Vilnius
Bus or train connections are available between Kaunas and Vilnius.. We opted for the LTG Link train since the price was comparable to a bus, and first class reasonable with comfy seats. Our Vilnius apartment near the train station was quite nice in an old building which was undergoing renovation (but renovation work was only evident in the hallways). Our friend was a little concerned about our location near the train station, but we never felt uneasy in the area.
Vilnius is much larger than Kaunas with a sprawling historic area. We started sightseeing on arrival with our friend acting as tour guide. Over the next 2-½ days she brought us to several churches (each a different religion and/or language), several historic structures, hill top views, and so on. Thoroughly covering the (^^^) old town can easily take about a day and a half. While my wife and our friend shopped one morning, I went to the ^^ Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights in a former KGB headquarters and prison. More fascinating/depressing history of occupied Lithuania.
In the evenings the town is bustling with nightlife. We spent some time at Piana Vyshnia, a Ukrainian Cherry Liquor (only) bar with a cool looking vibrant red interior (can’t miss if strolling past - also in Riga). We also went to the nightclub where our friend met her American husband. We somehow managed to “party” until about 2 am when we called it a night while our friend stayed out with her girlfriend until 4(!).
Day 2 we did a day trip to Trakai which is a touristic area for locals and others with casual lakeside dining, an impressive (^^) castle on an island, and some (^) countryside mansions. Getting to Trakai is normally by bus but our friend’s dad frequents the lake almost daily in the summer to swim and picnic, so he drove us. After a lakeside lunch of the local delicacy Kibina and a castle visit he brought us to his picnic spot along the lake - just a narrow patch of grass between the road guardrail and the water - which was lined with other families picnic blankets and chairs. It reminded me a bit of my youth swimming in lakes in Minnesota…except we never had a large castle on an island in the distance : ) We also took a drive to one of many large homes which were originally owned by Polish aristocracy (if I understood correctly) but now basically museums. Note - there is a sister site to the Island Castle which was a small upgrade fee as a combination ticket, but it was not worth entering (can’t recall the name unfortunately). After an afternoon of swimming and trying Lithuania picnic foods (always including beet soup), we returned to Vilnius for more sightseeing and dining.
We used the LUXExpress bus to travel to Riga. It is a 4h15m ride on a well appointed bus - although as usual on buses/trains the WiFi did not seem to work.
Our trip continued with a few nights in Riga, a week in Finland, a Norway big ship Cruise out of Southampton, and a few days in Bavaria. No trip reports planned for those destinations.
PS: PM me if you would like my Instagram username to see pics.
