Lithuania 2023, Day 13, Sunday – Trakai and Birstonas

Mer had done a great job keeping all of the drives on this trip to a couple of hours or less. But, unless you are doing a circle, you will probably have a long day to get back to where you started. That day was today. We had a four-hour drive to Trakai, which is a small town just outside of Vilnius.

Tourists pretty much go to Trakai to see one thing – the reconstructed castle that sits on a small island in one of the lakes. The castle was built about 1400, and the capital was moved there for a time. Eventually the castle fell into ruins, and in the 1800s, artists and poets started coming to it and lamented that it was in ruins. Around 1900, a private citizen used his own money to restore one tower. Finally, around 1930, things took off, and by about 1990, the castle was fully restored and is now a symbol of Lithuania that graces multiple postcards and guidebooks. It’s rated in all tourist books and sites as a must-see.

As a side note, it is interesting to me that the country restored it (mainly under the Soviets, which I found odd, since a castle isn’t a proletariat kind of thing). My understanding is there is a serious debate in archaeology of conservation versus restoration. In conservation, you keep the ruins in the best shape you can, but you leave them as ruins. In restoration, you rebuild the missing bits. Outside of Trakai Castle, I can only think of one restoration on an original site that I have seen – the Newgrange burial tomb in Ireland, where an archaeologist in the 1970s restored the decorative outside of the tomb from the rock he found there, and modern archaeologists take exception to that decision. So to do it on the scale of a whole castle is something.

A good something, at least for the economy. We got into town, on a Sunday, around 2:30, and the place was mobbed. It took us awhile even to find parking, and when we did, it was because Mer saw a sign at the end of a side street that most people probably missed. There were multiple tour buses parked in a big lot, so people come to see the castle and, on a sunny day like today, to play in the lakes. We were about fifteen minutes from the castle, so where we parked was a little quieter, so we decided to eat at the first place we found, which overlooked a lake. It was a pleasant spot.

We got launched on our castle outing around 3:00, and got to the bridge going there a little after that. It was packed with people everywhere, but, as it turned out, we had probably hit the last high-tourist time. The castle is open until 7:00, but by 4:30 or so, the tours go home.

The approach to the castle is fun. You cross a bridge to an island, then skirt the island halfway to another bridge, where you finally see the front of the castle. It’s a great unveiling. The castle is stone and brick, but the brick is the most visible, so it gives the impression that the front is all red. We crossed the bridge and were delighted that for whatever reason, the admission today was free. Score!

The castle has two courtyards – an outer one and an inner one, where there is a large central tower. There were open doors in the outer courtyard rooms, so we checked them out. When the outer court was reconstructed, the local history museum set up displays in the twelve rooms open to the public. The displays have nothing specific to do with the castle – it’s just the gallery for them. There were displays on porcelain figures, carved ivory, crystal, signet stamps, smoking pipes, and, a bit oddly to us, beaded purses. We looked at everything in a cursory way, which was sufficient, since we had a time limit to see everything.

The inner keep was more interesting in that it had to do with the castle. There were three levels of courtyard stairs that led into rooms that had displays of the history of the castle and the restoration effort, as well as the archaeological finds found on the site. Again, we didn’t dwell too much, but we did read a few placards on the history of the place, which is how I know about the restoration process.

We popped outside to walk around the castle and had gotten halfway around when a bird relived himself on Mer’s purse, which is now the second time that that has happened in Europe in the last two years. Odd. But that required her to walk back to the bathrooms in the castle to wash it off, so I sat on a bench looking at the lake.

When Mer rejoined me, guano-free, we managed to get around the whole castle. It was easier to see where the original castle section met the restored section when we could get closer to the walls on the three back sides. We explored the tiny island, which was mostly a matter of finding places to look at the lake, and then we headed back to shore. I wanted to find a good picture spot, which we did. We kept going along the shore of the lake until we saw a large dark cloud front coming in. We beat a hasty retreat as the wind sprang up. We got back to the car with thirty minutes left on our parking tag, but we had avoided the rain that was coming. So that was a successful outing.

It would have made sense to stay in the Trakai area until we fly home Tuesday – it’s close to Vilnius and the airport – but I wanted a mellow ending to the vacation. We headed west again for an hour to Birstonas, which is a small spa town just south of Kaunas. We checked in to the hotel just as a drenching rain let go, so we tried to get supper in the hotel restaurant. They were out of the couple of things I wanted to try, and by then the rain had stopped, so we went out on the town. The easiest way into town is through a park of tall pines, and, being in Lithuania, the park was full of sculptures, including one of a fat and happy-looking kitty. The air was cool, and the birds were singing, and it was a nice contrast to the crowds at the castle. We found a restaurant that was open, and we were the only customers for a time before a family joined us in the room. It was mellow, with quiet jazz music playing covers of eighties pop songs. Fun times.

That was the day. It was a shorter day because of the drive, but we made good use of it. Tomorrow, we’ll be in a pretty spa town where breakfast starts at 9:00, so we even get to sleep in. I still want to tour the town, as there are things to see and do here, but it can be a mellow touring kind of day. We’ll see where whimsy leads me.

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