And not a car in sight...

And not a car in sight...

Laisvės Alėja (Independence Way) is a fully pedestrianised street that runs east-west across most of Kaunas.

It is lined with shops, restaurants, cafe/bars, museums, outdoor dining areas, and historical sites (such as the old Presidential Palace, which was used from 1918 until the 1930s). Three-to-four floors of apartments can be found above the shops.

A small tree-lined park can be found in the middle of the street, with bicycle paths and outdoor dining areas on the sides.

During summer, the bars and cafes fill up as lunch approaches, and they remain busy well into the evening (with twilight sometime around 10:30pm).

Cuisine varies from traditional Lithuanian fare (such as Cepeliniai and Saltibarciai) to modern Italian, Turkish, Georgian, Japanese, American, Thai, and more. (That includes these delicious burritos and nachos.)

The street begins as Vilnius Gatve at the town hall square in the old city, just near Kaunas Castle and the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris Rivers.

It continues for roughly 2.3 kilometres across almost the entire length of the city, to the historic Church of St Michael the Archangel (Sv. Arkangelo Mykolo Baznycia).

It is bisected by a second pedestrianised street running north-south that links it to the war museum, the Zalgris basketball arena, and the university.

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