Trakai Lakes & Castle

We woke up to SUNSHINE! What a surprise – it's not something we have seen a lot of on this trip. We decided to drive the 10 minutes into Trakai and have a leisurely walk around the insular castle(known as the Island Castle) and eat lunch at a restaurant.

Trakai is the former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was founded in the 14

^th Century and the insular castle stands on an Island in the lake. There is another castle on the mainland called the Trakai Peninsular castle which is now just the ruined walls. This was thought to have been built by Duke Kestucio. Trakai itself is home to the Karaim, members of a Judaic sect whose ancestors were bought here from the Crimea by Grand Duke Vytautas to serve him as bodyguards. Around 200 of Trakai's inhabitants are Karaim, who recognise the Old Testament but not the Talmud. They are Lithuania's smallest ethnic minority, the street running along the castle is composed of their buildings.

There are two wooden footbridges leading over to the Island Castle.

This is one of Lithuania''s most famous monuments. Built in the 15^th Century by Duke Vytausas, under whose rule Lithuania reached its pinnacle of power, it fell into ruin in the 17^th Century. It was restored to it's former glory in the 1960''s. There was some excellent architectural drawings on exhibition showing various stages of its rebuilding. It also house an exhibition of 'smokabilia' the second we have seen in Lithuania. It's not surprising they are all obsessed with smoking – they are so cheap!

We then adjourned to a nearby restaurant for kibinas, the local specialty dish of mincemeat pastry – very similar to a Cornish pasty. It would have been much more enjoyable if we hadn't had to put up with being dive-bombed by half a dozen wasps. Alex spent the whole meal leaping up to get away from them.

It was such a lovely day we decided to return to the campsite to let the children spend the afternoon swimming in the lake – and enjoying the very expensive water slide – while we set up the tent to dry off and had a cup of tea. We treated ourselves to dinner at the campsite restaurant. Alex was disappointed with his potato pancakes and salmon as the salmon was raw. Shannon was quite surprised when she got here crispy chicken – it was coated in cornflakes! Chris and I really enjoyed our sea pike dish and a couple of glasses of local beer.

What a difference to have a day of sun!