Day 18. The Vitality of Vilnius.

Start point. Rundale Camping, Bausha, Latvia.

Finish point. Old town, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Distance. 140 Miles.

Total. 3570. Miles.

Its hard to describe just how bad the driving is over here, I entered my 3rd Baltic state this morning and the quality of the driving is still abysmal, the roads are in no better condition either, you can see where all the millions from the European Union have been spent and its not on the infrastructure of these States, but you do see lots of high class cars driving around, usually at 100MPH as they overtake you on the inside as your sat at the 80KPH speed limit. Rant over.

Last nights campsite.

After another good nights sleep on a really peaceful campsite it was time to depart and head for Vilnius, the tourist guides really rate the Old Town for it’s architecture and so that was my choice for today, once again I got fed up of the cr*p driving and followed a side road for about 40km but as that deteriated into a gravel track and only led back to the motorway anyway I bit the bullet and just headed straight in Vilnius.

Taujenai Village and Manor, Lithuania.

Entering the city centre was easier than expected as at points the road was 7 lanes wide, with the traffic flowing steadily I was soon there and once into the centre the car park I was heading for was right next to the Old Town itself, at 9€ for 24 hrs it was a bargain, theres no facilities here but its a 2 minute walk into the town so no complaints here.

Vilnius is a rather large city, much bigger than I expected and the walk around the old town was ok except I made the usual error of walking up to the top of the only hill here to view the Gediminas Castle Tower, and as has been my luck all along this journey a lot of it was closed for maintenance, bugger, but the actual tower was open and for 5€ you get to view the museum and climb the tower itself, the view from the top is amazing, you can see virtually the whole of Vilnius

Had my Dinner at this little Italian restaurant in the Piazza.

Its natural to try and compare Vilnius with Tallin, both have a huge amount of history but I think Tallin has grasped the tourist angle better and as such displays the history of the place better but Vilnius is still a great place to see and is also cheaper in every respect.