Russia and Scandinavia 2014: LITHUANIA & Sea

Monday 4th August 2014 Day 24 (day 9 of the cruise).

Klaipeda, Lithuania.

Today was the first time a Royal ship has been to the port of Klaipeda, so there will be a new plaque on the wall - and we were there for it!

Klaipeda is a really important seaport as it is one of the northern most ice free ports in Europe.

It’s been an important trading port since the 13^th century and before that was used in pre-historic times as it was on the amber route.

It got its independence from Russia in 1991.

We walked into old town then back through the modern part. Old town had some lovely building but the town square was full of little stalls selling mainly amber. A lovely big canal runs up into the town and was full of lovely restaurants and bars.

We did find a coffee shop with good coffee so Sarah was happy.

There were some really interesting modern buildings and a few very old building that had been beautifully renovated using dark glass instead of white rendered panels.

Again it was stinking hot! We have had over 32 degrees every day in Scandinavia, Russia and the Baltics. We have been lied to. This place is not cool at all. And of course they are all seaports so it is really humid! Today was particularly humid with sweat running off us even when we were sitting down.

The port is protected by the 'Curonian Spit', a sand spit stretching nearly 100k. The spit is a world heritage site.

We caught a ferry across to the spit then walked across to the other side, where there was a lovely beach – obviously! Since it was a 100km sand spit. Thousands of people were enjoying the beach. All streaming off the ferry with their bags of food and drinks etc. There were sun lounge hire places, push bike ice cream man and more.

Pity we didn’t know we were going to the beach! We would have come prepared with mod cons like swimmers.

This kid fell in love with Sarah. He followed her everywhere.

But it was so hot – we didn’t let a little thing like lack of swimmers stop us. So in we went. And it was lovely. We have now swum in the Baltic Sea.

The floor of the sea was amazing – it was very corrugated but the ripples were about 80-100mm high and rock hard. They really hurt your feet. And to get into water more than one metre deep we had to walk out about 500 metres.

We played in the water for about 30 minutes then headed back to the ferry.

Legend has the new arial show - or the Monkey Show as Raina prefers to call it. A big trapeze hangs from the ceiling in the Centrum and three people do a short show dangling from above.

We had a hilarious dinner with a mixed group of people - Calgary, Texas and Bendigo, with the funniest stories being told.

What a lovely day.

Tueday 5th August 2014 Day 25 (day 10 of the cruise).

SEA DAY!!! Relax.
The sea was so flat. It looked like a lake this morning. And we must be getting so south. It was dark by 11pm tonight and the sun was not up until we after 4am!!!

Raina went on a bridge tour. It was interesting and learned some good things. The Baltic Sea is in really bad shape environmentally. Many of the countries have made a deal with the cruise lines that, rather than the ships dumping their processed waste, as they do throughout the world, the countries will take the waste away for free rather then damage the already damaged sea any more.

It was a good tour.

And finally we got some real Scandinavian weather. The rain bucketed down for a few hours. we even got some seas. Almost a metre high!