Circumnavigation of the Baltic 3

There was a fantastic sunset over Lake Snyardwy, we took a load of photos and thought how lucky we are to be able  to travel and see such wonderful sights. We slept very well (I always do) and was up at 06:00, I went  up to the showers and had to let them run a good while as no one had been in that morning yet, and as we were the only ones on the site no one else would be running the hot water. But it eventually warmed up and I was showered and ready for the days. We got everything ready Linda went to pay the Bill and thank the lady for such a wonderful site. So it was along the windy road and onto the 16, into town, filled the van up with Diesel and headed of once again through wonderful scenic countryside, this part of Poland is very rural and the only industry is in a few larger towns and the construction work being done on the 16, this is a main route to and from the Baltic states and it is being widened along all of its length. We passed through Augustow and then over the border into Lithuania

and arrived at our campsite on Lake Lampedis, it is just a small site but has all amenities and also a good WiFi.

The trolley bus stop was just across the road and for the princely sum of 0.70€ you could ride into town. We decided we would visit the old part of the city that had been renovated; we visited the old castle perched above the intersection of two rivers the Neris and Nemunas. It must have been a magnificent fortification in its heyday, though the Teutonic Knights twice raised it to the ground. Napoleon also paid Kaunas a visit on his way to and from Russia, it was destroyed on both occasions.

The city was taken over first by the Russians after the First World War then the Poles in 1920, after the Second World War, Lithuania like the other two Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia became part of the USSR and thus the city and its population suffered abysmally under the Soviet system. Since 1991, when it once again gained its independence, it is making great advances both in its industries, infrastructure and renovation programmes, all this with the support of the EU.

Though not warm it was dry so we wandered the streets visiting a few Churches, one in particular bears mention, this is the Church of St George, it is being renovated, it is in a rather desolate state of disrepair, but they are slowly getting done what they can, while we were there restoration work was being done on two of the wall frescos. The church had in the past been famous for its 16 Altars, some of these have been restored and others in the process.

We went to the main Town Hall Square (Rotuses Plas), the newly renovated town hall is now a museum.

We decided to have a spot of late lunch, so popped into a restaurant for lunch, it was a very fine restaurant serving tradition Lithuania fare.

It all looked quite inviting and the menu’s had photographs of the food to help those (us) who spoke no Lithuanian. Linda ordered stuffed potato dumplings, I ordered a single potato dumpling (called zeppelins)and fried sliced black pudding with sour cream and a pot of pork crackling. It was a monstrous portion and was far beyond my capabilities. We had a couple of local beers, mine dark and Linda’s blond to wash it down with. The whole shooting match was 17.4€ well worth it.


Leaving the square we walked to the river and along the river bank watching the swallows and swifts darting and dipping above the river catching silk wings. A Great Crested Grebe was trying its luck catching fish and Wagtails busied themselves on the banks. We stopped to take some photographs of the Funicular, this is a set of cable cars that takes you (but not us) up to the hills and the church of Christs Resurrection.

All of a sudden it came over rather dark; well it was a little more than dark it was pitch black. We decided to make bee line for the nearest pub (Kaunas has no shortage of them), I needed the loo and we both fancied a coffee. When we came out, the darkness had passed so we made our way to the Trolley Bus (Route 7) and just before we got off at our stop it happened, what had been threatening all afternoon, the heavens opened. It was only about 50 metres but we still got soaked. What made it worse when we tried to get TV I discovered that I had stupidly parked right under a large tree, consequently no Sat connection. Never mind I finished writing this, Linda got some of her e-mailing done and we had some nice pea and ham soup (ALDI). Tomorrow it’s off to the coast again and Klaipeda, hopefully the weather is a little better, but if not no doubt we shall find something to keep us out of mischief.