courtyard at the Church of St. Johns

I left Klaipeda in the early morning and took a bus to the capital of Lithuania: Vilnius.

Vilnius is the biggest city of Lithuania with around 600,000 inhabitants. Due to a large number of churches among the many historic buildings, it received the nickname of “Rome of the North”. In addition, Vilnius had a strong Jewish community until the start of World War II and was commonly compared to Jerusalem. In the years following Lithuania’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, large parts of the city center were renovated and modernised. Today, Vilnius is a really impressive European capital with many impressive sights.

I had two days to explore beautiful Vilnius and also went for a half-day excursion to nearby Trakai Castle before continuing my journey to Latvia.