Trakai Castle (mostly in pictures), and the last evening in Vilnius

After days and days of various forms of inclement weather over the course of several cities, it was nice to wake up and see the sun. Perfect weather for a visit to Trakai Castle, a castle begun in the 14th century, added to and modified over the years, attacked, ruined, rebuilt, left to rot, restored etc. This seems to be the course of most castles that are still open across Europe. It is now a museum and sits on an island in a lake at the town of Trakai, about a 25 minute bus ride from Vilnius. 

The day was quite gorgeous. Either these ducks were in denial or there was something really tasty down below...


This post will be short, and mainly pictorial because the images show much more than what I could describe.

The displays in the first few rooms were very museum-y, showcasing regional items from the relevant eras of the castle's occupancy.




The way that it was laid out actually guided people through quite well, without making you feel too much like you were being shepherded. Unfortunately (fortunately for the castle) they are doing some works in the keep and the moat, meaning that it was difficult to get a photo without fences and earthworks in it. But that's part and parcel of ongoing restorations I suppose.

Moving on through the next rooms took us through some displays of what the furnishings and surroundings may have been like at the time. 



Next we crossed the drawbridge to the castle proper. The layout was such that we were guided throughout the rooms and levels in this part.


A lot of what was displayed was based on religion as that was such a huge part of everyday life for the people of the time. I do love the ceilings. They were much the same through the whole castle.






On the whole, the museum aspect of the place was well-done. But the mannequins were a bit odd...




After grabbing some lunch at a place outside the castle we headed back to Vilnius for one last stroll and some dinner. We did manage to sneak into a gorgeous church. Vilnius doesn't seem to have an 'open door' church culture like many other places do. We went into what we thought was the main door and found ourselves in a hallway like we were in an admin area, but we could hear that a service was taking place somewhere. Pretending for all the world like we were meant to be there, we picked a direction and walked. We did end up in the church part, but it was during an actual service (although there weren't many people there) so we tried to be very subtle. Then we had to find our way out again!


And we also snuck into another one that had a priest monotone-ing in Latin. Again we used our amazing stealth skills. Equally beautiful, unusual colours.


Then one last wander and a drink and a burger (at a Breaking Bad themed burger place)...



Sorry for a bit of a cop-out post. Will do better with Vienna and Ljubljana...

And I didn't take any photos of the burger joint! I didn't realise until now.

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