Lithuania
We stayed in a beautiful campsite about 30 km west of Vilnius. Hamony campsite was in a forest clearing with areas of garden. Originally set up by a Lithuania lady, Irena, and her Dutch husband with a focus on catering for cyclists, since he died she now manages it on her own. There was a wooden house in the middle of the campsite used as a reception and social area and it was lovely to meet a French lady, Ana, who had cycled from France. Irena provides lifts to the nearby station to her guests who want to visit Vilnius. So we spent a full day there the next day. We walked around the old town, went inside several huge and incredibly ornate churches, had a lovely lunch on a terrace (thought we witnessed a lady taking the money her date had left for the bill) and visited the Palace of the Grand Dukes museum. In Lithuania the infrastructure seems very old and many of the buildings appear to be in a poor state of repair. In Vilnius Old Town, although a few of the main streets had restored buildings, we saw many which were crumbling as if they had been neglected for years. That said, apparently the new part of the city (which we didn't visit) is developing fast.
It was another very hot day, so city walking was tiring. In the late afternoon, the skies darkened and there was an intense downpour of rain. The first rain since we set off nearly three weeks ago. We spent the last hour sheltering in the station people watching.
A very high train (think it would be difficult to lift a bike up on to this carriage!)
