First day in Lithuania

Klaipeda is the third largest city in Lithuania and (sorry) not the most charming. It's a working sea port and more industrialized than the other cities we have visited. We didn't explore much of the city- no walking tours in the itinerary! However, we did have an excursion to the Curonian Spit.

It's a short ferry ride from  Klaipeda to the spit- about seven minutes. Most of it is a national park/forest reserve and its most unusual and poplular feature is the sand dunes. A spit is a long, narrow island formed by wind deposits, usually with a beginning or end near land. The Curonian Spit is 400 m wide at its narrowest and 3800 at its widest and is 98 km long, with the northernmost 52 km belonging to Lithuania, but the southern end is part of Kaliningrad, Oblast, Russia. Originally a series of separate islands, wind, erosion, and human influence caused the shallow waters between islands to fill with sand. A massive deforestation in the 17th and 18th centuries that caused concern that the whole spit would be lost was followed by intensive reforestation and dune stabilization.

on the ferry

Our first stop was at the Hill of Witches, a part of the forest preserve where seventy-one oak sculptures are set along a forest path. The sculptures represent characters in folk stories, and it seems as though many offer you the chance to have your wish come true if you make it whilst touching various body parts of the statues.

the gates to Hell

The dunes are unique in this area of the world. Many French visitors come to see them, as Jean-Paul Satre and Simone de Beaurevoir visited in 1965. Sartre was captured leaning into the wind while walking on the dunes by a Lithuanian photographer and a statue based on this image was erected in 2018.

sun dial at the tallest point on the spit

looking toward the largest settlement

Cormorants and herons migrate here every summer. We stopped to look at their favourite nesting area, which is a scene of devastation. Apparently, although the birds are thriving, their droppings are killing the vegetation.

We strolled through the village of Nida, learning about the significance of the colours of the homes- the brownish red siding represents the earth and the blue and white trim represent the sea and the sky. These colours cannot be changed by the homeowners or they will lose their UNESCO World Hertiage designation.

There is an artful little Fisherman's House museum.

We also went to the Museum of Amber. We have seen amber for sale everywhere on this trip- from high-end jewelry stores to hundreds of little touristic market stalls. The Curonian Lagoon, located between the spit and the mainland, has a history of an Amber Rush era (much like our Klondike Gold Rush) and most of the amber sold in the Baltic region to this day comes from here.

Back at our apartment, I decided that I had had enough for the day. Barry went out for an adventure in search of a grocery store (for water) and a quick meal and found a nice little Armenian(!) place a couple of blocks away.