European Capital of Culture 2022 and UNESCO World Heritage City, Kaunas is full of beautiful architecture and artwork. It’s the second biggest city in Lithuania with a population of just under 400,000 people; the whole country has around 2.8 million people. My spouse and I visited last weekend and had a lovely time, despite the unusually cold weather (it snowed!). It may seem to be a bit of a random choice to some, but we got a great deal on flights through Wizz Air, and I always love exploring new and different places.
After a 7am flight, we arrived at our hotel around lunchtime and were lucky enough to be able to check in straight away. Dagirdas Old City Hotel is in the heart of the Old Town, just a stone’s throw from the Old Town Square and numerous historic buildings.
We left our bags (we’d only brought a small backpack each to keep the flights cheap!) and went straight out for lunch. On the square were a few restuarants and we found a lovely one called Soul with traditional dishes on the menu. We shared a goat’s cheese salad, cheese doughnut duo and potato pancakes with cheese-spinach cream – all delicious.
After lunch, we began exploring the old part of the city and headed towards the castle. Kaunas Castle was originally built in the 14th century and is the city’s oldest landmark. It was destroyed and rebuilt more than once, with a major restoration in 2010, although parts of the original castle still remain. It is now a small museum as well, and there are great views of the city and nearby Neris River from the viewing platform at the top of the tower.
As the castle was full of students on a school trip when we got there, we decided to go for a walk through Santakos Park down to the confluence of the Neris and Nemunas Rivers. The views across the rivers and around the park were lovely. Although the sun was out intermittently, it hailed for a few minutes and we were very glad we’d worn our big winter coats!
We then headed back to the castle, by which time the students had all gone, and explored the museum inside the castle tower.
After that, it was time for some refreshments. Nearby was a chocolate cafe, CH Chocolaterie, so of course we had to go there. The cake (caramel for me and chocolate for my other half) and hot chocolate were delicious, and we bought a few handmade chocolates to take home with us as well.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the old town, finding random works of art and admiring the historic buildings, before finding a traditional Lithuania restaurant for dinner, Bernelių Užeiga.
We weren’t very hungry as we were still full of chocolate and cake, so we ordered smaller dishes to try – beetroot soup and baked Lithuanian cheese, which were, once again, delicious.
The next day, we set off for Laisvés Avenue, one of the longest pedstrian streets in Europe at just over a mile long. On the way, we had some traditional Lithuanian dumplings at a wonderful little café and bakery called Dviratis Ir Gitara. We had one portion filled with vegetables and the other filled with curd cheese and spinach, both of which were served with sour cream and really tasty. They had a huge selection of cakes, cookies and pastries, which we couldn’t resist trying as well. We shared one of their traditional varškės spurgos (curd cheese doughnuts), freshly baked, followed by a different kind of ring doughnut filled with pistachio cream.
Full of delicious food, we set off along the pedestrian street, and came across the longest market I’ve ever been to. We didn’t buy anything, but it was fascinating to look at all the different stalls selling everything from fish smoked right in front of you to pastries, cakes, cheese, and meat, as well as all kinds of clothes, hats, candles, gifts, and more, interspersed with murals, sculptures, other works of art, and more historic buildings. At the far end of the street was St. Michael the Archangel (Garrison) Church, which was built in 1895; a very impressive building you could see from a long way down the street.
After a quick stop for hot chocolate and to warm up (there was the occasional flurry of snow in amongst the rain!), we headed for Unity Square where there are several statues and sculptures, including the Freedom Monument and War Memorial with its eternal fire.
Our final stop before dinner was the Yard Gallery – a once derelict courtyard surrounded by apartments, which has been turned into an open air gallery by artist Vytenis Jakas with help from other artists and neigbours.
Dinner was at Avilys, another restaurant with traditional dishes on the menu. We had hoped to try the cepelinai, traditional potato dumplings, but they only had ones stuffed with meat, not cheese as we were hoping. Instead, we had cheese doughnuts and fried bread with cheese sauce as starters, then I had ravioli with mascarpone, walnuts and sage sauce and my spouse had risotto with boletus (mushroom) and spinach, all of which was really good.
In the morning, we had a final walk across the Old Town square and along the pedestrian street to grab a quick breakfast at one of the cafés before our taxi to the airport.
Kaunas is a lovely, quiet city with lots to see and do. I’d definitely recommend a visit if you get the chance.
Shreyans, the manager, welcomed us to Sambhar Heritage Resort. We were given a drink of fresh guava juice with a rim of salt from the lake, and then shown to our rooms which were Swiss tents.
The resort rooms are all tents because the land is owned by the government and so permanent structures are not allowed to be built there, other than those already there. One such building is the resort restaurant, NaCl, which is 150 years old and was built by the British. We had a delicious lunch in NaCl and around 3.20pm we set off for our local tour.
We were asked if we’d rather drive along the road or across the lake, to which we said definitely across the lake! As it’s dry season the water level in the lake is lower than usual and so it’s possible to drive across part of the lake bed as a shortcut to the other side. We stopped for a few minutes to admire the view and look at the flocks of flamingos through the binoculars Shreyans had considerately brought with him for us to use.
As we continued on our way we saw a few nilgai which is the largest of the Asian antelopes and whose name means ‘blue cow’. The females are brown and the males are a blue-grey colour. We got quite close before they bolted.
Sambhar Salt Lake is 9% salt with a maximum depth of only 3.5 feet and is about 90 square miles. In comparison the ocean is usually around 3.5% salt.
Across the curve of the lake we reached a small peninsula. Here we visited Shakhambari Temple, where there are Indian records showing there has been a temple here for at least 2000 years.
In the temple we were blessed by the priest and each given a red bindi, our first of the trip. We then climbed up to a viewpoint where we had a 360 degree view of the lake and the hills behind.
In this part of India Marwari is the local language and only a couple of the staff at the resort speak English. Shreyans’ English was excellent, which may be why he was our main contact and guide while we stayed in Sambhar.Once we’d had our fill of the views we drove back through a local village and to a small shop, encountering a few local animals on the way.
We went back to the resort where we picked up bicycles so we could cycle along the dam across the lake. After a rather bumpy ride Shreyans showed us agood place to stop and watch flocks of flamingos fly overhead while the sun set. It was beautiful.
We cycled back to the resort, and my bike chain came off for the second time whilst Toby’s bike broke completely; he got a ride on the back of the motorcycle Shreyans had ridden in on the back of, while he walked back with Toby’s broken bike.
We had a few minutes chilling out in the room then met around 7pm for dinner, which was included in our tour package. We had an Indian feast! To start we had vegetable, noodle and coconut milk soup followed by an appetiser of tikka paneer. We then had palak paneer, mushroom curry and dal, accompanied by garlic naan, saffron rice and salad. This banquet was finished off with a hot carrot pudding, which was interesting in both flavour and texture. I quite liked it but the others weren’t so sure!
We ended the evening playing Monopoly Deal with a couple of glasses of beer (or Bacardi breezer in my case) in Jo and Nikki’s room, before a very quiet night’s sleep interspersed with the sounds of wild animals.After a breakfast with all of the food, we went on a tiny train that seats only six people plus staff. It’s around 100 years old, stopped working in the 1970s and was renovated in the last couple of years to be used as a tourist attraction. It still has the same engine as when it had originally. It was used initially by the Britishers and engineers to check on the salt production. They always had to have five people on the train (three in the driver’s cabin and two in the back) as when they got to the far end the train had to be physically picked up and turned around to go back again! So for safety, we also had to have five people as well as us in case the train needed to be picked up and turned around.
We rode the train out to the salt pans, with a short stop for the points to be manually changed. The colour of the water, and the stillness was incredible.
At the salt pans water is pumped from the lake to the salt pans to a depth of 3-3.5 feet. It is left for about three months didn’t which it evaporates down to about 1-1.5 feet. Salt crystals form on the surface and once they get to a certain density they sink to the bottom. You can literally put your hand in the water and scoop out a handful of salt crystals.
The larger pans use tractors to scoop out the salt crystals, the smaller ones in town are done by hand. Once the salt has been removed the remaining water is pumped out back to the lake. This left-over water has a very high bacteria content which means algae grows well which attracts the flamingos to the lake. Workers then remove the top layer of soil in the bottom of the pan by hand, add a fresh layer of soil then pump fresh water in from the lake and the whole process starts over again. Start to finish it takes around 3.5 months. As this is a government enterprise the salt is sold at only 5 rupees per kg. This is very cheap as most companies sell their salt for 12 rupees per kg.
We stopped out by the salt pans while the manager Shreyans explained the process to us, and then waited while the workers collected some fresh salt to give us.
There are 32 or 33 salt pans here and they produce 10% of the salt consumption for all of India. Sambhar salt is just for Indian consumption, it isn’t exported as mostly Himalayan salt is exported from India.This was our final experience in Sambhar, and absolutely fascinating. We were each given a small pot of the salt that had been collected for us to take home. A perfect souvenir before setting off for our next stop, Jodhpur.
Once we left the Qutub Minar our tour guide Shiva left, with a tip of 1000 rupees from us, to catch the bus. We set off on a 5 hour drive to Jaipur after a fantastic first day in New Delhi, India.
Once we’d made our way to the pick-up point by the train station, we had a short coach ride to Pompeii for a three-hour guided tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and made sure that our group had time to look around for ourselves as well as showing and telling us about different areas. The main thing that struck me about Pompeii was the sheer size of the place. I knew it had been a town, but I hadn’t realised it had been a sizeable city of several thousand people before Vesuvius had decimated it in 79AD. Two thirds of it have been excavated, giving a huge area that can be explored. It’s absolutely amazing. If you haven’t been there, go!
At the end of our guided tour of Pompeii we had a few minutes to buy a drink and souvenirs. My sister and I got matching bracelets made of Vesuvius rock and Murano glass beads, as well as a lemon granita as it was really hot. Our group headed back to the coach and then to the vineyard on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius where we would have our lunch.
The vineyard was gorgeous. We were given a short tour which included an explanation of how they use roses at the end of each row of vines to check for diseases instead of using pesticides. Lunch was held in an open room which looked out towards Vesuvius’ peak.
Along with lunch we got to try six different wines produced at the vineyard. It was a really great way to do wine tasting, as it really made a difference and gave you an idea of the kinds of dishes different wines would go with. We had a sparkling rosé, a still rosé, a white, two reds and a dessert wine, all of which were delicious and went perfectly with the simple yet scrumptious food. Of course, I preferred the reds, and if I hadn’t been about to go travelling for a few weeks I may have bought some to take back with me! My sister bought one of the rooster jugs as it was really cool – the water poured out of its beak!
Instead of the usual post-lunch nap, our afternoon was going to be spent walking off lunch by going to the top of Mount Vesuvius. The hike up took about 45 minutes and was quite steep most of the way, but the views were absolutely worth it. We had enough time at the top to stop for a quick cold drink, get a good look into the crater and walk most of the way around the rim. There were also souvenirs in a small kiosk, which my sister took full advantage of!
After we’d admired the view sufficiently, we made our way back down the volcano, found our coach and headed back to Naples for dinner and some chill out time before an early night. It was an exhausting but awesome day, and definitely one to tick off the bucket list.The next day we visited Herculaneum or Ercolano, as it is in Italian. This was another town which was devastated by the same eruption of Vesuvius as destroyed Pompeii; however, this one was covered with lava rather than ash. This meant that many more buildings were preserved in a much better condition than those in Pompeii.
When we first entered the site we were a little underwhelmed by the size of it having just been to the city of Pompeii. Once we started looking around though, we discovered just how well-preserved it was. Many buildings still had roofs, mosaics on the floors and paint on the walls. It took us nearly three hours to look at the most significant buildings and it was fascinating to see the detail in the mosaics and wall decorations.
If you visit Pompeii, ensure you make time for a visit to Herculaneum as well.As a side note, there are two train stations in Ercolano and the site of Herculaneum is about a fifteen minute walk from either one, pretty much in the middle of the town. Don’t let a taxi driver talk you into believing it’s 6km away and charging you €10 to take you there via a very scenic route as we did!
By the time we finished looking around the forum, we were starving so we went in search of the closest restaurant. The place we eventually found was Angelino ‘ai Fori’ dal 1947, where we had delicious food and cocktails (although my sister didn’t like her aperol spritz!).
Finally we made our way to the station for our train back to Naples only to find out that it – and all the other trains to Naples – had been delayed by around 2 hours. Luckily we were able to get on an earlier train that had also been delayed, meaning we only left Rome about 40 minutes later than planned instead of 2 hours. Despite this it was an epic, if exhausting, day.
Persephone Travels 