A Trip to Lithuania

I visited this country as part of a wider tour of the Baltics made with my Fiat Tipo (see also LATVIA and ESTONIA). Entering from the border with Poland near Kalvarija I visited the capital Vilnius. The historic centre has some interesting churches and palaces. In the evening a stop in the modern city of Panevezys where I slept in a nice hotel. The next morning I crossed into Latvia. Returning from Latvia and Estonia I crossed the border near Joniskis and stopped at Siauliai, in whose surroundings is the Hill of Crosses. Here, when the Catholic religion was banned by the Soviet Union, the faithful came to pray and laid down crosses. Now the small hill is covered with thousands of crosses and a pilgrimage destination. Even Pope John Paul II prayed on the hill of Siauliai. I left Lithuania crossing the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad near Pagegiai.

The river Nemunas separates the two states. This is not an indispensable trip for a traveller; moreover, in the period when I was there it was extremely difficult to find petrol at the Lithuanian border with the Kaliningrad enclave. To enter Kaliningrad you need a transit visa, which I obtained in two days in Tallinn, Estonia.