Then we went from Kaunas to our last destination in Lithuania- the capital Vilnius. This time we went by train, which was also a pleasant experience. The trip takes about 2 hours and we paid only 12,40€ in total!
In the capital Vilnius
In Vilnius blieben wir insgesamt drei Nächte. Tomek hatte uns ein sehr schön eingerichtetes und richtig gemütliches kleines Apartment (Werbung) in der Altstadt herausgesucht, was wir auch direkt nach Ankunft schon beziehen konnten,. Gerne empfehlen wir es weiter und machen hiermit Werbung dafür. Schon unser erster Eindruck der Stadt war super, wir spazierten durch die alten Gassen, vorbei an der alten Stadtmauer und gingen spontan in ein Museum dazu.
Vilnius has many old churches, which were used differently in Soviet times (as storage hall for example) but fortunately are still preserved today. Especially beautiful was the Cathedral Square, Gediminas Tower and the view of Vilnius from the Hill of Three Crosses! Interesting is also the artists' quarter Uzupis, which declared its independence and even established its own constitution. This is where the alternatives live (and those who want to become alternatives) They all live on the other side of the river.
Excursions around the capital
From Vilnius, after a short trip with the train, you can visit Paneriai Memorial , which shows a scary place during the Nazi era. There is a small museum, but unfortunately it was closed. Otherwise there are many memorial stones. It was already a very oppressive feeling at this place, where the Nazis killed a total of 100,000 people in the forests around Paneriai during World War II. As we could read later, most of them were Jews from the ghetto in Vilnius.
We spent a good hour at the Paneriai Memorial. Afterwards we took the train to the Water castle in Trakai During the waiting time we could observe that almost all locals use the direct way over the rails instead of the built overpass. No matter how old or frail they were, they still climbed over the tracks very slowly.
The water castle in Trakai was a very nice experience for us. But there it was also much more touristy and we read that this is the most visited place in Lithuania. Nevertheless we found a quiet place for us and had a great day.
There is certainly still a lot to see in Vilnius - e.g. the KGB Museum or the oldest city Kernave, where archaeological excavations can be admired. Both were unfortunately closed during our stay.
Vilnius was our last stop in Lithuania and we went on to Latvia.
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