Lithuania – Klaipeda, Telsiai, Tauragė, Marijampole Aug 8, 2019-08-07
PALANGA
Palanga Beach. All Baltic beaches are similar – pine forest, boardwalk access, good dunes with trees and grass, a deep, white, fine sand beach and shallow water. This access point had a small hotel with a restaurant at the start of the boardwalk, a big bar on the beach and small wood enclosed change areas next to picnic tables and garbage every 50m. Nice.
Palanga Resort (Palanga Spa). On a normal street in a residential area, this high-end, 5-story hotel has a semi-circular shape. Each room has a nice covered balcony. The spa and busy restaurant take up most of the ground floor.
Iliuziju namas Eureka (Illusive House Eureka). This unusual building is painted black with an abstract blue/pink design (clouds?).
Palanga Amber Museum. Housed in a grand mansion in the middle of a grand park full of mature trees, flower beds and a botanical garden, this museum is all amber – archaeological digs with amber as old as the Neolithic age, many pieces with every kind of insect known plus spiders, centipedes and damsel flies, all kinds of jewellery, and boxes and clocks made from mosaics of amber.
Amber is the fossilized resin 45-50 million years old from all kinds of trees and forms as icicles, ground lumps, drops and under the trunk of trees. Amber remaining in the ground disintegrates and most amber is “mined” from the sea bed when it is carried out to sea by streams, especially ones trapped under glaciers. The Baltic area is the greatest source of amber in the world as it doesn’t have surf and gently sloping bottoms. Russia is the biggest producer followed by the Baltic countries.
The bottom floor is full of furniture and paintings from the mansion. The place was packed, especially with large tour groups. €4, 2 reduced
I have seen better amber products in museums. The ultimate is the amber room in Catherine’s Palace in St Petersburg with all the walls and picture frames exotic large pieces of amber.
Antanas Moncys House. Moncys (1921-93) was an artist specializing in wood sculpture, most linked chains and abstract figures, all somewhat roughly hewn and I thought ugly. He also did composite graphics and some concrete, lead and stone sculpture, none of it very nice. Downstairs was a temporary exhibit just being set up with abstract “landscapes?” €5, 2 reduced
Dog Museum.. In the NM “Bizzarium”, I went here hoping to learn all about the creation of dog breeds through selective breeding. But I was in for a surprise. In 1991, this 60ish man was at a dog show with his wife. She wanted a dog and he returned in 10 minutes with a small ceramic dog – and that was the start of the dog museum. In this small 3x3m room are glass cases, 8 shelves per case, all crammed with dog figurines made from 22 kinds of material (soap, straw, and amber may be the most unusual), from 37 countries. The majority are ceramic, the largest is wood and 80cms high and the smallest some 5mm earrings. There is nothing about real dogs here.
Occupying a larger space than the museum is his art gallery, all done by him. He also sells a small volume of poetry that he wrote. He is a rather flamboyant fellow, speaks not one word of English and gives an animated tour of his art, most of which is not so interesting except for his lovely miniatures.
Equally unusual is its location, in the bottom floor of a Soviet style apartment building that he uses for this purpose and as a studio, but lives elsewhere. I assume he is still married. €1
KLAIPEDA
Klaipeda Lighthouse. This tall white and black striped lighthouse can’t be approached as it is inland in the middle of petroleum tank farm.
Museum of Clocks. With only labels (and no descriptions in English), this was very good. Mechanisms – sundials of every kind, fire clocks, candle clocks, oil wick clocks, sand clocks, mechanical clocks (weights, pendulums) to present day clocks. Clock decorations over time – Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Eclectic, pocket watches. €3, 1.50 reduced
Black Ghost Sculpture. BizzariumThis wonderful sculpture is a cloaked figure climbing up the dock holding a lantern in his left hand. The bridge turned and I had to wait 20 minutes and saw him well from behind. The front is completely hollow.
Kretinga Museum (in castle). Four parts: WW II – in the autumn of 1944, the Soviet Union attacked Klaipeda, 2 million fled to east Prussian (160,000 from Klaipeda alone or 91% of the population), Klaipeda was abandoned and destroyed (60% of buildings were destroyed). 61 countries, 60 million died, half civilians, 8 million died in concentration camps, 5 million of them Jews.
The 3rd and 4th parts are in the corner bastions of the castle with history of the castle and Klaipeda. €150, .87 reduced
History museum of Lithuania Minor. €1.50. .67 reduced
Blessed Virgin Mary Queen of Peace Church. Until WW II, Klaipeda was a Protestant city with few Catholics and this church was destroyed in the war. Afterward Catholics increased to 30,000 and this church was built in 1960, the soviets destroyed the tower in 1962 and it became a concert hall. It became a church again in 1988.
It is unadorned dark brown concrete with a huge tower. Inside it has 3 naves with large rosettes on the ceiling, nice stained glass on the side and in circles near the ceiling, lovely painted bas-relief Ways of the Cross and a nice murals behind the altar and the dome of the apse. Free
Pokrovo-Nicholas Church. This is a lovely new church. White with brown onion domes, it ic completely frescoed inside. All the sints have gold halos and several on the columns have gilt backgrounds. The iconostasis is blue with a lot of gilt ornamentation and is fronted with a brass railing.
I entered during service – singing is lovely as all services have a choir.
This is a very hard church to find. The name Polrovo means nothing in either Lithuanian or Russian. Google maps does not have it nor does Google which is very unusual. I found a reference to and photos in Tripadvisor and was able to deduce the location.
This was my last place in Klaipeda. I found the cheapest gas in months at €1.09.5 and my first Lidl since last in Lithuania about 6 weeks ago (unfortunately they didn’t have several products I was seeking. I have now bought groceries in Lidl stores in at least 20 countries.
CURONIAN SPIT
This is a 98km long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea coast. At 33,021ha and at its widest is 4km wide just north of Nida, Lithuania and the narrowest is 400m near the Russian village of Lesnoy. Its southern 46km long portion lies within Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia and its northern 52km within southwestern Lithania. At this northern end there is a narrow strait, across from which is Klaipeda.
The spit was formed about the 3rd millennium BC from a glacial moraine with wind and sea currents later contributed enough sand to raise and keep it above sea level. As sand transport occurs from the southwest, if a large port construction with a pier, the spit would erode and eventually disappear. The more likely occurrence would be for the shallow bay inside the spit to fill up with sediment and create more land.
History. From 800-1016, Kaup was a major pagan trading center (it has not been excavated). In the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights occupied it building castles at Memel (1252), Neuhausen (1283) and Rossitten (1374). The last living speaker of the now-extinct Baltic language, Old Prussian, lived here.
Deforestation from building boats for the 1757 battle of Gross-Jagersdorf and overgrazing led to the dunes taking over the spit and burying entire villages. Large scale reforestation started in 1825 halted the dune formation and now covered by forest.
In the 19th century it was inhabited by Kursenieki (Curonians) with a German minority in the south and a Lithuanian minority in the north. Before 1945, the spit was totally ethnic German and the Curonians are almost nonexistent today due to assimilation.
From the 19th century, the dune landscape around Nidden became popular with landscape and animal painters becoming an expressionist artist’s colony.
Until the 20th century, fishing was the main source of livelihood. The Rossiten Bird Observatory formed from 1901 to 1946. Thomas Mann summered here from 1929-32. The German population was expelled by force after WW II by the Soviets and ethnic cleansing also occurred and Russian settlers took over. Today ethnic Germans choose Nida especially for holidays.
Today. The spit is home to the highest moving (drifting) sand dunes in Europe at 35 to 60m in height. Habitat consists of wetlands, meadows, forests and dune ridges. It is on the Eastern Flywayand with 10-20 million birds flying over the spit in the spring and fall. Many stop to rest or breed.
The Lithuanian settlements on the spit from north to south are Smityne, Alsnyne, Juodkrante, Pervalka, Preila, and Nida. A single road traverses the entire length. Because of the strait at the north end, access from Lithuania is by car ferry from Klaipeda. The largest town, Nida, is a popular holiday resort and tourist area with beaches best on the northern shores. Climbing the dunes is possible only at certain designated paths. A 13.8m high, 36 ton granite stone pillar is carved with hour and half hour, month and solstice and equinox notches to make a sundial at Parnidis Dune. Pollution and an offshore drilling facility are the major environmental issues.
Curonian Spit is a World Heritage Site (2000) shared by both Russia and Lithuania and is also in the NM “XL” series.
Getting There and Away. To access the Cruonian Spit from Lithuania, take a ferry from Klaipeda. My van was classified as an “autobus”, not a car and charged double (€24.00) for a 5-minute ferry ride. I tried to argue that it is only 4.9m long, has only 4 seats and is treated as a car on every other ferry I have ever taken, but the woman spoke no English and the argument fell on deaf ears. But the ferry back was free.
Curonian Spit National Park on the Lithuanian side is called Kursiu Nerija National Park and all human activity including climbing Parnidis Dune is prohibited. The entire spit about 5kms south of the ferry is National Park. Fee to access the park €20 and the booth is manned 24hrs/day.
Naglial Self Guided Path. The only place to access the dunes is this 1.1km cognitive trail at Nagliali. It is a relatively young dune, only 1500 years old, and has decreased in size by 8m in the last hundred years. Where the parking lot is was once a very high, 3500 year old dune, now gone. It is about 15kms north of Nida. €2, open only from 9am to 6pm.
With the ferry and park fees, visiting this place is expensive €44, for less than one day.
JUODKRANTE
Juodkrante (literally: Black Shore, German: Schwarzort) has a permanent population of about 720 people. It is a quiet Lithuanian seaside resort village located on the Curonian Spit. A part of Neringa municipality, Juodkrantė is the second largest settlement on Lithuania’s part of the spit. Situated in Old Prussian territory it was for centuries a fishing village named Schwarzort, which underwent a tourist boom in the late 19th – early 20th century. After World War I this northern part of East Prussia was severed from Germany and the village became known as Juodkrantė.
History. Juodkrantė was first mentioned (as Schwarzort) by the Teutonic Knights in 1429 in a letter describing storm damages. It was initially situated along the Baltic Sea shore, about 2.5 km from the present location. In the early 17th century, due to the Black Death, and moving sand dunes threatening to bury the village, it lost almost all of its inhabitants. In the 1680s, the village relocated to its present location along the Curonian Lagoon shore. The village did quite well in the new location: a tavern was opened in 1673, a school in 1743, and a wooden church in 1795. It grew in importance after Carwaiten/Karvaičiai/Karwaiten village was swallowed by traveling sand and the seat of the Church District relocated here. The wooden church burned down in 1878 but was soon replaced by a red brick church.
Major developments took place in 1860s. In the late 1850s the lagoon waterway was deepened and now ferries could arrive. It was the easiest way to travel. In the course of the work, samples of amber were found. In 1860 the Stantien & Becker company was founded to dig amber just north of the village. During 30 years of operations, it dug out about 2,250 tons of amber. At its peak the company employed about 1,000 workers. After the company relocated to Palmnicken (now Yantarny) in 1890, the population of Schwarzort dropped from 851 in 1885 to 423 in 1895.
The tourist business was started in 1860s by Edward Stellmacher, who turned an old tavern house into a hotel named Kurischer Hof (now Gintaras). Because of the amber business, a new Juodkrantė was developed north of the old fishermen village. Many villas and hotels were built there. In the beginning of the 20th century there were 5 hotels, 20 villas, and a convalescent home Luisenbad. The new town was considered a luxury resort and attracted about 3,000 visitors a year. World War II destroyed the tourist business. Neringa was a strictly regulated border region. Only in the early 1960s tourists started to come back. However, Nida became a more popular destination for tourists. This allowed Juodkrantė to retain its old business – fishing. Sometimes it is referred to as the “capital of fishermen” and holds annual fishermen festival in July.
Amber treasure. Stantien & Becker would dig up many pieces of amber shaped as amulets or knick-knacks. At first they would give them out as souvenirs, but then started collecting these items from the Mid Neolithic and the Bronze Ages. Richard Klebs, professor at Königsberg University, described 435 items (pendants, buttons, tubular beads, discs, and figurines of humans and animals) in his book Stone Age Amber Adornments in 1882. These ancient Schwarzorter Funde are considered to contain the earliest known amber carving finds from the Baltic Sea area (with amber carvings thousands of years older in other locations). About 150 items have detailed images. The collection was exhibited in Berlin, St. Petersburg, London, Chicago. After Klebs’ death, Königsberg University purchased his collection. However, during the turbulent times of World War II and the expulsions from East Prussia most of the large collection in Königsberg was destroyed or stolen and only a few items were saved at Göttingen University, previously the sister university of Königsberg. But scientists were able to make replicas from detailed illustrations in Klebs’ book.
Hill of Witches The sculpture park was started in 1979 and now has more than 70 wooden objects. Most of the figures are based on Lithuanian legends or folk tales. In both the “Bizzarium” and “Sight” series in NM, this wide trail through nice forest is festooned with fantastic, very creative wood sculptures – benches, totem poles, chairs, structures with cross beams, all intricately carved with a huge variety of faces and figures.
It appeared that I started at the end and passed 53 sculptures walking to the top of the hill and maybe 150m past to the sign labeled #17. The trail appeared to continue on down to the town of Juodkrante making a loop by walking along the highway to return to the van. 
Sculpture Park “Land and Water”
Another sculpture park was finished in 2002. It has 31 stone and metal sculptures created during an international symposium “Land and Water.” The sculptures are located on the recently built quay, 2.4 km in length, along the lagoon shore.
Museum of Weathercocks has information on the Nerija cultural heritage. There is also a gallery maintained by the Lithuanian National Art Museum.
NIDA (pop 2,385)
Nida is the westernmost point of Lithuania and the Baltic states, close to the border with the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast exclave.
History. A settlement area of the Baltic Curonians, the original place called nida (“fluent” in the Old Prussian language) was first mentioned in 1385 as a fishing village. It was successively under the control of the Teutonic Knights, the Duchy of Prussia in 1525 and of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701.
In 1709 nearly all of the population died from a bubonic plague epidemic. Continuously threatened by sand drifts, the village was moved away from the approaching dune to today’s position in the 1730s. Incorporated into the Prussian Province of East Prussia in 1773, it became part of the German Empire upon the German unification of 1871. In 1874 a lighthouse on Urbas hill was built, later destroyed in the war and rebuilt in 1945 and 1953.
Artists’ colony. From the late 19th century, the dune landscape became popular with landscape and animal painters. The local inn of Herman Blode was the nucleus of the expressionist artists’ colony. Artists included Lovis Corinth, Max Pechstein, Alfred Lichtwark, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Alfred Partikel, Julius Freymuth and Eduard Bischoff and the poets, Ernst Wiechert and Carl Zuckmayer.
After World War I Nidden, together with the northern half of the Curonian Spit (Kurische Nehrung), became part of the Klaipėda Region under terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and was annexed by Lithuania in 1923. Officially renamed Nida, the village nevertheless remained a predominantly German settlement; the border with the remaining German (East Prussian) half of the spit lay only a few kilometers to the south.
Thomas Mann. In 1929 Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann visited Nida and built a summer house on a hill above the lagoon. He and his family spent the summers of 1930–32 in the cottage, and parts of the epic novel Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph und seine Brüder) were written there. Threatened by the Nazis due to his political views, Mann left Germany after Hitler’s Machtergreifung in 1933 and eventually emigrated to the United States. After the Klaipėda Region was again annexed by (now Nazified) Germany in 1939, his house was seized at the behest of Hermann Göring and designated a recreation home for Luftwaffe officers.
Post-war. In 1939 the town had 736 inhabitants. Nida became nearly uninhabited, like all of the Curonian Spit, as a result of the Red Army advance and the Evacuation of East Prussia at the end of World War II, and the eventual expulsion of surviving German inhabitants. In the early postwar period, Nida was a little-visited fishing village. Later in Soviet times Nida, together with three other villages of the Neringa Municipality (Juodkrantė, Preila and Pervalka), was a controlled-entry holiday region reserved for the Communist party officialdom and senior industry elite. Strict planning regulations, a ban on industrial development and generous municipal subsidies kept it unspoiled. Since independence, the area has been open to all, but the number of visitors is kept relatively low by the small number of hotel rooms and comparatively high rents.
Mann’s summer cottage survived the war. The town is an upmarket holiday resort, hosting about 200,000 to 300,000 tourists each summer, mostly Lithuanians, Germans, Latvians, and Russians. It is characterized by low-key entertainment and a distinct family focus. However, during recent years it has become a decent point of interest for fine electronica music and modern art shows at an eclectic forest retreat.
Since 2001, a jazz festival has been held every year. A local radio station Neringa FM streams live beats over FM and online. There are also interesting places to see nearby, including some of the highest sand dunes in Europe, a large sundial (which has been restored after being damaged by a Baltic gale), fisherman’s ethnographic museum, gallery-museum of amber and a German Protestant (Evangelische) Brick Gothic church (built in 1888). There is also a campsite.
The town is known for Nidden Kurenwimpel — German for “Curonian pennants” — ornate carved flags peculiar to local families resident on the Curonian Spit. The flags, replicas of which can be seen around Nida, feature animal and human figures as pictograms reminiscent of a pagan writing tradition. At the local cemetery, examples of krikštas (pl. krikštai), pagan burial markers in place of tombstones, can still be seen.
Nida’s beach participates in the Blue Flag Programme. Nudists make use of parts of the beach near Nida for nude bathing.
Transportation. Nida Airport is located in the town, but it has no scheduled routes and only capable of handling small aircraft. Nida also has a seaport which is used for ferries and fishing boats. The only road which runs along the whole length of the Curonian Spit, connecting Zelenogradsk and Smiltynė (where a ferry connection to Klaipėda exists), passes through the edge of Nida. An hourly bus runs between Nida and Smiltynė ferry terminal on that road, and intercity buses to various cities like Kaliningrad, Klaipėda, Kaunas and Vilnius exist.
Nida Beach. A very nice beach with boardwalk, 6 beach volleyball courts, frequent changing areas and fine white sand. When I was there, a big thunder and lightning storm was brewing and surf was big.
I drove the length of the spit in the early morning paying my €20 entrance fee to the park. After the ferry back to Klaipeda, I continued on my journey through the rest of Lithuania to enter Poland.
Šilutė. A famous fish market was opened in Šilutė almost 500 years ago. The town was reclaimed by Nazi Germany in 1939. During World War II, the Stalag Luft VI prisoner-of-war camp was located near Heydekrug; it was the northernmost POW camp within the confines of the German Reich.
There remain many old buildings in Šilutė: an old post office (1905), a fire station (1911), a court building and prison (1848), a bridge across the Sziesze (Šyša) (1914), an estate of H. Scheu (1818), an old market square, a harbor, railway station and a bridge (1875), and the Vydūnas gymnasium.
The economy is based on agricultural products and a distillery.
Rusne Island. About 9kms west of Šilutė,it is located between Atmata and Skirvytė, distributaries of the Neman River, and the Curonian Lagoon. At 45 or 46 square kilometers, Rusnė is often named as the largest island of Lithuania. The island’s age has been estimated at 1,100 years, formed when the Neman River deposited its sediments before flowing into the Curonian Lagoon. The elevation does not exceed 1.5 metres. One point in the island is 0.27 metres below sea level, which is the lowest elevation in Lithuania.
The island is subject to frequent flooding, particularly in spring due to ice dams. Floodwaters are removed by pumping, using an extensive system of canals and polders.
The main businesses in the island are sailing, canoeing tourism, and fishing. The town of Rusnė, with 1,600 inhabitants, is the largest populated place on the island. The only bridge between the mainland and the island leads to Rusnė. After 1990, collective farming ended and individual landowners lacked the resources to clear the fields. This led to the growth of vegetation inhospitable to migratory birds, an internationally problematic issue since the island lies within the East Atlantic Flyway. An NGO, The Lithuanian Fund for Nature, successfully spearheaded a drive to restore the meadows that had been used by various bird species.
Paežeriai Windmill, Paežeriai.
Saint Michael the Archangel Church, Marijampole. This small RC church looks new with brown wood siding. Inside is pine and 2 stained glass windows.
NOMAD MANIA Lithuania – Klaipeda, Telsiai, Tauragė, Marijampole
World Heritage Sites: Curonian Spit
Sights: Plokstine Missile Base
Islands: Rusne
Borders
Latvia-Lithuania
Lithuania (sea border/port)
Lithuania-Poland
Lithuania-Russia
Castles, Palaces, Forts:
Pilis: Panemunė Castle
Raudonė: Raudonė Castle
Religious Temples: Marijampole: Saint Michael the Archangel Church
Festivals:
Klaipėda: Klaipėda Sea Festival
Saint Jonas’ Festival
Užgavėnės
Žemaičių Kalvarija: The Great Samogitian Calvary Festival
Windmills: Paežeriai: Paežeriai Windmill (marked PaezeriaI)
World of Nature
Žaemaitija
CURONIAN SPIT
World Heritage Sites: Curonian Spit
XL: Curonian spit (Lithuanian)
JUODKRANTE (on Curonian spit)
Bizzarium: Hill of Witches
Sights: Hill of Witches and ‘Land and Water’ Sculpture Parks, Juodkrante
NIDA
House Museums/Plantations: Thomas Mann Museum
Beaches: Nida Beach
European Cities
KLAIPEDA
Sights: Klaipeda
Museums:
History museum of Lithuania Minor
Museum of Clocks
Castles, Palaces, Forts: Kretinga Museum
Religious Temples:
Blessed Virgin Mary Queen of Peace Church
Pokrovo-Nicholas Church
Aquariums: Lithuanian Sea Museum
Lighthouses: Klaipeda Lighthouse
Bizzarium: Black Ghost Sculpture
Villages and Small Towns
ŠILUTĖ
NIDA
House Museums/Plantations: Thomas Mann Museum
Beaches: Nida Beach
PALANGA
Sights: Palanga Resort (Palanga Spa Luxery marked)
Airports: Palanga (PLQ)
Museums:
Iliuziju namas Eureka (Illusive House Eureka)
Palanga Amber Museum
House Museums/Plantations Antanas Moncys House
Beaches: Palanga Beach
Bizzarium: Palanga: Dog Museum
PLUNGE
Castles, Palaces, Forts: Plunge: Samogitian art museum (Plunge Manor)
The Dark Side: Plunge: Cold War Museum