Well, we’re here! Many people told me that Vilnius was going to be the low point of this trip but we think it’s gorgeous! It’s the cleanest city I’ve ever visited in Europe. This place is spotless – no litter anywhere, almost no graffiti. Everyone speaks English in this tourist core and, in a huge change from France, where sometimes the French put up some limited museum signage in English, but just as often do not, all signage is in English. Even better, all the menus have a full English translation, which makes travel for me – food allergy maven – just way less stressful.
We took our initial walk and had a lovely time. While we strolled the city, Ron and I had a spirited conversation about whether or not Subaru is a Japanese make (me) or Swedish (guess who), which we alternated with a debate about whether it was safe(Ron) or not safe (guess who) to walk brazenly in the bike lanes throughout the city. Once we sorted these things out, we were able to focus better on the buildings and can give you this initial tour.
The next two pictures are an attempt to show you how clean the city is. Notice the streets – not a stitch of garbage in sight. The buildings and walls? Pretty clean. It’s really an impressive feat:
This is my favorite building of the initial walk – St. Anne’s Church, from about 1495. It’s a fantastic example of Brick Gothic – it might be only the second one I’ve ever seen. Creating this detailed architecture with just brick required using the assorted bricks in 33 different profiles. (pic not mine)
Less than 10 minutes away is the Vilnius Cathedral, from 1784, in a Neoclassical style. (Political note/comment: apparently, in 1950, the Soviets, in control of the city, felt the best possible use for this place was as a warehouse)
This is the fun entrance to the Lithuanian National Drama theatre:
Here’s Ron inspecting a public water fountain/bottle filler in the park (note rare sign not in English, but we sleuthed out how to use it):
We stopped for a mid-stroll snack and I was served this potato and zucchini dish. I have been told that this is the land of potatoes and that’s going to make the eating here a high point:
Here’s one more of the main square in front of Vilnius cathedral:
Here’s the Neris river – which runs right through town:
And then here’s one of the vintage 1956 MTB-82D trolley buses. They’ve got newer ones driving around too, but I was really partial to these:
That’s it for now – I’ve already thrown all of these pictures at you and we haven’t even started our actual tour! Time to go meet the other Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) tour-mates. But so far, so good – OAT has us booked into a really nice hotel in a great neighborhood – always a plus for me, but it’s going to be hard to top the London hotel I’ve booked for the end of our travels. As I sat here typing this up for you, I received an email from the Taj 51 Buckingham Gate London – and they wanted to know which of these pillows I prefer: the contoured cervical, the microfiber, the natural lamb wood, the feather down, the memory foam, the natural cotton, or the hard pillow. I read this list to Ron – and I focused on the Taj’s one additional offering – the Snowy Anti-Snore Deluxe Pillow, which I feel should be Ron’s wholehearted and committed choice, out of respect for people who share a hotel room with him.
And you know what? He refused that pillow – even though all of us would obviously pick it for him – and so I’ll leave you with this – to teach him a snoring pillow lesson – Ron, using just an ordinary pillow, having his first Lithuanian nap:
Travels with Valerie 