LITHUANIA - The Final Day in Vilnius

My final day in Vilnius brought another morning of crisp cold air and cloudless blue sky. So I started by climbing up the cathedral bell tower, followed by a stroll around the city centre.

 

Looking down on the cathedral (through the pigeon protection!)

Vilnius's Main Street

The Palace of the Dukes of Lithuania - Now the State Museum

The Palace of the Dukes of Lithuania

The Presidential Palace

Then this afternoon it was a short trip on another of those Polish built railcars to the airport for my flight back to London.

Some things to finish off with. 

If you were wondering how much all those contactless metro journeys were in Kyiv, the charges have started arriving on my statement and they were 26p each - bargain!

Secondly don't forget that we are all Orthodox now, so it's Christmas again next Tuesday!

Lastly my next adventure is only 4 weeks away as I am flying to Mexico on January 30th - see you all there!

LITHUANIA - Trakai

For an excursion from Vilnius and a ride on a Lithuanian train, I have today paid a visit to the town of Trakai.

The trains in Lithuania are not over frequent so you do have to plan your trip but it is just a 30 minute ride from Vilnius and the cost was only €1.80 each way. The train was a nice modern electric double decker. Lithuanian railways being built to the Russian track gauge and loading gauge (holes in the bridges), which are both considerably bigger than in the  UK, means the train appears to be massive.

The reason that I and many others have come to Trakai is to see the castle. The town is built on the shore and islands of a series of lakes and the castle is on one of those islands. Now lets be honest - an overcast January day with an icy breeze blowing across the lakes is not necessarily the best time to visit. But having seen all the tourist infrastructure here, I would bet that being here in high summer with hordes of people is not going to be great either! This is one of Lithuania's most visited sites.

The railway station is at one end of the town and a little way out from the action but there is a path that follows the lake shore that will take you to the heart of things in about half an hour.

The architecture here is distinctly Scandinavian in style.

The castle is a red brick, reconstruction of one built around 1400 and the inside is a museum housing things you would expect - armour and weapons - and things you wouldn't - Meissen, Sevres and Wedgewood porcelain. All in all a very nice if chilly day.

 

LITHUANIA - Happy New Year

A new year, a new decade and a new country - welcome to Lithuania!

I'm back in the EU, things are a bit more expensive but being in a Baltic state, fish has returned to my diet, roll mops and smoked salmon are available at breakfast and best of all - no beetroot - what is it with Eastern Europe and beetroot?

It's a proper public holiday here - the shops are closed - and instead everyone is out enjoying themselves.

The major thing to see in Vilnius is the cathedral, not the riot of golden onion domes we have been used to in Kyiv, not the stone towers and spires from further south, no this one is in the classical style following a reconstruction in the late 1700's.  The detached bell tower was not open today but I hope to climb it later in the trip.

Overlooking the cathedral and indeed the city is the Gediminas Hill on which stands the 48 metre high Gediminas Tower. There is a small museum inside - suits of armour, crossbows that sort of thing - but the main purpose of climbing up there is for the views of the city

The palace of the Grand Dukes (now a museum) with the cathedral behind

Vilnius has a UNESCO listed old town full of cobbled streets and alleyways that is very pleasant to walk round on a cold day in the bright low Northern European sun. I thought the igloo things were a very good alternative to the traditional wooden huts we have for a Christmas market.

King Mindaugas founder of Lithuania

Something I noticed in a bureau de change window was that they will accept Scottish banknotes here, but don't tell Nicola Sturgeon that the exchange rate is worse than you get for English ones!

The other thing I have found out - after trying to buy mulled wine today and then resorting to Google - is that the Lithuanians drink more alcohol than any other nation in Europe and apparently it's a quite a problem. Really? I thought the Scots had that record - sorry Janice! As a result the drink laws here over the past few years have been severely tightened. The minimum age for alcohol consumption is now 20, shops can't sell alcohol after 8pm and so I've been told today, a law came in a midnight which as one of its consequences banned the sale of mulled wine in the Chrismas market. Best go back to Kyiv then!