Day 47 - Latvia to Lithuania

This morning we had the treat of a full breakfast in the hotel dining room (all delicious and filing), followed by free use of the hotel’s pool, Turkish bath, spa, jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. The pool was heated so even Laura was happy to jump in and it was nice to have a splash around, although the young boy with the family who were also there was doing more than enough splashing for everyone. Anyway, the end result of all this activity was that it was after 10:30am before we had checked out and started the day.


Before leaving town we went to have a quick look at the local markets. They were reasonably large but mostly for fresh food and clothing. Since the tourist office was nearby we checked that out for a couple of maps and some postcards. The postcards were written over a coffee in a nearby coffee shop then posted before we hit the road for Lithuania. On the way we managed, eventually, to work out how the local petrol pumps work so that we could fill up the car.

Flotsam Art

We detoured off the main road just a couple of hundred metres short of the Lithuanian border to track down the flotsam art we had read about that had been created by an old lady who collects things that wash up on the beach. We didn’t see any sign of the old lady, and not much sign of life around the buildings that were adorned with various bits of flotsam. There were a lot of bottle tops and floats from fishing nets plus things like plastic hard hats. We went to have a look at the nearby beach for ourselves and wondered why things like the various shoes we saw washed up hadn’t been included in the art work we had seen. We did walk down the beach a bit to see the line of posts out into the sea that appear to mark the maritime boundary between Latvia and Lithuania. Back on the main road we drove through the elaborate (and apparently once thoroughly policed) but now deserted border post to finally arrive in Lithuania.

Our first stop in this new country was at Palanga, which was described as a buzz of activity in the summer and a resort for pensioners for the rest of the year. Judging from what we saw, as we made a promenade down the main pedestrian mall and out to the end of the pier, it was very much in transition towards the latter. None of the rides were operating, and whilst most of the shops were open, they were by no means crowded. Even the only ATM in the street seemed to have clocked off for the season. After we had found the Information Office back up in the main part of town, and found a working ATM to get some lunch money, we actually had some lunch. However the most important thing was that after lunch Laura was able to buy her first lizard for the trip.

We drove on the short distance to Klaipeda, on the first true motorway we have seen in the Baltic, where we forked out about A$16.30to take our car out onto the Curonian Spit, via the four minute ride on a car ferry. For those who may not know, the Curonian Spit is a narrow peninsula of sand that stretches north from the Russian province of Kallingrad. (Hands up all those who knew that Kallingrad is separated from the rest of Russia by Lithuania, Poland and Belarus). The top 44 kms of the Spit belongs to Lithuania and it separates the Baltic Sea from the Curonian Lagoon, which is very important ecologically as a bird habitat. Much of the Spit is now stable due to tree growth but parts of it is still bare dunes that are moving at a rate which threatens the long term survival of the lagoon.

Amber Bay

Our first stop was to have a quick look at the Monument to the Soldiers of the Soviet Army, as we wondered if it was created before or after independence. Next was Amber Bay, once the site of a significant operation mining for amber, which at one time was almost as valuable as gold. There are some lovely wooden sculptures situated in the little bay; with an annoying array of tree branches and bulrushes that are just high enough to be in the way of getting a really good reflection shot.

Almost opposite this bay was the start of the curiously named “Cognitive dendrological path”, a walk of about 1.6kms through the forest of pines, oaks, spruce and elder trees. Although it was getting a bit late in the day we set off on the walk anyway. At one point where the path divided we took the high road, as naturally seemed befitting of our status, only to find that we may have over-estimated our worth in this part of the world. We had to backtrack and take the low road instead. We completed the walk OK, but the next bit of excitement was that just as we were almost back to our car Laura discovered that she had picked up a little hitchhiker – a TICK!! Fortunately I was able to quickly find my tweezers and successfully persuade the little pest to depart.

It was starting to get dark by now so we just drove on to Nida at the bottom of the Lithuanian part of the Spit, where we had to look around a bit before finding a very nice room to stay at the Nerija Hotel. After quickly buying and scoffing some food from the nearby supermarket we made sure to check each other thoroughly for any more little nasties.