Day 3: Vilnius and Trakai

It was another wonderfully sunny day when we woke up in Vilnius this morning. Our main aim for the day was to visit the town of Trakai, which is located slightly outside of the capital and is home to a beautiful castle on a lake. The trains to Trakai run quite infrequently though, with one departing around 7am and the next not being until 12.32. We definitely didn't want to be up early enough for the 7am one, so we had decided to spend the morning in Vilnius and travel to Trakai on the 12.32.

We started our morning exploration of Vilnius from the Gate of Dawn,  which is one of the old entrances into the city walls. As you enter the city, the gate looks quite plain...

...but once you've passed through it, the other side is very elaborate.

From there we walked down one of the main streets in the city...

...past Vilnius's Orthodox church.

There were lots of beautiful buildings...

...including, of course, lots of churches.

We were soon at the square with the Town Hall...

...and from there it wasn't far until we could see Gediminas tower on the horizon again.

We spent some time admiring the cathedral square again...

...before setting off on a path towards the side of the square, which we hoped would lead us towards the three crosses on the hill above the town. We crossed the river and soon found the tarmac road leading up the hill which we had discovered on our previous visit.

It was a bit of a tiring climb up, but soon we were there.

These crosses used to be a landmark of Vilnius until they were bulldozed during the Soviet occupation.  They were reinstated after Lithuania became independent again.

From the hill there is also an amazing view out over Vilnius.

It was about 11am by this point so we decided to climb back down the hill to the cathedral square and begin the walk back to our apartment to check out.

We made it back and collected our stuff in good time, with plenty of time to put our bags in a locker at the station and buy tickets to Trakai. The tickets cost an amazing €1.80 each, which wasn't bad for a train journey of over 30 minutes

We got off the train in Trakai not long after 1pm and only had to walk a few hundred metres from the train station before we got our first view of one of Trakai's lakes.

The castle is located about 2.5km from the train station and there are two ways of getting there; along the main road of the town or via a path around the lake. We decided to choose the lakeside path.

It was really peaceful walking around the lake, and nice and shady too

There was plenty of wildlife too; we saw swans, ducks and a little family of coots.

Eventually we came to a bridge over part of the lake and decided to cross.

It was a good decision, because from halfway across the bridge we got our first glimpse of the island castle.

It was still quite far away, but we could just make out some of the turrets

After exploring the lakeside a bit more, we eventually came to the bridge which leads across to the castle.

The castle at Trakai was originally built in the fifteenth century as part of the defences of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

It fell into disrepair in the seventeenth century, before being restored during the twentieth.

It cost €7 each to get inside, plus an extra €1.50 to be allowed to take photos, but when you've come all this way it seems like a price worth paying.

Once we'd bought our tickets, we were able to enter the main courtyard of the castle.

We climbed up the steps at the far end to begin our tour.

There's a well-organised one-way system in place throughout the castle, with little signs to tell you where to go next.

That's quite useful, because once you get into the centre of the castle, there are some rather steep and narrow wooden staircases to negotiate.

There were lots of interesting artefacts from Lithuanian history inside the castle, including some nice pictures of the castle itself...

...and this rather scary-looking figure in armour.

There was a large room with thrones...

...and some really beautiful stained glass.

The worst bit of the castle was probably leaving it, which required going down this very scary stone staircase.

Once outside, we were able to stroll around under the castle ramparts for a while.

It was nearly 4pm by this stage, so we decided to leave the castle behind and go in search of something to eat.

Trakai is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Lithuania, so while there were quite a few restaurants near the castle, they were all quite expensive, at least by Lithuanian standards. We eventually found a pizzeria, where the pizza was okay but the prices were significantly higher than in Vilnius. We were definitely paying for the location though

Most of the restaurants were located on the side of the lake facing the castle, and this is definitely where you can get the best views from

It was still a while until the next train back to Vilnius, so after lunch we strolled back in the vague direction of the train station, following the bank of Trakai's other lake.

This part of town was home to some really colourful wooden houses, known as Karaite houses.

Once in the main part of the town, we found a cafe which was more geared towards locals than tourists and were able to sit and relax for a while with wine, coffee and water at much cheaper prices than down by the castle. Tim did have to order them in Polish though

Suitably refreshed, we went for a final stroll around the town to find the Orthodox church...

...before we caught the train back to Vilnius, and then another train from Vilnius to the airport. The airport train is a real bargain, with the tickets being a mere €0.70 each!

We've had a wonderful weekend in Lithuania and feel that we've been particularly lucky with the weather, given the horror stories we've heard about rain and thunder in the UK this weekend. I have the feeling that we'll be back here for a longer holiday some day