Wheeling down the Spit

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday morning we were up bright and early to catch a 7am bus to the Curonian Spit on the Baltic side of the country

We were in the top of a double decker comfy bus which traveled on a great 4 lane highway, stopping only a couple of times to pick up and drop off passengers. We traveled to Klaipeda and then the bus went on a little ferry for a quick 10 minute ride to the top of the spit. Then we traveled down to Nida, a little seaside town......actually a little lagoon side town about 4km from the Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian enclave (state/province ) between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. The territory is geographically separated from the rest of Russia, and it owns the first 44 kilometers of the spit (about half) that is attached to land. Kind of like Point Roberts.

Our hotel

Our hotel was about a 15 minute walk from where the bus stop was, we dropped off our luggage and then started exploring. The Curonian Spit is on the UNESCO heritage list, because of geological features......large sand dunes. Nida is a very cute little town with a board walk on the lagoon side and a beautiful beach on the Baltic side. The houses in the town have a German influence....this was and still is a vacation spot for many Germans. Thomas Mann spend summers here, there is a museum in his home and the area is said to be big influence in his writings.

The homes have lots of colour and gingerbread scroll work....and most of the homes have fabulous flower gardens. There is also a collector of very unique artistic weather vanes along the board walk. There are lots of people visiting, walking, biking, sailing, fishing, wind surfing.....

Weather vanes

Tourist, fishing, sailing town

Wind surfers way out there

We went out for a dinner of pancakes with fish (I know it sounds horrible but it was crepes wrapped around minced fish.....very delicious) with the group then went off to get some supplies for tomorrows big adventure!......a 40 km bike ride down the spit!!!!

Wednesday

Milda, Mevy &  Rhonda & Jack from Melbourne

After another great breakfast buffet at our new hotel, we set off down to catch the bus to Juodkrante (back up the way we came the day before). Here is where we picked up our bikes to ride back to Nida. Our tour guide for this adventure is young local girl Milda, who did a great job of guiding us and stopping and giving us information along the way. Our first stop was a heron and cormorant colony 3km down the road......hundreds of birds nesting and squawking........

Then back up the road we just came from about 5 kms to the Witches Hill.....a wonderful park and walk. Along the way large wooden carvings of fantasy creatures from Lithuanian folklore.....friendly creature carvings going up the hill and evil creature carvings coming down the hill. And just before we got back to our bikes a father and daughter playing music in the middle of the forest near some dancing creatures. A great place to visit.

The group

Sheri (Sheryl) from Chicago

Then back to the bikes and the ride.....the trail is paved all the way, it starts on the Baltic side and then about half way, at one of the sand dunes (where there is an Earthcache, fancy that!) we switch to the other side of the road the Lagoon side. There was only one big hill and a couple little hills and the rest of the ride is fairly flat, through forests, stopping at the beach on the Baltic side for our picnic lunch and to hunt for amber on the beach. We started the actual trail ride about 11:30am and with our few stops were back in Nida about 4:30pm.......tired but we made it.....both Carol and I did a great job....no spills (I had one close call but saved myself at the last minute) It was a fun time getting to know our new tour mates.

Picnic time

Coming for amber

After cleaning up we went out for dinner and the a bit of grocery shopping to stock up on supplies for our 6 hour bus trip to Riga Latvia tomorrow.

A well deserved cider break!

PS we started to write this on the bus this afternoon......the roads were nice and smooth and I got out the computer.....then we hit Latvian roads......very bumpy and I had to give up....so now I sit at midnight......