Day 72: Moletai to Vilnius

September 11, 2024

A Good Road, a Brutal 5km, a Good Road and a Bike path

“We’ll have one gravel section today,” Patrick reminds Rachel as we are setting off. The forecast had been for rain overnight, we wake to a barely wet pavement. “Maybe the rain will keep the dust down when we reach the gravel,” Patrick adds.

We ride out of town on a bike lane, then on a busy road for a bit before turning off onto a secondary road. This stretch is an awesome ride some through Asvejos Regional Park. We stop in a small town which looks to be the parks headquarters. There are two stores and one of them has an Italian Coffee Machine. We are ready for a cappuccino and eat our pastries.

These coffee machines have replaced cafes, but they do make a good cappuccino.

Just past a free-range poultry farm we reach the turnoff onto the gravel road. It’s a brutal ride with corrugations and loose rocks. Adding to that we are uncertain as to how long but we hope that at 5km at Raksony the pavement will return. And it does.

And we are back on a nice quiet road until in Nemencline we rejoin Highway 102 we followed a couple of days ago. On the east side is a bike path that should lead us the next twenty kilometers into Vilnius.

"Even I could draw a cow like that," Rachel says cycling by the sign.

Imagine being a kid learning to spell the name of your town.

This goes well until we hit construction where not only the road but also the bike path is torn up. We negotiate through the sections of on the road, and then onto the finished side that is not yet open to traffic.

Eventually, we are back onto a bike path, then through a park to another bike path along the Neris river. This takes us to the edge of the Old Town and the Cathedral and Clock Tower Plaza with only a few more blocks to Pogo Hostel.

We will be here 3 nights. The room is small but adequate, the shared shower and toilets a little less. But the location can’t be beat. The bikes have to be carried one floor up where there is a small balcony into the rear courtyard where our bikes can be locked. After settling in, cleaning up and resting a bit, we head out to explore a little before having an early dinner at a Mexican Grill.

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Today's ride: 79 km (49 miles)
Total: 3,686 km (2,289 miles)

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