DAYS 27 - 28 Klaipeda Lithuania / Curonian Spit

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Thursday was a 5 hour bus journey crossing the Lithuanian border and a two night stay at the Litinterp Klaipeda Guesthouse. The journey was broken with a short stop at the Hill of Crosses at Siauliai, a pilgrim site in defiance of anti-religious Soviet rule.

Upon arrival we wandered to the old town on the waterfront with it's old brick warehouse buildings converted into appartments or small businesses.

While Klaipeda is historically the oldest town in Lithuania, devastating fires & modern war has meant the city no longer has any of the iconic buildings that we have encountered in all our stops up to now and instead is now mainly a gateway to the Curonian Spit.

Friday was a perfect bike riding day & an excursion to the Curonian Spit, a long and narrow sand dune peninsula that separates the Curonian lagoon from the Baltic Sea. The Spit is now part of a large National Park with UNESCO World Heritage protection with responsibilities shared by Lithuania & Russia.

The day started with a short ferry ride across the lagoon to catch a connecting bus to the resort town of Nidos, about halfway up the peninsula but the last stop before reaching the Russian border town of Kaliningrad. We then picked up our hire bikes to ride the 60 km’s back to the port. The route is very popular as it’s part of the EuroVelo 10 route that links cycle paths across Europe.

Before setting off for the ride we climbed the boardwalk path up the huge Parnidis Dune that overlooks Nidos with views towards the Russian border but with nothing to see other than dunes & pine forest.

The path alternately crosses the main road from pretty lagoon side fishing communities to long Baltic Sea beaches & lots of pine forest in between. The season for large colonies of cormorants & other migratory seabirds has just finished but evidence of their presence was plain to see with many clusters of trees stripped back to bare branches. A few craft beers were a nice reward for a great day out.

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Photos

Hill of Crosses
Not sure what to make of this. I respect the original intentions but seems to be tacky tick the box tourist stop.

Kieran in front of Curonian pennants
ornate carved flags peculiar to the Spit with pagan meanings