Today we had a plan, and like all good plans it was subject to numerous changes at the last minute.
Stage 1 of The Plan was to drive about 30 kms west of Vilnius to visit Trakai, which is situated on a narrow strip of land between two lakes. We missed a turn on our planned route via the A16, but we managed to find our way there anyway.
Trakai is a very picturesque little town with a red brick castle set on an island in the lake. It was the base for the local royals in the 14th century. We walked out to the castle – reached via two bridges and a small island – and walked around it after having a look at the courtyard inside. Afterwards we went for short walk around the lake and crossed a pontoon footbridge.
We didn’t linger too long because The Plan was to make it to Daugavpils in Latvia, north east of Vilnius, by tonight. With that in mind we got directions for the necessary cross-country drive to get us from west of Vilnius onto the A2 heading north from Vilnius. However, along the way Laura decided she was keen to see the lakes in the Aukstaitija National Park near Ignalina, and see the decommissioned Chernobyl style nuclear reactor near Visaginas, both of which were actually north east of Vilnius
Therefore we continued on east past the A2 when Laura realised this took us close to Kernave, which was made a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 2004. This status was granted as a result of the evidence of settlements here going back over 2,000 years. It is also thought to be where the first king to unite Lithuania was coronated in 1253. It was a pretty little place with a number of huge archaeological mounds situated in a bend in the river. Nice as it was we wouldn’t necessarily call it a “must see” as the guide book does.
From there we realised that the route The Plan required would take us close to Europos Centras, the point which has been designated (controversially) as the centre of Europe by the French National Geographical Institute. We were interested to visit this to work out how the centre of Europe could be so far north. Having seen it we are still not sure, I will have to sit down with an atlas later and check the four points it is based on.
Before we left there Laura realised that the open air sculpture museum Europas Parkas was not far away – albeit back closer to Vilnius – and she was keen to see a maze made of thousands of old TVs with a fallen statue of Lenin in the middle. So we altered The Plan and back we went on a little side trip that involved some minor roads and one that was in the middle of a significant upgrade. When we finally made it we were not impressed that this museum – which would be almost impossible to reach without a car – on top of a steep entry fee wanted to charge extra for parking once you got there, as well as extra to take in a camera. Since we did not have a lot of Lithuanian money left – and didn’t want to get any more, I reduced our entry fee by driving the car back out of the car park and leaving it by the side of the road a couple of hundred metres around the corner.
However after all the effort to get there, and get in, we discovered that the “feature” TV maze we had come to see (and which was still mentioned in the current “Vilnius Today” handbook) had actually been almost completely dismantled in 2007 due to vandalism and the TVs rotting in the outdoors. All that remained was a metal railing outlining the original maze and a small section of four TV tall walls protected by a Perspex cover. Even the fallen Lenin statue that had been described as being in the middle had been cut in two with the head removed from the top section. MAJOR disappointment! We had a brief look at some of the other sculptures, particularly one labelled “Carousel” that you could attempt to run around like a hamster in a wheel, but felt that the whole experience was a bit of a letdown.
Of course by now it was getting quite late, so we had to abandon The Plan of visiting the lakes and the old nuclear power station and just drive straight, via Utena and Zarasai, to Daugavpils in Latvia. We put our last few Litas into petrol tank at Utena.
Finding somewhere to stay in Daugavpils proved to be an even more difficult navigational exercise that Vilnius. Laura actually did a pretty remarkable job of directing us to our first choice of lodging, given our fairly rudimentary map. Unfortunately they were closed for the season so our only remaining option was the big expensive hotel in the centre of town. Since that wasn’t too far away you’d think it wouldn’t be too hard to find. But throw in some one-way streets, street closures, and the Baltic tendency to have either no street names at intersections or street name signs in about an 8 point font, then even finding a 10 story hotel in the centre of a modest sized town can be harder than you’d expect. However find it we did eventually, after a little tour of some of the outlying Soviet style suburbs. In one final attempt at frugality we asked them if there were any cheaper hotels in town and they gave us directions to one (and a map!) but it was already fully booked so we bowed to the inevitable and returned to check in.
The smoky smell in the lobby had us worried but the room was large and well-furnished and the beds had wonderful thick mattresses that were more comfortable that some others we have slept on recently.
Stage 1 of The Plan was to drive about 30 kms west of Vilnius to visit Trakai, which is situated on a narrow strip of land between two lakes. We missed a turn on our planned route via the A16, but we managed to find our way there anyway.
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| The castle at Trakai |
We didn’t linger too long because The Plan was to make it to Daugavpils in Latvia, north east of Vilnius, by tonight. With that in mind we got directions for the necessary cross-country drive to get us from west of Vilnius onto the A2 heading north from Vilnius. However, along the way Laura decided she was keen to see the lakes in the Aukstaitija National Park near Ignalina, and see the decommissioned Chernobyl style nuclear reactor near Visaginas, both of which were actually north east of Vilnius
Therefore we continued on east past the A2 when Laura realised this took us close to Kernave, which was made a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 2004. This status was granted as a result of the evidence of settlements here going back over 2,000 years. It is also thought to be where the first king to unite Lithuania was coronated in 1253. It was a pretty little place with a number of huge archaeological mounds situated in a bend in the river. Nice as it was we wouldn’t necessarily call it a “must see” as the guide book does.
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| Europe's centre |
Before we left there Laura realised that the open air sculpture museum Europas Parkas was not far away – albeit back closer to Vilnius – and she was keen to see a maze made of thousands of old TVs with a fallen statue of Lenin in the middle. So we altered The Plan and back we went on a little side trip that involved some minor roads and one that was in the middle of a significant upgrade. When we finally made it we were not impressed that this museum – which would be almost impossible to reach without a car – on top of a steep entry fee wanted to charge extra for parking once you got there, as well as extra to take in a camera. Since we did not have a lot of Lithuanian money left – and didn’t want to get any more, I reduced our entry fee by driving the car back out of the car park and leaving it by the side of the road a couple of hundred metres around the corner.
However after all the effort to get there, and get in, we discovered that the “feature” TV maze we had come to see (and which was still mentioned in the current “Vilnius Today” handbook) had actually been almost completely dismantled in 2007 due to vandalism and the TVs rotting in the outdoors. All that remained was a metal railing outlining the original maze and a small section of four TV tall walls protected by a Perspex cover. Even the fallen Lenin statue that had been described as being in the middle had been cut in two with the head removed from the top section. MAJOR disappointment! We had a brief look at some of the other sculptures, particularly one labelled “Carousel” that you could attempt to run around like a hamster in a wheel, but felt that the whole experience was a bit of a letdown.
Of course by now it was getting quite late, so we had to abandon The Plan of visiting the lakes and the old nuclear power station and just drive straight, via Utena and Zarasai, to Daugavpils in Latvia. We put our last few Litas into petrol tank at Utena.
Finding somewhere to stay in Daugavpils proved to be an even more difficult navigational exercise that Vilnius. Laura actually did a pretty remarkable job of directing us to our first choice of lodging, given our fairly rudimentary map. Unfortunately they were closed for the season so our only remaining option was the big expensive hotel in the centre of town. Since that wasn’t too far away you’d think it wouldn’t be too hard to find. But throw in some one-way streets, street closures, and the Baltic tendency to have either no street names at intersections or street name signs in about an 8 point font, then even finding a 10 story hotel in the centre of a modest sized town can be harder than you’d expect. However find it we did eventually, after a little tour of some of the outlying Soviet style suburbs. In one final attempt at frugality we asked them if there were any cheaper hotels in town and they gave us directions to one (and a map!) but it was already fully booked so we bowed to the inevitable and returned to check in.
The smoky smell in the lobby had us worried but the room was large and well-furnished and the beds had wonderful thick mattresses that were more comfortable that some others we have slept on recently.
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