Last sketch in Kaunas

So, yesterday my sketchpedition to Kaunas ended. I'd already planned the journey to the airport the night before, and decided that ideally I wanted to leave the hotel at 8, and that at the latest I needed to leave at 8:30. I was ready by 7:30, so that was it, I was off.

This gave me actually a good three quarters of an hour between arriving at the Railway station, and catching the bus to airport just outside it, and so I took a wander towards ton. Just round the corner I saw these guys. This wasn't a market, they'd just placed their goods on the pavement and were selling them to anyone who seemed at all inclined to buy.

It's nice from time to time to try to catch figures in poses. There's three distinct pairs of figures here. Each pair was done very quickly in one go, which means that this exact scene never quite happened - it's a composite sketch to that extent, although still faithful to the scene itself. Also I did the filling in of shapes after I'd done the outlines.

Kaunas Day Three

Day three was my last full day in Kaunas, but this time I didn’t have a concrete itinerary. I had a couple of objectives in mind, but was also inclined to follow my nose. Once in Kaunas town centre I headed for a huge, white, art deco church on top of the hill overlooking the town. This is the Church of Christ’s Resurrection. It was begun in the 1930s. The building of a church in Kaunas, the temporary capital, to celebrate Lithuanian independence from Russia was an idea which came about very soon after the end of the First World War, but they didn’t get round to having a design competition until 1928. Ironically it was just about completed by 1940, when work naturally enough had to stop. After the war, Stalin decided that it would be used as a radio factory. Money being scarce after Independence, the Church was not actually consecrated until 2004. To me, it’s so art deco that it brings to me two buildings – neither of which it actually looks at all like – the Hoover Building in Perivale, and the original Wembley Stadium.

Back down the hill then, to do a wee bit more painting in Liesvas Aleja. Here I had my first conversation with a passer-by. He sat down just as I was finishing, and when I replied to what he said with my usual shoulder shrug and “Sorry – I’m English”, he started a conversation . His English wasn’t, it must be said, completely intelligible, whether through a lack of vocabulary, or from the alcoholic fumes wafting from his breath, I couldn’t be sure. I think he said that the UK are crazy, and it’s America for him. You’re welcome, I said. I made my apologies and left.

Museums, then. Handily placed on the Liesvas Aleja is the Zoological Museum. Now, if you like stuffed animals, this is the place for you. Look, I kind of expect that from a Natural History Museum sort of thing, but I did think the room full of mounted stags heads and antlers was taking the pee. I did make a sketch of a coelacanth. Childhood memories of watching Sir David of Attenborough’s “Life on Earth” demanded no less.

On to the Vytautas the Great War Museum. I entered the door, and the woman behind the desk looked at me, and when I did the shoulder shrug thing she asked , “What do you want?” What did she think I wanted? Don’t tell me they get so few visitors that they’ve forgotten what visitors are supposed to do, I thought. No, actually, when I told her “I’d actually rather like to see the Museum.” She told me I was in the wrong place, and that entry was upstairs. Of course it was.

Time was getting on, and I still had one place I really wanted to visit. This meant another long walk back into the Old Town. This time I went by the riverbank for variety’s sake. You may remember that I said it was like a breath of springtime yesterday. Well, this afternoon in Kaunas we had the 12 inch version of that. It was absolutely beautiful, and the first time I can remember being hot outdoors since last summer. Back at the Old Town I wanted to go into the St. Peter and Paul Basilica. I passed by it yesterday and Wednesday, but hadn’t been inside. However I’d since read that the Basilica contains relics of Pope John Paul II, since his canonisation, and thus intrigued I popped in for a holy shuftie. Well, it’s true. There’s a huge oil painting of the lad himself, and a box continuing relics underneath. I couldn’t see what was in it because there were half a dozen worshippers kneeling in front of it. I’m not so impious that I’d have wanted to disturb them, so I left them to it. I hope their prayers are answered.

Kaunas Day Two

Thursday, day two, was always going to be a hectic sketching day. During my wanderings the bus station, outside which was a helpful streetmap which I photographed. I found another one on a wall in the town hall square, which showed less of the town, but had landmarks marked on it. Using these I had a rudimentary itinerary sketched out, should you pardon the pun.

Back to the Old Town to begin, where I made this sketch in Vilnius Street, which should hopefully give an example of what I meant about the architecture of the street and the way it is laid out.

Thence to the Vytautas Bridge. I crossed it and took the funicular railway, which I sketched on my required elements post.

Crossing the bridge back to the old town I stopped to make this watercolour sketch of the Vytautas the Great Church. Whoever Vytautas was, they thought a lot of him in Kaunas.

I needed to do some shopping, and so I walked along the riverbank to the Akropolis shopping mall. My map told me that this was close to the Archangel Michael Church, and so this also gave me the chance to do some unfinished business in Laisves Aleja. I made another watercolour sketch of a building I liked.

Along the Laisves Aleja there are several statues of what I presume were prominent former citizens of Kaunas. This chap was a former mayor of Kaunas, ad I believe quite instrumental in Lithuanian moves for independence following world war one.

It was a bit of a step from there to Kaunas Castle, but even thought only about a third of the original 14^th century building remains, it’s still quite impressive, and sitting on top of the dry moat I found it one of the calmest and most peaceful places in Kaunas.

Looking behind me I realised I could see the tower of the town hall, and it didn’t look far away either. In fact I was right by the Old Town, which enabled me to nip back to the town hall square, and make this sketch of the St. Peter and Paul cathedral Basilica.

Kaunas Day One:

Arriving late on the Tuesday evening, my first setback came when the receptionist at the hotel refused to accept my (or any) credit card. This meant I had to use my hardearned Euros, which in turn meant that I had to get to an ATM at the earliest opportunity.

The receptionist only spoke enough English to tell me I had to pay cash and to tell me that the 51 and 57 buses went into town. Not where they went from. There was a bus stop outside the hotel, but it didn’t say that either bus stopped there. I walked about half a kilometre to a crossroads, and saw what looked like a shopping mall away off into the distance along the left hand turning. Having bought a bottle of water inside, I came out to find that this was where the 51 and 57 buses turned round. 

Once in town I found an ATM fairly quickly, and this meant I could begin to explore properly, and to sketch.

Kaunas is big on great churches, but terrible for maps or signposts. This huge hunk of baroque and roll provided me with a very useful point at which to get my bearings. It’s the Archangel Michael Roman Catholic Church, and stands at the end of Laisves Aleja, a long and impressive pedestrianised thoroughfare through the centre of Kaunas, which is rather like a Parisian Boulevard. And it is utterly massive. Guess how many people stopped to compliment me on my sketch while I was making it? That's right, none. I have only got a day's experience to base this on, but the good people of Kaunas seem rather like East coast Scots to me - they're not the most demonstrative of people, but they are actually very kind, and I expect that once they're taken with you, then you've got a friend for life.

At the other end of the Laisves Aleja is Vilnius Street, and this leads down into the Old Town. I like the Old Town, although it doesn’t possess the narrow, crooked streets that the name ‘old town’ maybe conjures up. No, I walked through pleasant wide streets, lined with fine baroque buildings, until they opened up in the town hall square.

I've already posted my sketch of the Vytautas the Great Bridge, which is close to the Old Town, and a trolleybus, but I also made on more sketch on this first day. This is just behind the Town Hall, and is part of a seminary which forms one corner of the square.

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.