Category: Lithuania

We were off early for our 200 kilometer jump down to Kaunas. Kaunas was a city I was interested in as I like to compare the second cities in countries to the capitols.

The bus ride into the center was quick, easy and cheap. The walk to the market square was short and we arrived at the city cathedral as mass was on. When we first arrive in a city I always pick the main cathedral as our starting point figuring it is usually close to the geographical center of the old city. They had the doors open so we could see inside. Ton snapped a quick picture from the door which turned out nice.

We took a quick turn around the market square and headed to what is touted as the longest pedestrian mall in northern Europe. It is 1.5 kilometers long. We walked it from end to end, the end closest to the market square is busy and full of restaurants and shops, the last 500 meters is a little quiet.

We stopped and had a beer at a local pub, and then decided to head back. Our beer stock has dwindled to one beer, so our plan was to stop in a grocery store on our way and pick up some samples of Lithuanian beer we had liked. After our swing thru the store we had 6 cans of beer and a couple of food items. Self check out is the rule here in the groceries. It is not hard as usually you can switch the screens to English, but in this case I didn’t see the button until too late. When we scanned the first can of beer an alarm went off and we got a screen full of words we couldn’t read. The clerk monitoring the self check out came over and hit us with a long blast of Lithuanian that of course we didn’t understand any more than the screen. Seeing our confusion, she then asked all of the other patrons checking out if any of them spoke English. The lady at the next check out looked over and said “You can’t buy alcohol after 3pm on Sundays in groceries.” I checked my watch and it was 3:30. She then said “If you want a beer you will have to go to a bar and buy an expensive beer!” Ton and I laughed and thanked her and apologized to the clerk for the trouble, and we left with our food. We will split our one beer and buy some Polish beer tomorrow.

Kaunas is a nice city, but the center of the city does feel like the second city of Latvia. There is less going on than in Vilnius. Having said that Lithuania is the most laid back and quietest of the three Baltic States to us. Nothing ever feels hectic or overly busy which can be very nice.

Our stay in luxury ended this morning. We woke up a bit early and headed down to our breakfast buffet before leaving for the train station to head back to François. After the hustle and bustle of Poland, Lithuania feels very quiet. As we were walking down one of the main roads in the capital we were once again struck by how little traffic there was. The train station was also pretty laid back, we had our tickets including a 70% discount for one of us for being over 70 and still had time to explore the station for 30 minutes before departing.

One of the services at our campground was a lift to and from the local train station. We sent Trena a message on WhatsApp and she told us that Laura would pick us up. It turns out Laura is Trena’s niece who recently returned to Lithuania after living in Scotland for 14 years. She moved to Scotland right after graduating from university, but she told us that despite the people in Scotland being really nice, she just did not feel like it was home. She said that she was surprised we chose Lithuania as a tourist destination as while it was home it was not that interesting in her opinion. When I told her that all of our friends who have visited here loved it, she told us she had goose bumps and that we had made her day.

Laura told us that Trena was at church, and then was going to vote in an election so we would have the place to ourselves for a while. We did not mind as this place is really quiet, peaceful, and luxurious. The two dogs came and gave us the once over, before sitting down and asking to be petted. We settled in for a quiet afternoon listening to the cuckoo birds. I even took advantage of the television in the log cabin to watch some German soccer. Later in the day we were joined by a Swiss camper so we now have some neighbors to share the beauty with.

I can tell when Ton really likes a city, and she likes Vilnius. After yesterday she spent some more time reading about the city and this morning she handed me a long list of additional places she wanted to go to today. As the day went on I had to watch her as she was really absorbed in taking pictures and if I didn’t keep an eye on her I would lose her. Finally during the course of the day we walked over 6 miles and she never said a word about the distance. Today was a good day for her and for me.

The first place on our list was St. Annes Church. Vilnius has 28 major churches in the old town, but St. Annes is considered the most beautiful. Napoleon was supposed to have said while invading Lithuania in 1812 he would like to take this church back to France with him. Instead he used it as an ammunition depot and prison causing significant destruction to the interior.

The interior is interesting as it has two chapels, the small one faces the street, and the main chapel is entered from a courtyard. They are both pretty. All of the woodwork that made up the altar, nave, and confessionals were taken out by the communists, and the wall of the church were painted over. Fortunately, most of the woodwork was still in Lithuania after they gained their independence so the church has been pretty well restored. They are currently working on restoring the paintings on the walls.

The next stop on the list was the Gate of Dawn. This is the surviving city gates from the walls that used to surround the old town. It is famous for a statue of Mary which is now enclosed in glass. On our walk there Ton was taking many pictures and she remarked to me that it is nearly impossible to take a picture in Vilnius without having a church in it. She told me that it reminded of her hometown with Buddhist temples replacing the churches. Another plus for Vilnius.

As we were crisscrossing the town we came across a section of street with hundreds of small pieces of art attached to the walls along the street. This street is called Literati Street, and the section covered in art was done in the late 1990’s by over 100 Lithuanian artists, to honor over 100 Lithuanian writers. The art is inspired by the writing of the authors.

Ton wanted to return to the Uzupio Republic for some more pictures after we visited the Gate of Dawn. When I looked at the map I realized that the Republic was only a couple of hundred yards from St. Annes Church where we had started the day, but was nearly a mile from where we were. Fortunately Google picked a different route going back and she was so absorbed taking pictures that she didn’t notice we were back tracking.

We found some new areas to explore in the Republic, but after covering a few miles we decided to take a break. We picked a restaurant near the river. I ordered an excellent Lithuanian Dark Beer, and Ton had cold beet root soup which is a national staple of Lithuania. I was skeptical as I like neither cold soups or beets, but when it came I was pleasantly surprised how good it was. I also confessed that we were almost back to St. Annes and pointed it out to her.

Our last stop was near the market from yesterday to look at one of the huge street art pieces that Vilnius is proud of. When I put the address in we didn’t realize it was across from the market we had lunch in yesterday until we arrived. We hadn’t noticed it yesterday because of the rain, and it is 3 stories tall.

We headed back to the hotel for a break. While I was resting Ton picked out another Lithuanian restaurant for us to try. She particularly wanted to get a potato dumpling dish that is called Zeppelin by the Lithuanians, because it looks like a Zeppelin. When we received the menu the listing for the Zeppelin said large portion, and they were not kidding. One Zeppelin, and a potato pancake had us both stuffed for the night.

We had a great day wandering inefficiently thru Vilnius.

We received a notice that if we did not use the points on one of my hotel accounts soon we would lose them so we are in Vilnius in a nice comfortable hotel. The other reason we are here is the weather continues to be poor. Today it rained most of the day, and the low overnight is supposed to be around 30. So we left François at the campground with the heat set at the lowest setting in case it freezes and headed into Vilnius.

After a short ride on an old train from the day when Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union we arrived at our modern hotel. It was before noon so we dropped our bags at the hotel and headed into town for a late breakfast/early lunch. The rain was coming down steadily and the temperatures are in the 50’s so the few people on the streets were just as bundled up and miserable looking as us. When we turned the corner we saw what looked like the town market hall so we headed into there to see if we could find some food.

Ton happily explored the market looking at all of the vegetable stalls, and admiring the various pickled vegetables on offer as this is a specialty in Lithuania. We found an interesting restaurant that offered traditional Lithuanian food and Thai food together. We asked the owner about this unusual combination and she replied that Thai food is easy and I like it. We opted for her traditional Lithuanian food and we enjoyed it.

Our next stop was the Uzupio Republic. It is a section of town across the river from the old town that as a joke on one April fools day declared itself an independent republic from the rest of Lithuania complete with a constitution, and currency that can only be used on April 1st to buy beer. The constitution includes a clause that says “Cats don’t have to like their owners, but they do have to be useful.”

Ton likes quirky stories like this so we spent about an hour in the Republic including a stop for a coffee and a shared piece of cake that looked like a strawberry tort, but was something else completely.

We headed back to claim our room and take a break from the rain. After a couple of hours we headed out for a beer and a dinner. The rain had stopped and the sun came out. Without the rain the walk was fun, and more people were out and about and didn’t look miserable. We found a nice brewery that was packed with locals, we split a dinner which was plenty for the both of us. By now the sky was blue and we took an evening stroll, stopping for one more beer in the Glass Quarter before returning to the hotel at the very late hour (for us) of 9pm.

We always intended this trip to be a combination of Poland and the three Baltic States. In Warsaw we had to make a decision whether to head west and finish Poland, or head north to the Baltic States. Once again we are starting to feel a little time pressure. While we don’t regret the extra week we spent in the Krakow area it has put a little strain on our plans. In the end we decided to head north to the Baltic States as we think we can hit the places we want to visit in western Poland on our way back to Amsterdam.

The drive north from Elk was uneventful on a nice brand new freeway in Poland. When we hit the Lithuanian border the freeway ended and the road became rougher. The last 100 kilometers were on back roads in Lithuania. We haven’t been on back roads much this trip, and we realized that you see a much different view of a country from back roads than you do from freeways or autobahns. The villages here looked very quiet, and the roads were very lightly traveled. It became clear that the roads between villages were funded differently than the roads in villages and towns. Between towns the roads were well paved and generally pretty new, once you passed into a town or village the pavement was much older, heavily patched, and a little narrower.

The camping infrastructure in Lithuania is sparse. There are no campgrounds in Vilnius. I picked out a place about 40 kilometers from Vilnius based on the reviews. What a find! When we pulled in we were the only customers on an incredibly well manicured place with a beautiful log cabin. I got out and tracked down the owner who was busy with a grass trimmer. She welcomed us with a mixture of Lithuanian and Dutch with an occasional English word thrown in, but she did a good job of making herself understood. She is probably in her 70’s and recently widowed, she speaks Dutch because her husband was Dutch and founded the campground. She showed us around, opened up the beautiful cabin with a kitchen, dining room and sitting area and told us to make ourselves welcome. She then built a fire in the wood stove to make sure we were comfortable. We were wowed by the welcome and the service. We really wish we had a common language so we could express how incredibly impressed we are with this place and her help. What a great introduction to Lithuania.