Today we were heading towards Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital – but not without a few further stops on the stops.

A drive of about two hours (160km) got us to our first stop at Kernavė. This small town used to be the country’s capital under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania back in medieval times. We had a quick look at the church, to then make our way into the park behind the church with views towards the Neris river and the mounds, under which the old part of town is buried.

After a coffee/ tea/ cough syrup stop it was back on the bus for another one hour drive to Trakai and its island castle.

As we got of the bus in Trakai – ready for our walk into town and towards the castle – a thunderstorm was coming in. Rain hit us, while we were crossing the bridge to the castle – and it seems lightning had stricken somewhere around, as suddenly the power was gone … and did not come back for about two hours.

Work on this castle was started in the 14th century with most works completed in 1409 – obviously this did not involve an electrician, so it was actually a great experience, to have the guided tour without electric light, giving us the opportunity, to fully appreciate this true medieval atmosphere.

After the castle visit we made it to a restaurant, where – per the original plan – we were to learn, how to make kibinai – traditional Karaite (ethnic minority in Lithuania) savory pastries – to then go in and prepare our own lunch. Given the power outage though, this did not work out … and we were only served an already prepared light lunch.

After a quick souvenir hunt, we went for the last trip of the day – a drive of 45 minutes to Vilnius.