Vilnius in Lithuania

After a good night’s sleep we are now on the road north to Vilnius. The bus has gone quiet… reading? sleeping? or doing what I’m doing? I’ve had a good chat with several of my companions and look forward to getting to know all of them. The road is good in parts and diabolical in others! The countryside is peppered with farms and small settlements, some of them very colourful and picturesque. At Augustow, in north-east Poland, we saw ice on the water where there were no boats to break it up. And at the side of thee road, traces of the heavy snowfall they had a week ago. We made a couple of stops to eat and, at the border with Lithuania, to change Zloty into Lit.

Arriving in Vilnius late afternoon, we did a round of the old city in the coach before finally finding the hostel. Good accommodation: a short walk under a railway line and we entered the old city via one of the city gates. A beautiful gem of a place, the buildings are quite Italianate, beautifully restored and quite pristine. We found a beautiful restaurant with vaulted rooms and distressed cream furniture and fittings. The waitress was wonderful – told us which dishes weren’t really Lithuanian, and as a result we ordered a huge starter for five of us, of local spicy cheese and long sourdough croutons and cheese sauce. Rather like cheese fondu in texture. After that, I couldn’t manage a main meal, so had another starter – mushroom soup. Then the five of us shared a piece of apple crumble before paying and exploring the other rooms of the hotel. A gorgeous place. Vilnius is the sort of city you’d like an extra day in – I didn’t dare go in any of the shops selling amber, just wouldn’t know where to start. Or stop….Unlike Warsaw, the hostel is really only minutes away from the old city, albeit downhill, so there’s a climb on the way back.

We have a late start tomorrow, don’t have to leave until 10am as there’s a relatively short run to Riga. Then we’re there for 2 nights. But early though it is (it’s 10pm but we changed a time zone today so it’s really only 9 pm) I’m really tired, the room is moving so I need to get to bed. Night night!