Overland with Kids

From Poland into Lithuania there are border control buildings but no-one at home - we just sailed through in seconds and bought our Vignette for road tax on arrival. The first thing that struck us about our arrival was how surprisingly beautiful Lithuania is - and immaculate - and clean - with excellent road systems. There are over 4,000 lakes and lots of forest area making up it’s predominantly flat land. All villages, towns and houses are set right back from the motorway, unlike all Eastern European countries (except Ukraine) we have visited - you can really enjoy the green lands and views. Deep in the farmland countryside and in old fishing villages, many houses are built of wood with several decorated in pretty colours. There is not much evidence of Communist rule on arrival - most statues having being dis-mantled and carted off and laid to rest in special sculpture parks though we read that much EU money continues to be used to clean up the country from it’s indifferent times even today. Any old communist buildings found throughout our travels through Lithuania including a campsite we found are virtually all closed, run-down and dis-used - almost hidden from view or notice. In their place are new modern installations with many of the houses unique in their design. Lithuania is famous for it’s amber and we saw quite a few shops selling during our transit through.

Trakai Island Castle and Lake Galve

We decided to head for Trakai due to hearing about it’s fairytale castle situated on Lake Galve when we spotted another English Land Rover on the road belonging to Ben of www.cornwalltocapehorn.com - en-route solo to Argentina. After short introductions, we headed for Trakai together.

After having a bit of a lazy day, we set-off in the late afternoon by ferry across the lake to the island from our campsite. On initial sight, although the setting of the castle is stunning, we couldn’t describe this 14th century gothic castle as a fairytale - more like a B&Q newbuild. It’s only when you get inside and start to learn about and see the displays on show and it’s history do you begin to appreciate it’s wonder and how it ever got restored from it’s wreckage in the first place - an amazing feat. There is Turkish and Arabic influence here too from a rare race of people who live still in Trakai but are dwindling in numbers (currently about 200+ in the whole of the country and about 60 in Trakai itself from about 4,000 initially brought some years ago to act as bodyguards for their then prominent master at the time - the sect is called the Karaites or Karaims) - very interesting to learn about. AJ was interested in anything to do with fighting - so it was off to see the old knights armour and swords for him.  Jessica was interested in anything she could interact with and both found a very funny moving picture portrait of a man - like something out of Harry Potter film which provided endless fun - when the children moved - the portrait of what looked like a surly Scott’s man moved also - from a smile to a frown and either a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

Afterwards the children tried and loved a national meat filled pastry called kibinai and had two helpings each - much like the cornish pasties back home - nice, filling and cheap. There were several children on the bridge playing recorders to try to earn some money. AJ decided to get his harmonica out once we were back on the campsite to try his luck amongst the campers - very enterprising!

Vilnius Old Town

A trip to the capital city of Vilnius was in order the next day to see it’s very cosmopolitan and pretty old town full of churches, cathedrals, cafes and restaurants. Here, we discovered the true reality of how cheap it is to eat out - approx £6.50 each for a very good 3-course meal with drinks - the food was gorgeous and we were all very happy, relaxed and fat.  In truth - we had to walk around Vilnius in order to get some much needed exercise and work off some of our flab and food (we think about and eat constantly). In Lithuania, we realised it probably cost us more to buy our emergency food rations and stocks from the UK with us for the trip - hardly worth campsite cooking at this rate. Andrew tried the national meat filled dumplings and liked and we since then we’ve also tried the big huge ones which look like giant potatoes - very delicious and filling. Fried strips of bread with garlic sauce and soup in a rye pot bread shaped basket with lid are also common fare but we didn’t have enough room in our bellies to try any. 

We spent two nights at the campsite at Trakai together with Ben - the children drove Ben crazy,  climbing in, out and on top of his vehicle - as well as on him. We couldn’t say our good-byes without having a late breakfast at the restaurant on-site - the food was just too good. A go on the pedallos by the lake beckoned also before leaving so it was late afternoon before we finally set-off. The campsites in Lithuana allow really late check outs which in this case was up to 11pm at night so we could relax and enjoy our day. Add to this the excellent roads and the White Nights - not getting dark till around 11pm currently - so we had no worries about packing in all the leisurely sights we wanted to see and then getting on the road.

We left Ben who was heading for Ukraine and then onto Russia and as for us - we were supposedly heading toward Latvia………..

 

Diary (Blog)