Biking through the forest, Palanga seaside town and Latvian port of Liepaja
Walked briefly around Klaipėda which was previously a German town called Memmel. It still looks Northern Germanic with a theatre and town hall in the centre. There were also contrasting styles with new modern high rises next to the older buildings.
Had a fine bike ride through the forest, many flowers and grasses were blooming next to the path. We stopped at a large 19c house that had been converted into an amber museum, with excellent displays explaining how amber is formed from the resin of the pine trees that grew here 40 million years ago. The resin can drop as bark, icicles or drops and often trapped insects. There were fine pieces with all kinds of insects and plants trapped; there was also a good section about how amber had been used in trade and jewellery since the Bronze Age. There was a nice shop at the end and I did not have enough time there but I bought a casual necklace with small stones and bracelets for my nieces and a key ring for Amber.
Palanga is a beach resort and lots of people were holidaying there and stalls selling food and drink. There was a fine pier that one could walk out onto for some bracing air. I met the two Dutch women Netty and Magda out there and we agreed on the pleasure of walking out on a simple pier without any stalls.
We had a delayed journey to Liepaja because there were long sections of the road closed off with very little road work happening.
We had our town walk at the end of the afternoon; Liepaja is a small nondescript town with no real centre. There are restored buildings by the harbour and I saw a diplomatic car pulling up. I wonder what it’s like to be sent to Latvia as a diplomat, rather limiting I suspect. We stayed in another modern hotel but close enough to walk back into town which I did. I had supper in a restaurant where I was served by a bar man with a blonde ponytail and people were sitting out under a tent in the garden and American rock music was playing so I heard lyrics about the absence of rain in California which is definitely not the case here
First impressions of Latvia, the people look poorer, but that may be because we are outside Riga. It is also strange that the languages are not mutually comprehensible, and Latvians often have to use Russian to speak to Lithuanians. The roads are also narrower and in worse condition than Lithuania
Biking the Curonian spit, visiting Thomas Mann's summer house and Latvian malls.
Left Kuanas in heavy rain and drove the 100 km to Klaipėda across rolling country side, there are large farms here growing wheat and barley with the crops looking good. There is also dairy farming here.
Klaipėda is a busy Baltic port and we took the ferry across to the Curonian spit. This sandy dune has been created by the Baltic currents and is now 100km long and a nature reserve and holiday place. The forest here also anchors the spit. We went down to the southernmost tip of the spit where there is a small village with wooden holiday bungalows some with fine cottage gardens. We went up onto the top of the dunes and looked across, they look like mini deserts.
Thomas Mann had a summer cottage here that we climbed up to; it was attractive with blue windows and a nice view out over the sea. Inside was a display about his life which dwelt on a long argument he had with his brother. Pete Croft gave me Buddenbrookes to read and that will give it new context.
We had a fine dry sunny ride 30 km along the spit through the forest. It was a beautiful ride, sunlight was coming through the trees and there were flowers beside the dune. Many other cyclists were enjoying the trail. We stood atop the dunes and looked out, the Baltic Sea was surprisingly rough and this contrasts with the calm of the inner lagoon. We also saw trees killed because the cormorants sit in them and their excrement is too acid for the trees, a sad sight.
We stayed in a modern designer-like hotel, but they were not able to produce extra food for people who had not pre-ordered so I walked with five of the Germans to find food. We ended up in a large new shopping mall which had an ice hockey rink at its centre with a game just starting. Ice hockey is the Latvian sport but clearly important here as well. We ate in a chain eatery and I had excellent beetroot soup served with potatoes followed by salmon salad.
I talked to the Germans about the euro and they all felt that the Greeks should have debt forgiveness and that Schuabel their finance minister is being too harsh.
A day of natural beauty with an experience of the continuing Russian approach to consumers.
Republics, royal palaces and fairy tale castles
I had a morning in Vilnius solo whilst the rest of the group did a town walk and I wandered round the Utzis Republic where free thinkers have set up their own Republic . The constitution was on the wall and included such articles as a cat is free not to love its owner but must show affection at time of need.
I then spent an amazing hour in the brand new Royal Palace Museum. The palace has been revamped at extraordinary expense and now has a wonderful museum depicting the history of the rulers of Lithuania from 1200 - 1600. This period included the rejection of both Eastern and Western Christianity and then its acceptance. There was also hunting and music at the end of the gothic period. This was followed by the Renaissance and the spread of those ideas. There were panels about each remaining ruler Sigismind, Alexander etc. and accompanying ornaments. The top floor recreated the rooms that would have been there for the last king of Lithuania, complete with Swedish stone floors and wood burning heaters with Italian ceramic tiles which were also clearly the state of the art things then. It was also good that I only had an hour for the museum, otherwise I would have got engrossed in the detail about the royal families. I was also almost the only visitor to this 4 star museum on a Tuesday morning.
We reached Trakai by lunchtime, this is the red brick castle on a lake that is used to illustrate many Baltic books, and indeed it has a fairy tale quality. I walked over on the bridge; the tower walls were thick and could repel an attack for months. In the main tower a summer folk festival was taking place within people queuing up with flowers. I lunched by the lakes side eating wild strawberries that were for sale.
We then got our bikes, these are very sturdy German ones that are real country side bikes. Mine is a ladies bike which I have not seen for years, so I can slip on and off in my skirts. The countryside was beautiful with small mixed forests and rolling barley and wheat fields. The villages are quite mixed with wooden houses and newer plastic ones. There are also schools and libraries there, the village we stopped in had an old church with a tower and a dome.
Our day ended in Karunas where we had a speedy walk around the square, notable for a bicycle sculpture in the centre and a large mural of Eisenstein on a wall. Sadly our hotel is 3km from the centre so it is not possible to walk back down.
The group is mainly German-speaking with just 3 English speakers, fortunately the other two are a pleasant Aussie couple who have walked and travelled a lot and are interesting. The Germans are keeping to themselves.
Vilnius, the University, the holocaust museum and also seeing fine designer jewellery, the centre for tolerance, meeting my companions for the bike ride.
My walks for the day started at the impressive university buildings with 13 different courtyards mainly baroque and leading off each other. There was also a huge church at the centre with 10 altars forming a theatrical group. I went up the bell tower and had views of the city in the rain. Vilnius is just heaving with churches Catholic, Russian and vast baroque edifices. It is surprising that they are in such good nick after 40 years of neglect during the soviet era.
I walked up through the old town to the holocaust centre pausing for lunch in a very trendy bar, with modish decor but I ate traditional beetroot soup and the potato stuffed pancakes.
The holocaust museum was incredibly moving, housed in a small green wooden house one walked through a series of rooms each illustrating different aspects of tense wish extermination in Vilnius. 63% of the 1937 population was Jewish and 100 000 were killed during the war. The Nazis were horrifyingly efficient and in Aug 1941 were killing and recording 1000 s killed each day. Then those remaining were rounded up into the ghetto where they made their own organisation and hoped by being useful to the Nazis to save their lives, but they were nearly all killed. There were mass killings of Jews all across Lithuania. The displays also showed the richness of the pre-war life in Vilnius with active professions and religious life. The exhibit brought home the richness of life in Vilnius and the huge cultural loss which made it even more painful. I also wondered what it feels like to lose a third of the population. Of course there were Lithuanian collaborators otherwise the killings could not have occurred. I then went to the Centre for Tolerance which had displays about Jewish life in avionics and Jewish life across the centuries. I only just managed to take in the richness of the life and Jewish history; I was maxed out on Jewish history and culture.
I also enjoyed seeing the designer shops in Vilnius and this also was a counterweight to the heaviness of the genocide. Went into an interesting art gallery (Terra Incognito) with a young Lithuanian artist selling the work of an older sculptor who made interesting pieces from stones and flints he had collected from the Baltic over 40 yrs. There was a small necklace made of many of stones in different shades of brown and one made of back flints with silver pieces. As I talked about them the girl in the shop who asked me what I did because I talked so artistically about the art works. She was disappointed when I said I was a doctor!
Then walked back down to the main square and sheltered from the rain. Vilnius is the wettest city I've been in, every type of rain occurs every day, gentle rain, heavy rain, short bursts, prolonged showers.
Made my way over to the modern hotel where our tour starts. We are a middle aged group, quite a few couples, a sizeable number of Germans and an Aussie couple. Our leader is a slim Latvian who does not look as though he has much experience of leading groups. It also feels a lot less structured than Exodus groups. Had supper with David and Maureen, the Aussie couple. They have just come from biking in Finland which sounds great fun.
Exploring Vilnius, Gediminas Tower, cathedral, KGB museum, Lithuania museum, food
Had a relaxed start to the morning planning my day in Vilnius, mainly visiting places that will be closed on Mon. Walked down through the streets, Vilnius is stuffed with large baroque churches, mostly in quite good repair externally. There are also endless amber shops; one can buy anything from jewels to pipes made of amber. The cathedral is vast and beside a large square, inside the church was full for a celebration of Mass. I walked up to the Gediminas tower which has fine views of the city with red tiled roofs, church spires. There was an interesting display about the protest movement in 1989 and the Balkan ring of people-running from Vilnius to Riga to Tallinn in protest against the Soviet occupation. The Soviets then left quiet quickly in early 1990 and Lithuania declared independence.
My next stop was the Museum of Genocide in a large flat-fronted house in the new town. This museum recreated the several occupations that have occurred in Lithuania over the last 70 yrs. the first was the Russian occupation in 1939 when the Russian marched in at the start of the Second World War, then the Germans took Lithuania and occupied it until 1944 when the Russian came back. The second Russian occupation triggered a local partisan above mentioned comprised of ex-soldiers who fought from the woods but had links and support in the towns, even printing presses. They wanted an independent Lithuania and did not see that the West could not support them. These fighters carried on until the 1950s. Then the population suffered under Soviet rule, with thousands being deported to labour camps in Russia, the display also captured the listening and control that the KGB did on the local population. There was a board with the KGB structure with different divisions of tasks such as espionage and interrogation. With these displays I felt that I experienced what it was like to be a partisan in the woods or living under Soviet occupation. The museum used photos and captions exceptionally well; there were embroideries that the prisoners did to keep up their spirits.
I then went to the Lithuanian national museum, downstairs were rather dreary portraits and yet more flints but upstairs were displays about Lithuanian life which gave me a sense of the peasant economy here. There was also an excellent section on the local wood carvings which is where the local religion and material meet, there were crucifixes, religious statues but finest of all were the large selection of carved wooden bird boxes with birds, snakes on the fronts.
Later I walked out and browsed the local streets. I ate Lithuanian soup and pancakes in a small run-down bar. I saw the remaining synagogue and had a beer on a chilly terrace.
The weather is definitely Nordic with cool temperatures, sudden bursts of rain and then sunshine.
First impressions, nice people, not demonstrative, cheap food and drink, surprised at the number of churches. Surprised at the 3 occupations during the 1940s sad for the partisans fighting a losing battle.
