We're headed to the capital city Vilnius but first Al had found a place called the hill of crosses. Today there are over 100,000 crosses and it started when families began placing crosses to remember those lost in the uprisings against Russian rule. It became both a spiritual and political symbol, especially during the Soviet occupation, when placing crosses was banned. The site has been bulldozed multiple times but the locals kept returning, often under the cover of night, to replant the crosses. Now it remains a pilgrimage site and a reminder of Lithuania’s struggle and spirit. People sell crosses at the entrance so we bought our own to add to the collection. There were crosses from many different countries and the furthest we saw was from Australia.

We cooked in the car park whilst I made a plan for Vilnius (since it was still a red square on the spreadsheet). It looks like a mooch around the old town along with viewing the street art will suit us. We've also planned a day to Trakei Castle but that was the following day and we now think we can fit them both in a single day freeing up more time later on so we decide to travel all the way to Vilnius tonight (2.5hrs drive) rather than half way and finishing the rest in the morning. Thank goodness for borrowbox and the audiobooks that are keeping the kids entertained. We arrive late at a shopping centre car park and Liliya is already asleep. In the middle of the night I awake to the sound of an incredible racket that seems to go on for hours. I'm shattered in the morning but no one else heard anything. We look outside and really close to the moho a huge container that wasn't there last night has appeared so that explains the noise at least.

We've ended up on +2 timezone so we're out by 9am local time and walk up the 175 steps to get to the bottom of Gernimus tower. It's interesting to see both sides as one is the new town and the other the old.

We walk over to Užupis, a tiny, self-declared republic home to artists and full of quirky charm. If you come on April fools day the bridge is guarded and you can get your passport stamped! The place is full of wall art and sculptures tucked away and the kids enjoy spotting them.

Next up we head back to the old town popping in to visit a couple of churches. We happen to be walking past the museum of illusions and the kids really want to visit. They have a really clever 2D cafe and 70 other optical illusions, the favourites were the upside down room, shrinking chair and the kalidascope.

We were planning to get lunch back at the moho but the kids spot a sushi express so we enjoy that whilst Al gets another hesburger.

We walk back to the moho via the main street for our sticker and bauble then we come across a portal to a town in Poland. There's a camera on us which they can see in their portal and vice versa. It takes a while but eventually people come over to wave back at us.

It's now off to Trakai Castle a day earlier than planned. Once there we decide to rent a peddle boat, we get it for an hour and within 9 minutes I'm exhausted, Robert is keen to have a go so I'm happy to let him take over for a while.

The castle itself is another example of a ruin which as been extensively rebuilt (and repairs are still ongoing). Along with looking around the courtyard and going in the emprisonment devices there are lots of artifacts on display.

We get back to the car park to find the automatic plate reader has registered us as a bus and all help buttons direct you to a phone number which is no longer in service. We have no choice but to pay it but I do find an email address and send them a snotty message requesting a refund (of course the chances of this are slim to none but at least I tried). We've now got an extra day to fill and we're all feeling a little exhausted after a couple of late nights so we find a water park 1.5hrs away which is also near a nature park. Our plan is to go for a morning walk then chill at the pool and sauna complex in the town of Druskininkai. We park up for the night on the edge of the forest and I go for my Lithuanian run. When I get back and check out the route I realise we're only 8km away from the border with Belarus. Of course the border is now closed although there are still two open between Lithuania and Belarus but with much stricter requirements for crossing. Prior to the war we would have loved to have visited but instead we have to make do with a drive to the edge just to say we've seen the country!

Now we do visit some rather esoteric places on our travels but what Al has found for us this morning has to be near the top. We're off to the Soviet occupation sculpture Park. After Lithuania regained it's independence from the Soviets in the early 90s they didn't know what to do with all the oppressive sculptures, propaganda and monuments. Instead of simply destroying them they decided to pull them down and place them in a forest setting for locals and tourists to visit to remember the history and liberation.

What was probably more odd was that it also included a 'zoo' and what we ended up calling the Soviet death park due to the lack of safety features we've come to expect with a kids playground but let's be honest we grew up with pretty similar things in the 80s too but the scale of the swings and roundabout even Robert commented that it didn't have many seats for how big it was and seemed a waste of space.

It was the same with the statues, it's hard to imagine how people must have felt having these grey stark faces staring down on them. It almost didn't seem real as if they were props for a war movie. They weather was dull and felt like the heavens could open any moment hence we were head to toe in our waterproofs (which contributed to the name death park as the slides were brutal with water and slippery clothing). We had been lucky though as it did hold off whilst we were walking around. Druskininkai seems to be a spa location with many hotels and Lithuania’s largest water park. It looked good online but I had images of it being heaving with lots of queuing for slides and actually we just wanted to chill so we opted for a spa hotel instead which I think worked out brilliantly. When we arrived it was fairly quiet and I think mostly only used by hotel guests but had everything we wanted. Water slide, lazy river, hot tubs, kids zone, wave pool, massage jets, experience showers, foot baths, various temperature saunas, steam room, plunge pool and ice room. The spa section didn't have an age restriction so the kids enjoyed relaxing in the not so hot saunas for a short while and it was just what we all needed after a couple of busy days and a couple more ahead of us.