Smack bang in the middle of Lithuania on the banks of the Nevėžis, the remarkable little town of Kėdainiai was first mentioned in 1372 in Herman Wartberge's Livonian Chronicle, and has over the centuries suffered both the positive and negative consequences of being a moderately important Lithuanian conurbation. The former spiritual home of the fabulously wealthy and influential Protestant Radvila (Polish, Radziwiłł) family, just 300 years ago Kėdainiai boasted a 50% Scottish population and was a popular refuge for other European and Lithuanian Protestant communities. Prior to the Holocaust, the town’s Jewish community ran the entire fire brigade and even sported their own football team, and traces of their culture still exist, although Kėdainiai’s post-war makeup is now almost exclusively Lithuanian. Unfairly labelled the Cucumber Capital of Lithuania, modern Kėdainiai is well worth further investigation, with one of the best preserved old towns in the country, a better-than-average museum and a large Arabic-looking spike in a park.