an initial as a middle name, that’s my advice.
Mrs RM was, frankly, whacked by 5pm and retired to contemplate her own blog layout while I set off, alone, to explore the Liberty Boulevard.
Laisvės Alėja is a pedestrianised mile that complements the Old Town to the west, and cements Kaunas’s reputation as one of the loveliest cities in Europe.
A mile of tulips, Art Deco,
oddness,
water features,
all the cultural stuff, AND a Soviet doughnut cafe (calm down, calm down).
A spotlessly clean boulevard, due in large part to a lack of takeaways, a feature of the Baltics.
And at the eastern end, facing St Michael the Archangel, is Genys Taproom.
Well, one of them, anyway.
You don’t see many well-known beer names in the Baltic, but the same craft names pop up in the craft bars, and Genys seems to have a little empire in Lithuania.
Oh look, even a collaboration with our Labietis friends.
Now, I’ve said that the service in the Baltics was often efficient rather than effusive, but in Genys the nice lady wanted to chat about Greenwich where she’d studied, and I felt awful telling her how great I thought Kaunas was when she said that she’d been forced to leave London by Covid.
So engaging was she that I picked the 9.2% Baltic Porter by accident.
A very happy accident, it was rich and gorgeous, but a mistake nonetheless.
After all, I had to stay up till midnight to see the UK win Eurovision.
retiredmartin 
Interesting how often you were reprimanded by staff on this trip. I’ve had that happen in German pubs where they don’t really like you walking where staff may be filling orders. We’re too curious.
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I guess they like you sitting down, or think you want something. Staring at pumps or pictures is odd.
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That’s what happens when the teddies fail to resist the 9.2% Baltic Porter.
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Baa Baa Toure would have held his drink better than that, Mike.
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People with an initial for a first name but a full middle name are fine on the other hand – like T. Dan Smith.
You can think of others.
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Yeah right
signed
William S Jones
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Yes indeed Bill, I seem to remember one of our PMs once trusted someone with “W” as a middle name, and look where that got the world…
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