Blogs from Trakai, Vilnius, Lithuania, Europe

Just a brief update to put out a link to the tracked routes that I captured using Map My Tracks (www.mapmytracks.com) with my iPhone. If you are interested in the detail regarding the route that we took on our epic journey around Lithuania, then the detail is here. Enjoy.... read more

I wanted to add a word or two specifically about the wonderful children of Rugute, known affectionately as Rugute's Captains. During our little jaunt around Lithuania, we were honoured by the presence of many of the children that the Rugute charity supports. many of these children are actively receiving treatment for their conditions, some are thankfully in remission. All of them warmed our hearts and strengthened our resolve to complete our journey. In Panevezys we met : Naglis, Zilvinas, Vilte, Ignas and Kipras we were also met by friends of Rugute, Ieva and Benas. In Siauliai we met : Julija and her brother Mindaugas, Ugne and Abhajus In Klaipeda we met : Reinoldas and his sister Simonija together with Domantas and his brother Danielius In Silute we met : Justina In all cases, these children reminded ... read more

Just a quick blog for now, more detail later this weekend. WE MADE IT! After about 520 miles of cycling over 5 days, we made it back to Vilnius to a hero's welcome at the Barclays office, Green Hall, Upes Gatve. We covered a mere 85'ish miles today from Kaunas to Vilnius mostly on the A5 road. This is the hilliest portion of the trip passing through some of Lithuania's beautiful national parks, forests and lakes with a few nice challanging hills. We stopped off at Trakai for our "traditional" Kibinai and soup in a bread bowl (nothing like eating your bowl whilst you eat your soup, before blazing the final trail into Vilnius and Green Hall. I will put full route details up shortly, but thanks to all who have supported us and my personal ... read more

Over ate last night as there is a not so subtle distinction between an appetiser and a starter. The appetiser seemed to be for four-six people..still, it all tasted nice! This was supposed to be the easiest day, definately shorter but the hills just keep on coming...the big hill went on for three miles and I got the gearing perfect because I caught up with the other three at the top. My knee is just one big ball of pain and the Ibuprofen (400mg) is only just stopping me from screaming. The biggest driver was to get to Trakai and our favourite Kibinai restaurant for lunch, which turned out to be about 2:30 because it was only 15-20 miles outside of Vilnius. The weather held off and it was actually really good cycling weather...I even took ... read more

The morning was bright and sunny and we had our obligatory photo on the pier. We headed out of Plateliai onto a long uphill climb to the A11 but at least it was warm and the scenery was stunning. Turning towards the coast and we met the Baltic breeze which slowed us down by 20%, luckily the Ibuprofen was working but my leg was starting swell and the left ankle started 'twingeing'. We recognised that we were lagging behind our time splits and decided not to have a dip in the Baltic but did follow the National Cycle route 10 which took us all the way into Klaipeda via a beautiful, car free, trail through woodlands with stunning views of the Baltic to our right. Met up with Rugute and more captains at Klaipeda - we ... read more

Awoke very tired and worried about how my knee would hold out. The sun was out and even though the biting wind was still present and the temperature was not as warm as we would have liked we all felt our spirits rise. We didn't go through Radviliskis as we did last year and the route was much more interesting. We met up with Rugute and the captains at Silale but not before Vitas decided that the the high grey curbs needed to know who was boss. I'm afraid Grey curb 1 - Vitas 0, luckily he was not hurt as he landed on his feet so this technically doesn't count so I am still the accident king. We stayed at the same hotel in Plateliai but didn't get there till very late 8pm - knee ... read more

Plan was for all riders to congregate at Green Hall (Barclays building) at 9am as many others would be joining us for about 3 miles out of Vilnius. It was great to see Edita, Andreas and their little toddler, Sharunas (I will tidy up spelling later!). The start of the journey was a nice gentle run up a long hill as many of the riders were not used to a fast pace. We left them at the top of the hill and it started to rain...not too far into the ride and Denis (our Russian comrade) had a puncture. The temperature was a nippy 7 degrees with a sharp cold wind with driving rain at times...this unfortunately remained consistent for most of the ride. The road was well maintained and the terrain was gradual undulations (nice) ... read more

Everything went very smoothly as it was a carbon copy of last year. The weather was really hot and we were expecting rain (as per the forecast). Setting up the bikes was a breeze and the Novotel staff were great. Went for a quick trip up town with Nick and John and the heavens opened. Felt tired and glad that I didn't have to ride my bike that day...not sure how we did that last year - I've been up since 2am! Trepidation for tomorrow as it's a new route and we are cycling 102 miles on our first day.... read more

Day 5 saw us head south east from Taurage, bypassing Quinlan Corner (the new Accident Blackspot) by a few miles and angling down towards Jurbarkas near the Lithuanian / Russia border. The first 2 hours of cycling was mostly through heavily wooded areas and our feet were a little heavy following the Officer's Mess hospitality of the previous night. However we made reasonable time south and decided to stop in at the small town of Smalininkai, which sits on the river between Lithuania and Russia, before deciding to make a small side trip to the border crossing at Burgaiciai for a quick photo opportunity. After which we then headed back to the 141 towards Kaunas and started to eat up the miles. Today was a long day of over 85 miles of cycling in 23+ C ... read more