Gedimino avenue, Vilnius

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Gedimino Avenue is the main street in Vilnius centre and named after the Grand duke of Lithuania Gediminas. The Novotel hotel where we stayed is located on the avenue. The avenue is popular for shopping and dining. There are souvenir shops, restaurants, Lithuania bank, shopping malls, coffee shops, bars, money exchange, atm machine, McDonald. The Lithuanian National Drama theatre, Museums of Genocide victims, municipality Square, the monument of Vincas Kudirka, government buildings like the parliament are also in the avenue.

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Gediminas Avenue stretches from the Lithuanian Parliament, on one loop of the Vilnia river, all the way to Cathedral Square, falling just short of its namesake Gediminas Tower. On the way it passes multiple government buildings, not just the parliament, as well as some of the best hotels and restaurants in Vilnius. It's a beautiful street for the most part, and only a bit scruffy as it tapers out towards the river. It's definitely worth a walk up until at least Vinco Kudirkos square, where you can turn right for the industrial Green Bridge. This section was totally reconstructed in 2003, and it shows.

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Perhaps the center of action in Vilnius, this thoroughfare cuts through the north side of the city center from the Neris River to Cathedral Square. Originally named Georgij Prospektas when it was built in the 19th Century, it was renamed a few times, once in honor of Stalin (then later Lenin after Stalin went out of favor) during Soviet rule. In 1989, the new independence-minded local government gave the roadway its current name. There are a number of festivities and activities that occur here, to include a bicycle race when I visited.

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This long avenue was formed at XIX century. Explorations showed in this place were some objects of medieval Vilnius, for example, some stabling, stoves, old buildings.

Mostly every time going to Vilnius centre, I walk go through Gediminas avenue - this long street is considered to be the most expensive street in Baltic countries at the moment.

It can be proved by lot of reconstructions going on now - the pavement and houses around are mostly renovated in the main part of this street.

Surely, avenue is full of shops, caffes, there are post office, nice hotels and so on. Gedimino avenue starts at Cathedral Square and ends at Independence Square with Parliament.

Gedimino avenue is the main shopping street in Vilnius. On this broad street you'll find many restaurants, shops and department stores, like the newest in Vilnius, Gedimino 9. There are also many big hotels on Gedimino, such as Scandic and Novotel.

I think it's quite beautiful street and since it's partially for pedestrians only, it's very quiet, too. There are plenty of cafes where you can sit outside (when it's warm enough) and watch people walking by.

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I decided to give my guidebook a day off and instead wandered around to see where I would end up. I spent some hours just trying to find nice things to take photos of. I've said this before but can't help saying it once more: It pays to look up every now and then!

The main street in Vilnius - Gedimino avenue - looks quite different during day time and in the evening. During the day cars are allowed to go through that street while in the evening and at night the bigger part of the avenue becomes a pedestrian area with open shops, pubs, cafes and night clubs. To my opinion the best time to walk through is around 8-11p.m. in summer. It will be more quiet, but you will be able to enjoy sitting outside while having dinner or a drink. The street starts with parlament building, ends with cathedral and old town, on the way you can visit genocide museum, pass academic drama theater. I find this street nice for living in a hotel, but would not advice to go shopping there. In Vilnius it is better to go to the shopping centers, for example Europa or Akropolis, than to spend your money in Gediminas Avenue.

Gedimino Prospekt is the main street in Vilnius, it starts just in front of the cathedral, and it has become the main shopping area.
While I was in Vilnius there were some major restorations on the street, so I couldn't take a decent picture, but I found some nice and more recent ones on the net.
It's a shopping avenue, but the houses are all now perfectly restored and it's very nice just to walk up and down it.
At the end of the street there is the ugly Parliament building.

There was the beginning of Gedimino prospektas (Gediminas Boulevard) opposite to the front facade of Vilnius Cathedral. It was the most represantive, renovated recently, street of Vilnius and probably of Lithuania. In the past it was named after St George (Russia), Mickiewicz (Poland), Stalin and Lenin (Soviet Union) which reflected foreign powers that ruled the city.

Nowadays, hmm... there was nothing interesting there for folks looking for something more Lithuanian than European. Instead, I found there a lot of cloth, shoes etc. stores including of world known companies and fashion designers. Additionally there were cafes, pubs, restaurants, ATMs, banks and a post office there.

This XVIII century big neoclassic church is the catholic cathedral of Vilnius.
It's situated in the place were there was a temple to the god of thunder Perkunas, the old pagan god of Lithuanians.
On the left side of the cathedral face, you can see the bell tower (well, it seems to me it looks like a sea lighthouse :-)
behind it, a big square; it can be considered the center of the city, and it's a meeting point for Vilnius people.