Little Bretzel travels to Lithuania – Kaunas

Little Bretzels trip to Lithuania

Fourth stop: Kaunas

So far traveled: 1610 KM

We arrived two days ago in the city of birth of Muni – in the city of Kaunas which is located in the center of Lithuania. We took again a long distance bus from Trakai to Kaunas. The buses here come most of the time as second-hand buses out of Germany. You can find easily at nearly every bus german stickers or even still advertisement out of Germany. The bus which we took had more than 500.000 km on the clock and looked also that way. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day and the bus driver forgot to close the roof window for the first half an hour into our ride. So we had the rainy weather also in the inside.

After two hours drive through the landscape of Lithuania, we arrived in Kaunas. The first “challenge” was to find out which bus we have to take to get to Munis grandma. After asking at a typical newspaper shop which are most of the time located on the pavements next to the greater streets here in Kaunas, we had enough information to take the correct bus. It was one of these old electric buses which are connected to overhead wires which we know out of Vilnius.

The further day was not really special. We had a typical Lithuanian welcome at here grandma’s place with some home-made alcoholic drinks and some smaller dishes. That was very kind and I appreciated it a lot. Afterwards we went into the forest which is located close to the residential area which is built out of precast concrete slabs. In the forest is a natural water source and we took some water back home. We finished the day by watching some series.

Yesterday we went into the city center of Kaunas and did a small sightseeing tour through the city. We went over the greater shopping street into a new shopping center where you were able to find every shop you need. They have even an ice skating location and a bowling center in there. We had lunch in one of the many restaurants which are located in the shopping center. I had some fried Cepelinai which have been great.

After our lunch we went into the old city center of Kaunas. The old city center is truly beautiful and you find old colourful house, a lot of bars and restaurants, the old cathedral as well as some beautiful churches. I am quite impressed by the amount of churches here in the larger cities of Lithuania. Lithuania is certainly a very religious country and the culture is strongly connected to the Catholicism. You are also able to find some orthodox churches here in the cities.

Directly next to the old city center flows the river Neris into the river Memel. We had a look at the confluence of the two rivers which is surrounded by a great park. During our walk through the park another thunderstorm moved over the city center and brought a lot of rain. We found shelter in a church next to the castle of Kaunas. Coincidental was the church, which is rather old and is falling apart unfortunately, open for a baptism of a young boy and we have been eye whiteness of a typical catholic Lithuanian baptism ceremony. As soon the rain stopped, we walked back into the old city center and had a beer in one of the many bars.

Since it was already around 19:00 in the evening, we decided to find the next bus back to the apartment of Munis grandma.

Today we will explore a bit more the region around Kaunas. Of course, I will write about it!

Underneath you can find some pictures of the day in Kaunas:

The Zalgrio arena where basketball is played next to the shopping center and the river Memel

The castle and the park of Kaunas

One of the many churches

The “open roof” bus

The Neris flows into the Memel

The forest with water source

At the riverbank of the Memel

The music and theater center

The old church which gave us shelter

Old city center with all the bars and restaurants

The town-hall of Kaunas

Shopping street in Kaunas

The residential area of Kaunas

The old presidential palace in Kaunas

 

See you soon!

Little Bretzel

Little Bretzel travels to Lithuania – The castle of Trakai

Little Bretzels trip to Lithuania

Third stop: The castle of Trakai

So far traveled: 1475 KM

Today we traveled from Vilnius to Trakai. Trakai is a small town which is surrounded by several lakes. On one of the islands in the lake is the famous castle of Trakai which has a long history since the 14th century and is an important landmark for the Lithuanian culture.

We checked out of the Hotel around 11 am in Vilnius and walked 15 minutes to the central autobus station of Vilnius where all long distance buses start their journey. Muni quickly organized two tickets for us and found out which bus is the next and fastest. At 11:30 we took the bus and arrived around 40 minutes later in Trakai. We found luckily fast our Hotel which is located directly at the lake and checked in after another 20 minutes walking through Trakai. The city it-self is rather small and certainly tourism orientated. A lot of hotels, souvenir shops and restaurants can be found easily.

After a quick shower, we walked to the castle over two small bridges and started our castle tour. The available tour within the castle guides you easily from station to station and gives you an insight into the Lithuanian culture since the 14th century. All over a very interesting visit. Very interesting is the history of the Lipka Tatars here in Trakai which settled around the 14th century and developed their culture here underneath of the duke of Lithuania.

After our castle visit we decided to rent a pedal boot for one hour and to discover the lake around the castle and I went swimming in the lake. That was a very nice experience and I hope we will find time tomorrow for another round on the lake! Unfortunately, during our round on the lake the first thunderstorm of the day developed and moved into the direction of Trakai. We quickly decided to return to our boat rental. When we arrived there, already the first flashes were visible. We returned for a thunderstorm break to our hotel and got luckily before the rain into our hotel.

When the thunderstorm was over, we decided to go to the supermarket to buy some typical Lithuanian beer and sit on of the peers at the lake in front of our hotel. As we finished our beer, we went to the restaurant Muni found to eat the traditional dish of the region: Kibinai. Kibinai are traditional pastries filled with mutton and onion. They are very delicious. I have to admit, the foot here is absolutely great and already travel worth it-self!

After our dinner we went along the lake back to the hotel… just in time before the next thunderstorm brought some rain and flashes over Trakai.

Underneath you can find some pictures of the day:

In our bus to Trakai we passed some forests which remind me a lot of Sweden

Shortly after we arrived in our small hotel room

The castle of Trakai and the lake

Muni and me in front of the castle

I got caught in the castle!

Luckily they let me go!

In the court of the castle

The castle is separated into two parts. Here we stand in the smaller castle where the people lived and look onto the dukes part of the castle

On the lake with our pedal boot

After a short jump into the water in the middle of the lake

A white villa which is build next to the lake and used for exhibitions

The lake shore with all the small pedal boot rental stations

The thunderstorm started to move in over Trakai

Our lovely traditional restaurant where we had dinner

Our dinner Kibinai and two beer – absolutely great!

Tomorrow we will travel to Kaunas where Muni is born and where we will stay with her grandma.

I hope you like my additions to the blog so far!

See you then!

Little Bretzel (Sven)

Little Bretzel travels to Lithuania – Vilnius in Pictures!

Little Bretzels trip to Lithuania

Second stop: Vilnius City Center

So far traveled: 1433 KM

Good morning Europe!

Well as promised yesterday evening, I uploaded some pictures of the day in Vilnius city center, our hotel room and the flight.

In Eindhoven during the boarding

Shortly after the take off out of Eindhoven

In the final approach of Vilnius

Vilnius airport from outside after the landing

At the luggage collection in Vilnius

Our hotel room

The little restaurant where we had lunch

Our lunch: cepelinai – very delicious!

Our dinner: Koldunai

The castle of Vilnius

A very nice church of Vilnius

Overview of the town. You can see the so-called “New Vilnius” in the background

Overview of the old city center of Vilnius

The president palace

The cathedral of Vilnius

St. Anne Church next to the beautiful park

In the cathedral of Vilnius – a view up to the ceiling

In the cathedral of Vilnius

One of the many electric busses which are connected to overhead wires

The cathedral in the evening light of Vilnius

The old city center in Vilnius

The castle of Vilnius down the hill

Us two on the bridge over the river Neris in Vilnius

Two very nice beer for a reasonable price in the old city center of Vilnius

Little Bretzel travels to Lithuania – Vilnius

Little Bretzels trip to Lithuania

Second stop: Vilnius City Center

So far traveled: 1433 KM

The little Bretzel arrived safely and on time in Vilnius around 12:20 local time Lithuania. The flight was rather uneventful. During the flight I saw the airport of Hannover and the polish baltic coast, along the border to Russia (Kaliningrad) and then into Lithuania and Vilnius.

After we arrived in Vilnius, we quickly collected our luggage and took the next bus into the city and to our hotel. Our hotel is the Vilnius City Hotel. A standard and nothing special hotel in the city of Vilnius.

After a cold shower and a quick review which sights we would like to see, we hit the road… but not far since we found around the corner a very lovely small traditional Lithuanian restaurant. We had a great lunch and order for us both the Lithuanian national dish: Cepelinai. Cepelinai are a type of dumpling made from grated and riced potatoes and usually stuffed with ground meat. It was absolutely great! As beverage I had a homemade honey beer of the restaurant. Together, we shared a small desert and paid in the end only 22,5€ which is rather cheap for two persons. Little Bretzel was very happy afterwards!

From the restaurant we walked further into the old city center of Vilnius. We saw the president palace, some very nice churches, the university of Vilnius, the cathedral, the castle, a very nice park along the small river vilna and finally the St. Anne Church.

Afterwards we had dinner in a typical Lithuanian restaurant in the city center. We had some lovely koldunai which are comparable to dumplings consisting of a filling wrapped in thin, unleavened dough. As well a very tasteful and great dish. You can certainly eat very well here in Lithuania! Furthermore, I have to admit that I like the beer prices which are in general around 2€ for a half a liter of beer.

After the dinner we walked over the main shopping street of Vilnius and some smaller parks back to our hotel.

We had an absolutely great day here in Vilnius and saw a lot of the city. Now we are happy to be in our hotel room and to relax our feet, which walked around 15km today through the city.

Unfortunately is the wi-fi connection here in the hotel not the best and it takes ages to upload the pictures. I will add as soon as possible some pictures of this wonderful day to the blog!

I guess after I added hopefully some pictures until tomorrow morning, I will continue with the blog tomorrow after we arrived in Trakai and visited there the castle!

See you then! 🙂

Little Bretzel

Little Bretzel travels to Lithuania

Little Bretzels trip to Lithuania

First stop: Eindhoven Airport

So far traveled: 56 KM

 

 

Today early in the morning, at 4:45 local time Breda (The Netherlands, the little Bretzel (me Sven 😀 ) and his girlfriend Ramune (Nickname Muni which I will refer to during this blog) got woken up through the first of three alarms which where necessary to get us out of the bed. It was time to get ready for our ten day trip to Lithuania, one of the Baltic states in the north-east of europe, where my beautiful girlfriend was born .

Since no buses were available this morning at 5:45, we started walking to the train station in Breda and took the first train to Eindhoven. 40 uneventful minutes later we arrived in Eindhoven and took a direct shuttle bus to the airport. Luckily for us, everything is reachable with in the network of the OV chipkaart system here in the Netherlands and we did not have to pay additional fee for the direct bus connection!

Our Wizz Air flight W6 8026 leaves at 9:20 local time Eindhoven and we arrived two hours early at the airport. For me it was important to have some redundancy with the train bus connection and for the check-in. The check-in was rather simple, a self check-in machine which we know out of Paris CDG and Amsterdam Schiphol is used for all flights from Wizz Air. All counters were empty luckily at the check in was quickly done. Then we passed directly the security control and I found now the time to write the first out of hopefully many blog entries for this trip. Eindhoven Airport is a well-developed small European Airport. You have a rather large duty-free shop and a small bar and bistro. Nevertheless, you see clearly that this airport is developed for low-cost airlines like Wizz Air, Ryanair and Transavia.

Our Aircraft is already in the approach towards Eindhoven Airport and comes directly from Vilnius since it is based in Vilnius. It is going to be a 2,5 years old Airbus A320 with Sharklets and the registration HA-LWX.

Finally, I also have some pictures from Eindhoven Airport:

 

I will continue later with the blog when we arrived in Vilnius and arrived in our hotel where we will stay for one night!

See you later,

Sven