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Published: September 3rd 2009
Abandoned building
Rarely visible in Old Town VilniusAnd we reached our last full day in Vilnius. We thoroughly enjoyed our Old Town Vilnius experiences. Lauren and I had never seen such a collection of churches within such close proximity. But it was time to see something different … away from Old Town.
We had seen numerous postcards of this red-brick castle during our walking tour of Vilnius. We consulted our trusted guidebook and found a reference to
Trakai Castle. So after breakfast, we walked up to the Front Desk and inquired about this castle. The gentleman at the Front Desk pointed us to a brochure, showing a daily schedule from Vilnius to Trakai. Best of all, the minibus could pick us up at our hotel at 11:00am. Great news - we signed up right away.
With one hour to kill, Lauren and I decided to walk around the western part of Old Town. We had been concentrating our exploration the last couple of days around the northern part with
Cathedral Square and
Presidential Palace. The western part was also sprinkled with churches - of course. But we walked along a street that had an abandoned building - with graffiti. The lot was partially covered up but
Trakai Castle
On the shores of Lake Galve we could see through the openings. That was a rare sight. Everything we had seen in Old Town Vilnius so far had been repaired, renovated or painted.
It was getting cloudy and the temperature had dropped a little. The weather had been great during our stay and we hope it would hold up - didn’t want to see any rain during our excursion to Trakai. We headed back to the hotel with plenty of time to spare … didn’t want to miss our tour. While we stood outside the hotel waiting for the minibus, a man came up to us and started chatting. Strange? He had seen us around the hotel and he was the hotel’s General Manager. He wanted to make sure we were enjoying our stay in Vilnius and gave us additional pointers on historical places outside Old Town. Personal service - we liked that and appreciated his efforts.
The minibus picked us up on time and made a couple more stops before heading out of town. Trakai Castle is located on an island along the shores of
Lake Galve. Construction started in the 14th century and the castle went through extensive renovation throughout the 1900’s.
Inside the Ducal Palace
Wooden galleries around the inner wall The city of Trakai, with a population of approximately 5500, is about 20 miles west of Vilnius. Trakai was the medieval capital of Lithuania at one time and is still the home of Crimean Karaites, ethnic Turkic adherents of Karaite Judaism.
We hit a little bit of traffic on the way out of Vilnius. But that gave me the opportunity to see the real Vilnius - outside of touristy Old Town Vilnius. We passed by a number of industrial buildings - mostly in the food industries. Our tour guide gave quite a bit of history about Lithuania and the people of Lithuania. Apparently, lots of the college graduates left Lithuania in pursuit of better opportunities in Europe and USA. But Lithuania is now putting resources in developing its optics and laser industries.
It was not a long drive to Trakai. We went through green rolling hills on well paved road and soon enough, we started seeing lakes - our sign that we were getting close to Trakai. I was getting very concerned that it would start raining immediately though. The dark threatening grey clouds kept hovering in front of us and the temperature had been dropping.
As
Trakai Castle
On the bridge leading up to the entrance to the castle we pulled into Trakai, our guide explained to us more about the Crimean Karaites. Their homes were very distinctive - with three windows in front; one for God, one for the family and one for Grand Duke Vytautas. It was the Grand Duke who resettled the Karaites to Trakai in 1397 and 1398.
When the minibus finally stopped, we were standing on a narrow road - with lakes on both sides. A set of steps took us to the shoreline with a view of Trakai Castle in the middle of the lake. It was still cloudy and was getting pretty cold, especially with the wind. Again, I reminded myself that this was June in northern Europe. It was as cold as December in Texas, where we would get occasional snow.
The shoreline was full of small booths selling gifts and snacks. There were quite a lot of people in the area. Along the lake, we could hire a small row boat - didn’t see anyone out there though. We had to keep moving fast, following our tour guide who never turned back to wait. Crossing the first wooden bridge, there were a number of children playing flute with
Hot dogs for lunch
Food was OK; view was great hats in front of them. And they were all playing the exact same music. This was something that we never saw in Vilnius.
We had to cross another long wooden bridge before we arrived at the entrance of Trakai Castle, located on a small island. This Lake Galve serves as a moat around the castle. We got our entrance tickets from the guide and proceeded to meet in the middle of the castle courtyard. Some in our tour group chose to walk the castle on their own - Lauren and I decided to follow our tour guide as we walked further in and crossed another small bridge to enter the
Ducal Palace - the residence of the Grand Duke. On the inner wall of the palace, there was a set of wooden walkways and stairs to allow access to various facilities without going inside the palace. And we started climbing these wooden staircases.
The palace was very simple as we walked from one room to the next, slowly moving our way up to the top floor. There was a History Museum, showing items that were found during excavations. We also visited the Castle Hall, the only room that
Trakai gift shops
Along the shore of Lake Galve was well lit. The end of the tour was a small gift shop on the top floor where we could buy postcards and have them postmarked from Trakai Castle. But the space was so small that I chose to wait outside.
It was a quick tour - the view from the outside was so much better than the inside. Trakai Castle has retained its beauty and charm. I am sure the renovation helped a lot. We had some time to ourselves to explore the rest of Trakai Castle or the city of Trakai. We walked around a little bit more and then decided to head back to shore where our first stop was a small café to get hot dogs for both of us. We would have picked something else - something local! But hot dogs were the only choice left. It was still cold and windy outside but it didn’t rain.
After lunch, we looked at the selection of gifts (didn’t buy anything) and walked along the shore a little bit before we decided to follow one of the tour guide’s suggestions - visit one of the remaining
kenesas, synagogue for the Karaites. It was a very
Trakai Castle
Matching jackets simple wooden building with a small dome. We walked into the kenesa - along with a small group of tourists, and found a service in session. Again, it was a very simple interior. Not wanting to disturb their service, we walked out after a few minutes.
Soon enough, we were all on our return trip back to Vilnius. Trakai was a nice and short day trip for those visiting Vilnius. There were probably other things to see in Trakai, but we did not get a chance. We decided to get a drink - our normal happy hour - once we got back at our hotel. We were on vacation and an afternoon drink seemed to be the norm. As we sat down at the bar, a wedding party was just walking out of St. Casimir across the street. It started drizzling and that didn’t bother the bride and groom as photographers captured their every move. We were glad that we had a beautiful afternoon for our winter wedding!
We went to dinner at
Cili Kaimas, a recommended restaurant serving local Lithuanian dishes. The rain hadn’t stopped and we were fortunate that the restaurant was only a few blocks
away. That was the benefit of staying within Old Town ... everything was within walking distance. The interior of the restaurant looked like a barn - with chicken roaming around in a caged area. The food was OK … Medininkai was better (as discussed in my earlier blog).
We headed right back to the hotel after dinner. It was our last evening in Vilnius and it was time to pack. Couldn’t believe how time flew by. Vilnius was highly recommended. I am sure Old Town Vilnius will not look the same as tourism continues to grow around the Baltic countries.
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