Lithuania - Kaunas Sketchpedition 2018 Required Elements

Kaunas is the second city of Lithuania, and for a brief time it was actually the temporary capital city of the newly independent nation in the 1920 and 30s while Vilnius had been annexed by Poland. Its interwar Art Deco architecture has earned it world heritage status, and is very much a leading centre for Lithuanian cultural life. 

In my opinion, it is a developing, rather than developed tourist destination. A lot of necessary tourist infrastructure is there - loads of hotels to suit all budgets, and what seems to me to be an excellent public transport network of buses and trolleybuses. However, the centre of Kaunas is not at all well signposted - well it's not signposted at all. Once you've found the Old Town there is a tourist information Office in the Town Hall Square. It was never open during my visit, but did have a couple of very helpful maps n the wall outside, which I photographed on my kindle. English use is not very widespread at all.

As for the required elements, well:-

* Ride a tram. Ride the Metro

Kaunas has no trams. Nor does it have a Metro system - which is hardly surprising considering the country's troubled history through the late 19th and 20th centuries. It does however have trolleybuses : - 

Generally I found Kaunas public transport - trolleybuses, ordinary buses and minibuses to be exceptionally cheap and reliable. 

*  Seek out and sketch the city's signature bridge

There's only 4 bridges in Kaunas and none of them are exactly world beaters. However this was my favourite.

This it the Vytautas the Great Bridge, built in 1948, during the 5 decades of Soviet occupation. One thing I like about Kaunas is that although there are reminders of Lithuania's trouble history throughout the city, it doesn't rub your face in them, and for all of this there is a feeling of looking towards the future. 

* Take a Boat sightseeing trip along the river

It is possible to do this in Kaunas. Not in April, though, for the company running the boats only operates from May - September. 

* Get up high and have a look over the city - preferably by funicular if they have one

They do have a funicular railway, which runs from the end of the Vytautas Bridge. The only real problem was that once I got to the top, there really wasn't a great view across the river to the Old Town. There should have been, but the viewing platform was fenced off, and there were trees obscuring the view from all other points.