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| typical german shopping bike |
We cycled in a group by the main road to the west almost to Moletai. The busy traffic was nearly all motor cars with LT rego. The route was a series of gentle hills mostly through pine forest passing lakes occasionally and small villages at intervals of 2 to 6km. The houses are either old and unpainted with asbestos cement roofs or very old and delapidated houses with birch shingle roofs. Any painted houses are either mustard colour or pale green. The amount of new construction in private houses and restaurants is remarkable. New buildings are all to a very high, expensive standard. The motor cars on the streets are all new expensive models. There is a flood of money here from somewhere!
We reboarded the Rotel after 43 km. and stopped for lunch in a new log-built restaurant in Mindienai before continuing by bus to Trakai over a busy two way road of patched concrete via Vilnius. In Trakai we went close to the castle but did not do the tourist tour thing. I walked 2 km. to the town centre to visit the tourist office interrupting the long important telephone conversation of the young female attendant. I came away with maps of the park for free but little else. The camping ground is at Jovariskes 4km. north of Trakai and just south of lake Alkmena. There are plenty of toilets and showers but the DIY. connection of plumbing and electricity to the old barn in which they are situated is something to see. Water drips continuously from the old water heater but it still heats the water. The bike trailer was already disconnected before driver Fabian came to collect us. C. and I had to empty our cabin today to give Fabian access to the bus engine which has been giving problems with starting.
08h00 Without the trailer we motored the bus the 30km or so to Vilnius. In very heavy traffic we passed first through an area of soviet era blocks of flats and industrial installations. We stopped at an outlook to see the view of the whole area then took the Rotel to a carpark at the cathedral. We were the first bus there but within 15 minutes there were a further 3 squeezing into a tiny area with only 1 metre between buses. We were introduced to a middle aged Lithuanian lady guide who in accented but fluent German guided us around the cathedral, various churches and government buildings ending with a walk around the old town then we were free to wander around until 16h00. We were concerned that the bus would not make it back as to leave the cathedral carpark had organised a couple of other drivers to push and he had bump started the Rotel!
Camilla and sought and bought leather slippers to replace the aussie thongs that were removing the skin from between her toes. We mooched around dozens of amber stalls and shops. C. bought a neck pendant for 90euro. We changed another 100 aud for Litas. The bank did not stock any Latai which we will need for Latvia in a couple of days although they quoted the price on the board in their window. The banks here have chairs at the counter for their customers who seem expected to settle in for a long chat.
To the relief of the waiting group the Rotel arrived punctually to collect us. Evening meal was taken at the house of the landowner/unnofficial camping place owner. We ate Lithuanian meat pasties with salad and speeches. This is our last day with Rotel as we go our own way tomorrow.
