Day 6 – Klaipeda, Lithuania – A visit to the Curonian Spit

Thomas Mann's house

B&B where we had lunch

Thousand of Cormarands! Yuck

Our singing hostess in purple with feathers

Devil under the arch

Dance with the Devil - his shoes are hollow

Witch

Foggy morning on the Baltic Sea

Klaipeda is Lithuania’s only port. Having a port is extremely important and this is the primary reason Lithuania has been so coveted by the Russians over hundreds of years. This port serves a much larger region than just Lithuania. The city appears reasonably prosperous and the port is a very busy one.

Today a local guide took us to the Curonian Spit which is across the inlet below the port’s inlet. The spit runs north to south over a long distance the upper half being in Lithuania and the lower half is Russian. We got to the spit by taking a small ferry that took vehicles (including our bus) and pedestrians. It was a short distance but the only way to get to the spit.

The day started off cold and foggy. In fact we couldn’t even see the top of the tallest “skyscraper” in Klaipeda quite something since it was only about 25 stories tall.

Once on the spit it was thickly wooded with tall pines and a high manmade berm dividing the beach from the side the spit on the lagoon. This berm is necessary as it is very, very windy on the spit even in fine weather. People created the berm by piling logs on it so that the wind would blow the beach sand onto it. Then they planted trees. Over hundreds of years this has formed quite a high forested hill the length of the spit that is in Lithuanian territory.

We had an invigorating walk along the beach. We were encouraged to search for bits of amber along the beach. The entire coastal area is where most of the world’s amber is found. I never actually knew what amber is. It is derived from the sap of trees that have been washed into the sea long, long ago. It becomes hardened and is very beautiful once polished. It is most precious when it has “inclusions” of insects and other materials within it. A few people in group found very some very small pieces. Later in the day we visited an amber gallery.

After our beach walk we drove further south to the “Hill of Witches”. Thlinis was located on a quite high forested hill above the lagoon. Near the water were clouds of flying insects resembling mosquitoes. Howver, it turned out that they were completely harmless and only annoying because they kept landing on us. One flew in my mouth which was very unpleasant. As we walked up the hill the insects went away.

The hill of witches consists of about a hundred wood sculptures that were done around 1980. The theme is local folklore about witches and devils. There are good witches and bad ones. The good ones are wearing shoes. The bad ones either don’t have shoes or don’t have feet. The devils are similar in that they don’t have feet. Apparently mothers warn their daughters to step on the feet of a suitor when dancing to make sure he has feet inside his shoes. The place felt sort of like Hansel and Gretel land or like the place of Grimm’s fairytales.

We had lunch at a B & B along the lagoon. The owner is a very colorful character. She was originally from Klaipeda where she attended music school at the university. Then she came to the Curnonian Spit where she taught music and married a local fisherman. Her husband was very successful and established a thriving fishing business. They build a lovely large house on the lagoon. Unfortunately he died and she was left with the large house, the fishing business, and three sons. The sons took over the fishing business. The widow had lots of energy, is a talented singer, and has a very outgoing personality. She opened her home as a B&B with a small restaurant and bar. She wanted a husband for company and to do all the household repairs, etc. She checked local news media and found a personal ad “Handsome widow seeks rich lady….” She answered the ad and found her present husband – she introduced him to us.

We had a nice lunch of local perch and fresh beer. After lunch our hostess sang a few songs and she had a great voice and a huge personality.

After lunch we drove down the spit as far as possible – you need to be careful not to enter the Russian territory. This included seeing the “beach towns” which are apparently very popular during the summer. We visited the summer house of the German writer, Thomas Mann.

We also stopped to see a sight of some birds. We walked up the hill and the ghastly sight was thousand of cormarands nesting in trees. The stench from their guano was awful. Apparently this started about 25 years ago. Something obviously happened to upset the balance of nature. I will never like to see cormarands again.

The local guide was very interested and told us about life in this part of Lithuania. As have the others, she spent much of the time talking about the hardships during the Soviet occupation. I was most touched when she talked about how the Lithuanian people were convinced that they would be rescued by America. They kept waiting but we never came.