Old Town Vilnius - a UNESCO World Heritage site

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Summer is here and Lauren finished her school responsibilities already. We initially planned to head out to Asia and Australia for the summer. But we decided to postpone that and diverted our summer trip to Europe. Our first destination? Vilnius - capital of Lithuania and the European Capital of Culture of 2009.

Again, our friends were curious on our choices of summer destinations. But we were always searching for destinations that were not overly commercialized yet. Lithuania is the largest of the three Baltic countries and got its independence in 1991. This was followed by its membership into European Union in 2004. Despite its growth and accomplishments, the country stayed below the radar screen and was relatively unknown away from Europe.

After our Christmas honeymoon drama, we decided to stick to the basic - fly American Airlines through Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW). We actually received a bonus at DFW Airport. Lauren’s boarding pass was rejected by the scanner at the gate. That’s normally a good thing. So I showed my boarding pass to the gate agent too since we were traveling under the same reservation number. She took both of our boarding passes, checked the computer and picked up 2 new boarding passes that were already printed. Yes!! We both got upgraded to Business Class. That was a good beginning to our summer vacation. We thanked the gate agent and hopped on - no need to ask questions whenever one receives a free upgrade.

It was an uneventful flight and we arrived early in Frankfurt, Germany. We followed the sign (slightly confusing initially), cleared EU immigration and we found ourselves out of the secured area. That was not our expectation. So we went to Lufthansa’s check in counter area and a girl assisted us in getting our onward boarding passes from a Lufthansa kiosk. With the new boarding passes, we had to go back through security. While this sounded a little complex, it was actually the same system in USA. Coming off any international flight in USA, we have to go through TSA security again to get to our boarding gates.

It was a short 2-hour flight from Frankfurt to Vilnius and we were so excited to see our suitcases coming out on the conveyor belt. We had visions of our Christmas trip and being without any of our personal belongings for 2 days in Lisbon. We actually hand carried some stuff with us as a precaution. Fortunately, the entire trip had been uneventful, except for the free upgrade on our trans-Atlantic flight.

We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel in Old Town Vilnius. We had purchased an Eyewitness Travel book on Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania in preparation of our trip and it was actually Lauren’s inflight reading. Thus, we learned already that Old Town Vilnius has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1994.

The drive from the airport was somewhat typical of any European city till we reached the gate of Old Town. As the taxi made a few quick turn into the cobbled streets, the architecture became a blend of Baroque and Gothic. We reached a small square dominated by a beautiful pink colored church and the taxi stopped. I felt like telling the driver that we didn’t have to stop at every Vilnius landmark; he could take us directly to the hotel. Then I looked at the opposite side of the church and saw our hotel - Radisson SAS Astorija. This was turning out much better than we expected. We booked the hotel on the Internet and we chose this one because it claimed to be located inside Old Town. Very true indeed!

Hotel check in time is normally 3:00pm. And here we were - traveled 20 hours and arrived at our hotel around 2:00pm. Could we check in early? The man behind the Front Desk kept looking at his computer screen and had a conversation with his colleague in a language that we didn’t understand. And then the news to us - in English! He said that we arrived a little early and our room was not ready yet. BUT, he was going to upgrade us to a suite that was cleaned already. Did we hear that right? We just got upgraded again … for the second time? What did we do? Was it the way we were dressed? Or perhaps they thought we were on our honeymoon (yes, second honeymoon). It didn’t matter. We were happy to be able to check in early. And the suite upgrade was the gravy.

There was so much to see and experience in Vilnius. The weather was still rather cool in the evening and we realized that we would have a very long day - summer in the Baltics! Instead of writing a detailed account of our activities, I wanted to highlight certain points of interest.


Churches

Coming from Texas, I am accustomed to seeing Mexican restaurants all over the city. If I replace those restaurants with churches, that is what I will find in Vilnius. There are over 40 churches in Vilnius, a city with a population of around 500,000. Some of our favorites:

1. Gates of Dawn - a small door on the street leads to a flight of steps. The Chapel was built between 1503-1522 as part of the defensive fortifications for the city. It was common during that time for city gates to have a chapel or a religious image to guard the city from outside enemies and to bless departing travelers. The silver encased picture of The Blessed Virgin Mary inside the Chapel has been one of the symbols of the city of Vilnius. The Chapel was one of the first stops for Pope John Paul II when he visited Lithuania in September 1993.

2. Dominican Church - A dark unassuming doorway, which can be easily missed, leads visitors to the lavishly decorated interior of the Dominican Church. This Polish Catholic Church is an architectural monument of baroque décor. The altars, covered with marble, are decorated with paintings and sculptures.

3. Church of St. Anne - a small Roman Catholic Church that was built using 33 different kinds of clay and painted in red. Its flowing arches and slender windows was a beautiful example of Gothic architecture.

4. Vilnius Cathedral - the main Roman Catholic Cathedral, located at Cathedral Square, was thoroughly renovated from 2006 till 2008. The Cathedral reminded me of a Roman temple (The Pantheon in Rome) with its columns in front. The central statue at the rooftop was that of St. Helena carrying a gold-painted cross. The interior was bright and open, with evidence of fresh paintwork. The Cathedral and the 16th century bell tower in front of it, are part of the Cathedral Square where religious and official events, concerts and special events are held.


Places to visit

Old Town Vilnius is one of the largest in Europe but can easily be explored on foot. Traffic into the cobbled streets is restricted while cafes spill out of the main buildings into the squares. We used our travel book as our guide and easily located the places we wanted to visit.

1. Town Hall Square - only located ½ block away from our hotel and anchored by the Town Hall, constructed at the end of the 18th century, on the south side of the square. The square was the center of public life for centuries. Today, small shops and cafes lined the perimeter of the square (our first dinner in Vilnius was at Restoranas Divino at the northwest corner of Town Hall Square).

2. Pilies Gatve or Pilies Street - one of the city’s oldest street stretching from Town Hall Square in the south to Cathedral Square in the north. It was once Vilnius’ commercial center. This is the main tourists’ area, especially those searching for local gifts and amber. Buildings on both sides of the street are beautiful with occasional narrow alleys in between. There are lots of cafes and restaurants along the street (we had lunch at Trattoria da Antonio on our first full day in Vilnius).

3. KGB Museum, also known as the Museum of Genocide Victims - opened in 1992 on the ground floor of the former KGB building. We had a hard time finding the entrance because it was located on a small side street. The first and second floor of the museum had exhibits chronicling the Soviet occupation of Lithuania under Stalin till 1940 and then until 1991 under the former Soviet Union. About 250,000 Jews lived in Lithuania at the turn of the 19th century, compared to just about 4,000 today. The basement of the building had the tiny prison cells, torture chamber and execution chamber. I made a quick circle around the basement as Lauren stayed upstairs. It was a cold and surreal place and should act as a reminder for the future generation to make sure this will never happen again.

4. Hill of Three Crosses - monument on top of a hill is a recognizable landmark of Vilnius. Lauren and I took the harder route by following the Vilnia River into a park, crossing a footbridge (adjacent to some tennis courts) and climbed up a steep set of steps up the hillside. We wouldn't be able to find this path if a woman jogger didn't help us with directions. The morning view of Vilnius was well worth the climb. There was an easier path by following the road east of Cathedral Square. We only found that out once we reached the base of the hill.


Our best dining experience was at Medininkai Restoranas inside Europa Royale Hotel. We actually didn’t know that the restaurant was part of a hotel. We were searching for a dinner place around Gates of Dawn and saw this restaurant through an open window. We had a small corner table and were fascinated by the selection on the menu, with a reminder that the chef had won a number of international awards. The service was good; the food was definitely excellent and worth coming back to.

We enjoyed our first 2 days in Vilnius. The location of the hotel helped a lot - it was so centrally located within Old Town Vilnius that it was convenient for us to take a short break at the hotel whenever we wanted to (especially when it started raining). But the prime location of the hotel also attracted some dignitaries. During our stay, we constantly ran into a group of English speaking bodyguards - with their small ear pieces and microphones coming out of their sleeves - in the lobby or in the breakfast area. There were several black Mercedes Benz with military escort parked in front of the hotel also. We had no idea who they were protecting but we knew they were staying at the same hotel.

The weather was very pleasant. We had occasional midday sprinkle but it didn’t last long. It was warm when the sun was out and it was cool in the evening - light jacket required. It was never crowded and we never had to wait for a table for lunch or dinner. We visited so many churches everyday and the doors were almost always opened - with no admission charge. The list above was only a small sampling of the churches we visited. We were also impressed with the Russian Orthodox Holy Mother of God Church, Church of St. Casimir across the street from our hotel, Church of St. Theresa and Church of All Saints. And there were still many others - at times, we felt that we were on a religious pilgrimage.

We didn’t see any tour buses at all … just minivans with tourists. It was obvious from our pictures that Vilnius was not overrun by tourists. Our kind of destinations! Everyone was always friendly and helpful. Lauren and I never had any problems communicating in English only. We just had to get used to 4:15am sunrise and 10:30pm sunset …. again, that’s summer in the Baltics.

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Photos

Town Hall Square
Cafes in the square and Town Hall on the south side of the square

Church of St. Anne
Small and beautiful

Presidential Palace
No tourists!

Gates of Dawn
Chapel on one side and the gate to Vilnius on the other side

Gates of Dawn
Silver encased picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Hill of Three Crosses
Beautiful view of Vilnius from here

KGB Museum
Engraved bricks all around the museum

Cathedral Square
With Vilnius Cathedral and its bell tower

Old Town Vilnius
With its narrow alleys and beautifully restored buildings

Dominican Church
Lavishly decorated Polish Catholic Church

Church of St. Casimir
Morning view from our hotel room