Day 1 Kaunas – Babtai – Kėdainiai – Pakalniškiai – Šiauliai
Kaunas is Lithuania's second city and was the capital of the country from 1920 until 1939. The Old Town, Town Hall, the Cathedral Basilica of St Peter and St Paul the Apostles, and the House of Perkūnas are all worth visiting; also take a stroll down Laisvės Alėja, and stop by the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art and the Devil Museum.
- Tadas Ivanauskas Homestead park "Obelynė" - this is where you can see a collection of 300 species and forms of plants, including some of the oldest trees on the planet – the ginkgo biloba and the dawn redwood. The orchard growing at the homestead of the famous naturalist, Professor Tadas Ivanauskas, is one of the richest sources of heritage apple genetic resources. The garden is home to the ‘Vytis’ apple variety that was created by Professor Ivanauskas himself. Obelynė Park covers an area of about 6.5 hectares. This is also home to the huge Beržininkai Pineapple apple tree – also known as the Garden Mother, it is 11 metres tall and its crown is 12 metres wide.
- Continue driving from Obelynė for another 15 minutes or so and visit the Oldest Apple Tree in Lithuania, which is almost 360 years old and still yields fruit. Even though the apple tree grows on a private plot, it is marked with an informational stand. The wild apple tree is 8 metres tall, with a width of 285 centimetres at a height of 1.3 metres. Only a few branches of the apple tree are still alive, but they are covered with lush foliage and yield fruit which, though rather acidic, is extremely fragrant.
- Take a stroll around the Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas Botanical Garden to see the unique plants growing there. The garden covers an area of over 60 hectares, with about 30 hectares of exhibits that are open to the public. This garden has the largest conservatory in Lithuania and hosts various exhibitions and meetings, celebrates the weeks of blossoming and arranges educational events. Heritage Lithuanian flower garden plants are displayed in different plant communities according to their botanical classification. More than 20 species of traditional heritage vegetables varieties are grown in the educational garden. In the Lithuanian heritage apple orchards, visitors can see the rare purple-leaf apple tree.
- The Lithuanian Institute of Horticulture carries out both scientific and experimental/production activities. Its experimental base is made up of experimental gardens, test greenhouses, and a nursery. This institute grows Lithuanian fruits and vegetables, and uses them to produce healthy and natural products of exceptional quality. At the institute, you can also purchase various fruit tree and fruit bush seedlings as well as seasonal fruit and vegetables.
Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Institute of Horticulture Kauno St. 30, Babtai, Kaunas District
- At the Garsi tyla (Loud silence) homestead, which is perched on the slope of the old Nevėžis riverbed, ‘happy food’ is produced from everything that is grown on the farm. The homestead has a 2.3-hectare, 100-year-old orchard with about 113 apple trees, 18 pear trees and 8 sweet cherry trees. The owner of the homestead also grows culinary herbs such as tarragon, lovage, peppermint and sage, as well as ornamental plants such as hollyhocks, peonies, dahlias and daylilies.
Burbiškis Manor has been in existence since the 17th century. In 1991, the Daugyvenė Museum of Cultural History was established here – a reserve that covers an area of 28 hectares. The park is mixed in style, with wonderful, picturesque ponds embellished with little islands. The islands have cosy rest areas accessed by elegant wooden and stone bridges. Both the manor house and the park grounds are full of sculptures. Since 2000, the Tulip Bloom Festival has been organised here, during which some 300 species of tulips are on display.
There are surviving fragments of orchards in three parts of the manor grounds. The largest and most valuable orchard is located farther off from the manor buildings. It has seven rows, each of which once accommodated 14 fruit trees. Most of them are now gone, but the surviving apple trees of the ‘Antaninis’ (‘Antonovka’), ‘Sierinka’ and ‘Kosztela’ varieties are in fairly good condition.
Kleboniškiai Rural Household Museum was established in 1991 over an area of 18 hectares, where authentic homesteads represent the Aukštaitija region. Village buildings typical of the 19th–20th centuries have been moved from the surrounding areas to the open-air museum: farmhouses, granaries, saunas, barns and sheds – a total of 28 buildings. Part of an apple orchard that goes back to the inter-war period is still standing near one of the homesteads. The museum is rich in ornamental plants that are characteristic of that area. Special attention is given to dahlias.
Šiauliai University Botanical Garden is the newest and the smallest (6.54 ha) botanical garden in Lithuania. It has over 4,000 different species and varieties of plants. At the botanical garden, you will find three heritage rural plant gardens arranged according to the traditions of the relevant period – pre-war, inter-war and post-war. The garden hosts events and educational games and can arrange lectures.
There are about 30 different species and varieties of plants growing on the grounds of the Baltic Plant Museum. Created in the shape of a distaff, the flower garden is divided into three parts for sacral, household and cultural plants. Plants used in rituals that are considered to be holy (poppy, flax, cornflower, wormwood, meadow sage, etc.) are grown in the sacral part. The household part contains herbs that are used for medicinal, wellness and culinary purposes (strawberry, thyme, yarrow, horse mint, etc.). The cultural part is decorated with Lithuanian iris, peony, dahlia and lily species, and violets are also cultivated. The museum plants reflect the ornamental plant variety assortment of Lithuanian heritage gardens and introduce visitors with Lithuanian natural selection crops. The plants can be visited in spring and summer.
For meals we recommend:
- Tavern “Žarija”, Radviliškis District
- Cafe „Šeduva malūnas”, Šeduva
- Homestead “Girelė”, Šiauliai District
Accommodations:
- Questhouse “Žarija”, Radviliškis District
- Homestead “Girelė”, Šiauliai District
Day 2 Šiauliai or Radviliškis – Anykščiai
Šiauliai is a city in the north of Lithuania. Šiauliai is also called the city of the Sun. The most magnificent building in the downtown of Šiauliai is the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. In Šiauliai, it is easy to spend a spare afternoon at thematic museums as the city has many of them (photography, bicycles, chocolate, radio / TV, railroad, cat memorabilia...). In the Sundial Square you will see one of the main dominants of the city - 'The Archer'. Not far, on Talksa lake shore, stands 'The Iron Fox', which is included in the Lithuanian Guinness Book of Records as the largest animal sculpture.
- Liudvika and Stanislovas Didžiulis Homestead Museum was opened in 1968. The garden is an integral part of the homestead, maintained and cultivated by the museum staff. The garden was started by the very first employee around 1970. It features apple varieties that have long been grown in Lithuania: ‘Suislepp’, ‘Antaninis’ (‘Antonovka’), ‘Popierinis’ (‘White Transparent’). In addition, it has a fruit tree from the ‘Adersleber Calville’cultivar group whose apples takes on flavour after almost a year and are particularly suitable for drying. Traditional village flower gardens are cultivated at the homestead, and there is also a medicinal herb corner. Contemporary plants are not shunned here either, because according to the staff, the former owner loved flowers and was always introducing new ones. It is an authentic homestead with trees and shrubs from that era that have a history intertwined with objects of biological heritage.
The A. Baranauskas and A. Vienuolis-Žukauskas Memorial Museum preserves and popularises museum valuables which reflect the evolution of culture, literature, history, agrarian culture, and technical history in the Anykščiai region. Year round, visitors can explore the Writers’ Hill Memorial Park and discover the 12 most important places in it. New educational elements are also presented here: “herb lawns” – Lithuanian herbs that Antanas Baranauskas and pharmacist Antanas Vienuolis-Žukauskas knew and used.
The museum grounds are home to two apple trees that have a historic link with the celebrated writer, Antanas Vienuolis-Žukauskas. One of them is the very rare ‘Lietuvos cukrinis’ (‘Lithuanian Sugar’), which can only be found in old gardens. Next to the museum building there is an authentic flower garden from the writer’s time, as well as a medicinal plant exhibit.
At the Bronė Buivydaitė Memorial Museum, the setting of the last years of the writer’s life has been preserved in the old part of the house. The museum was founded around 1990. The orchard, which has a history linked to the writer Bronė Buivydaitė, was planted in 1935. The writer’s beloved flowers bloom in the museum garden, and the orchard features a few surviving heritage apple varieties – ‘Lietuvos pepinas’ (‘Lithuanian Pippin’), ‘Popierinis’ (‘White Transparent’) and cherry varieties- ‘Žemaičių rūgščioji’ (‘Local Sour’), ‘Žagarvyšnė’. The flower garden is notable for its huge variety of ornamental plant species. It is filled primarily with cultivated perennials and popular plants found in nature, such as lily of the valley, ostrich fern, sweet violet and liverleaf.
Anykščiai tour - Visit the Treetop Walkway and Labyrinth Park (during the warm season), and take a train ride on Aukštaitija’s narrow-gauge railway.
For meals we recommend:
- Homestead “Girelė”, Šiauliai District
- Restaurant „Forto dvaras”, Panevėžys
- Resraurant „Deja vu”, Panevėžys
- Restaurant „Nykščio namai”, Anykščiai
- GRADIALI ANYKŠČIAI, Anykščiai District
Accommodations:
- Homestead “Ravilių sodyba”, Anykščiai District
- GRADIALI „Saulės vila (Sun Villa) and „Vėjo vila „Wind Villa), Anykščiai District
- GRADIALI „Ežero vila (Lake Villa) and „Vėjo vila „Wind Villa), Anykščiai District
Day 3 Anykščiai – Traupis – Taujėnai – Užulėnis – Rumšiškės – Kaunas
- Traupis Botanical Garden is the only school botanical garden in Lithuania. All of the plant collections (the Traupis Botanical Garden already has more than 8,000 species, forms and varieties of plants in total) were collected by one person: Sigutis Obelevičius. You will find everything from perennial flower collections and rock garden to a flower clock and decorative pool with aquatic plants. The botanical garden also has large collections of protected plants, herbs, outdoor and garden plants, and medicinal plants. Tours are often given by the founder and cultivator of the garden, Sigutis Obelevičius.
Taujėnai Manor has long been known for its opulence and splendour. The interior of the manor house was decorated extensively with the Radziwiłł family’s portraits, sculptures, hunting trophies, and antique weapons. The highest place was selected for the manor house, with the picturesque ponds spread out below in the west. Taujėnai Manor has an English landscape park, where the old oak trees are of the greatest value. The park covers an area of about 25 hectares, and the cascade ponds have been restored.
In Ukmergė District, visit President Antanas Smetona’s Užugiris Manor, which now houses a memorial museum in his honour. Other farm buildings, the president’s apple orchard, the saunas, and the staff buildings have also survived to this day. The manor was built on the shore of a lake which can be reached by a path that leads you through a tree-lined avenue, in the footsteps of the president himself.
Open-Air Museum of Lithuania is one of the largest (194 ha) and most abundant (91,420 exhibits) open-air ethnographic museums in Europe. The exposition is made up of individual farms, homesteads, villages and a town, which showcase the old architecture, culture, way of life, and garden plants of the Lithuanian ethnographic regions. At the Aukštaitija and Žemaitija homesteads, you can see unique apple varieties - ‘Suislepp’, ‘Rudens dryžuotasis’ (‘Autumn Streaked’), ‘Popierinis’ (‘White Transparent’), ‘Lietuvos cukrinis’ (‘Lithuanian Sugar’) that have been traditionally grown since ancient times. The flower gardens at the museum homesteads are made up of plants that are traditional and specific to the particular region. At most of the homesteads, vegetables and medicinal and ornamental plants are grown side by side. The Aukštaitija village features the ‘fragrant garden’, where you can become acquainted with the medicinal and culinary herbs grown at Lithuanian homesteads as well as their medicinal properties.
For meals we recommend:
- Homestead „Roko sodyba“, Kaišiadorys District
- President Antanas Smetona’s Užugiris Manor’s Restaurant „A le carte“, Ukmergė District
- Taujėnai Manor‘s Restaurant „Roko virtuvė“, Ukmergė District
