|
|
|||||
|
|
||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
After crossing over the border into Lithuania our next stop was the Geographical centre of Europe to sign our names in the visitors book and get our certificates, also of course to take photos, it lies just 26 km North of Vilnius the capital of Lithuania (54°54'N 25°19'E). Then it was on to Trakai a few miles southwest of Vilnius.
Trakai is the ancient capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and is an interesting small town, a tourist stop in itself, having a very picturesque fairy tale castle on an island surrounded by water, originally built in the 14th century although extensively rebuilt quite recently. I was particularly interested in the houses in the area as they were mostly wooden bungalows probably built in the 18 or early 19 hundreds as I had spent many of the war years in one very similar to these while living with my Grandparents in the New Forest. Seeing the same style of houses stirred up many old but happy memories, even though we had no running water or electricity and it was at the end of an unmade up track. In the forest the life was very idyllic, or it was for me anyway. I was allowed to wander on the common outside the gate, where the ferns were higher than me, but was warned not to go near the lily pond where the ponies came to drink and no further than the small gravel pit from where I was always finding and taking home baby rabbits. They did not seem to be afraid of me as I was so small but I was always returned with the rabbit to the spot where I got it from by my Gran “so that its mummy could find it”, hence my love of nature. Now back to the subject in hand.
After spending a day exploring Trakai the next we caught the local transport into Vilnius. The most I remember about the town was that many of the buildings we went to see including those in the central square were covered in green netting or scaffolding; also many of the streets were being repaired and re-laid with pavers paid for by the EU. So as a result I do not have any photos worth including in this article. I did find the parks also the churches many of which were built in patterned red brick very interesting, but I do not want to bore you with too many pictures of churches.
On we headed south west down to the Polish border where a male border guard requested all the paper work for myself and motorhome which was an unusual event, normally it was just a passport check. After about 5 minutes a female guard came out with what looked like my documents, had a look through the wind screen to where my passenger would have sat, if I had one! shook her head and went back inside. After another ten minutes the male guard came out and gave me a strange look, so I gave him the palms up what’s happening signal after which he shot back into the office and a minute later out came the female again with my papers looking rather embarrassed, you can guess what he had said to her. “The English have the steering wheel on the other side, you stupid woman”, she had obviously thought the driver had left the van. Not far from the border was a small village called Wigry, where we decided to stop and have a look at a monastery or I think it was, as I was not taking notes on my trips at that stage, but to a lot of people it was a pilgrimage site. While walking around, we came across an area where there were a lot of pictures of individuals, couples and family groups, obviously from the 1930s or 40s so I asked a girl who stood near me if she spoke English and could she tell me what the pictures were about or represented. It turned out that she was from America but her family had come from Wigry, she was able to inform us that these were complete families who had been taken away into the woods by the Gestapo and shot during WW2. “Including the children”. Man’s inhumanity to man never ceases to amaze and sadden me; the trouble is it is still going on in some parts of the world today.
Moving on our next stop was the Bialowieski National Park to see the Bison and other animals. Once again in this area the houses were mostly of wooden construction. On the second day there we went on a guided walking tour of the park but did not come across any wild animals, I think we were conned a bit there. So next day we went to a zoo area, where many of the animals were fenced in, at least we saw the Bison there. After which it was on to Warsaw, more on my journey in the next issue. Christine Culley |
|
page last updated |
