Blogs from Lithuania, Europe - page 2

There’s a very distinct German flavor to this port city, Lithuania’s third largest (formerly known as Memel), which was part of the old Prussian Kingdom until it achieved autonomy in 1923. Located in the northwestern part of the country and 193 miles from the capital Vilnius, Klaipeda has a population of around 150,000. It is Lithuania’s only port on the Baltic, and its heart is beating steadily together with the sea. The locals proudly proclaim this affinity with annual summer Sea festivals, biennial Tall Ships regattas, a Sea Museum, a Sea Faculty in the local university, numerous beaches, and major stevedoring companies. What was your first clue these locals worship water? A Little Bit of History: a settlement of Baltic tribes (ancestors of modern Lithuanians) along the estuary of the Dane River, is believed to have ... read more

Thursday started with a 4 hr train ride to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The temperature on mid afternoon arrival was a barmy 30 deg. After a quick check-in to the Corner Hotel for a 2 night stay we headed straight out for an orientation walk around the picturesque old town. Like the whole Baltic region, Vilnius has been occupied over the last 800 years variously by Sweden, Poland, France, Germany and Russia with each occupier leaving its mark on the city. The walk mainly centered around Cathedral Square in the Old Town and its beautiful Cathedral and free standing belfry. The Cathedral has had many versions over the centuries due to fire & foreign occupation. The classic current version was completed in the early 1800’s & this time has remarkably survived a conversion into a ... read more

or Trans-Siberian Adventure – Prelude 1: Lithuania (and a bit of Poland and Latvia) This trip actually began in Poland but, seeing as that leg involved only a train from Puszczykowo to Warsaw immediately followed by an overnight bus to Vilnius, I shall spare you the few details and commence this series of blogs in Lithuania. As can be surmised from the subtitle, I have finally gotten around to taking the Trans-Siberian Railway from Europe to Asia. I’ve been wanting to do this for as long as I can remember. As a kid who was very much into geography facts, there was something alluring about the longest train ride in the world, across the world’s largest country, skirting the bottom of the world’s largest forest, past the world’s oldest, deepest, and most voluminous lake, to the ... read more

23 July 2019 A relaxing day which enabled us to recover from the previous evening’s festivities. We walked up the nearby Parnidis Dune and finally got round to having a swim in the Baltic.... read more

21 July 2019 Behind the Curonian Spit there is a huge lagoon and on the mainland a low lying delta where the River Nemunas breaks up into many smaller channels before reaching the sea. The Nemunas Delta is a national park and the the home to many species of land and sea birds. We had a magnificent day long boat trip across the lagoon and into the delta.... read more