Today was the first of two tower experiences on this trip (the other one being in Minsk on Monday) thus headed to the Vilnius TV Tower. Now, an able bodied would have two walking options to reach this landmark, the easiest being through the lush green forests (Vingio Parkas) that seems to be of plenty in the city, the other one being to follow various dual carriageways. You can immediately guess which option muggins had to take…don’t be stupid, of course the forest walk isn’t going to be accessible! It is with this that we set off on our quest coincidentally straight through the financial district…
Like many European cities, as soon as you step out of the city centre, the pavements aren’t exactly…smooth? It’s not all doom and gloom though, instead of having steep ramps to access underpasses, many have various elevators down akin to a metro station…
One of the reasons why I wanted to visit the TV Tower (bar it having an observation deck/restaurant) was due to its tragic role that it played in the opposition to the Soviet military seizure in 1991 where many were injured for which there is a museum in commemoration.
The plan was also to visit the restaurant strangely named the ‘Milky Way’ which, unbeknown to me consists of a rotating dining area providing a 360 degree view of Vilnius as you eat (very cheap too!)…
I think we were all in agreement that the bus would be the best option to get back to the hotel afterwards. The majority of buses in Vilnius are low floor with a conventional pull out ramp (as 95% of the bus stops don’t have ‘humps’).
Tomorrow is our last full day in Vilnius before catching the train down to Minsk on Sunday afternoon. On our short walk on Wednesday evening, we discovered that a footpath runs for miles along the River Neris out of the city (which isn’t too far anyway) so the plan is just to see where we end up…