Beautiful shores and historic towns are the backdrop to this epic ride through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – but it’s the region’s fascinating history that makes the journey
Outside Vilnius’ neoclassical Presidential Palace a freestanding sculpture proclaims “#LT100”. It commemorates100 years since Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia declared independence from Russian Empire in 1918 (although the USSR would rule them again from 1940 to 1991).
A set of sunken footprints in the ground nearthe city’s Italianate cathedral symbolises theBaltic Way protest of 1989, when a human chain of two million, spanning 675km across the three Baltic states, linked arms to denounce Soviet rule. Two years later, the USSR collapsed and independence was finally regained.
