Our strategy for today was simple, GET INTO BELARUS! As our flight wasn’t until the evening, we had plenty of time to visit the Old Town one last time. After spending 5 days in Vilnius, I think we came to know the lay of the land far too well!
Our short Uber experience out to the airport was rather…unhelpful? The best bet if you are a wheelchair user is to contact the ‘Maltieciai’ service (who we transferred with when we arrived in Lithuania) as it is unknown what size vehicle to expect (even for a manual wheelchair!).
Now, when I think of airports i.e. Bristol or Heathrow, I envisage them being surrounded by hotels, car parks etc, not an airfield literally around the back of a conventional industrial estate, oh, and an IKEA to peruse whilst waiting for check-in! Vilnius airport with its Soviet styled exterior isn’t the biggest airport in the world but it has all you need plus a number of disabled toilets!
We flew to Minsk National Airport (or airfield as the hostess put it!) with Belavia (a Belarusian airline) and had a flight time of just 35 minutes. As a result, our plane wasn’t the biggest and I have noted that small aircraft and wind do not mix thus the PAs had a very exciting flight…or perhaps not!
Seeing the airport from the air did confirm my expectations of it being an ‘end of the motorway’ structure surrounded by fields and trees…the air quality was pleasantly nice stepping out from the marble and pristine terminal! As I mentioned originally, there are no publicly known wheelchair taxi services in Belarus so your opinions are to catch an accessible bus OR to catch a conventional taxi. We opted for the latter taking 40 minutes and costing a mere 150 Belarusian Rubles!
Tomorrow is our only day in Minsk so let’s see how that goes…