Things to See in Lithuania

The National Museum holds a fantastic collection of ethnographic exhibits ranging from costumes to tools, weapons and jewellery. Kids will love the reconstructed dwellings of ancient Lithuanian peoples. Well worth an afternoon's perusal.

The centrepiece of the old Lithuanian capital of Trakai is its picture-postcard Island Castle. The painstakingly restored red-brick Gothic castle is perched atop an island on Lake Galv. It probably dates from around 1400, when Vytautas, Lithuania's Grand Duke of the time, needed stronger defences than the nearby peninsula castle afforded.

Lithuania's most incredible, awe-inspiring sight is the legendary Hill of Crosses. The two-humped hillock is covered in a forest of thousands upon thousands of crosses - large and tiny, expensive and cheap, wooden and metal. Some are devotional to accompany prayers, others are memorial.