Klaipeda, Lithuania's primary seaport is bustling with tankers, cruise ships, pleasure craft and ferries. It is interesting to explore this quaint town. Our hotel is located perfectly in the old town district and quite close to the sound where all this shipping activity happens. Today we loaded into our bus and onto a ferry crossing the Curonian Sound and onto the Curonian Spit. Spit, does not mean the same when applied to geography. This spit is 98 km long and 4 km at its widest point. A spit is a deposition bar or beach landform off a coast or lake shore. This is the biggest sand bar ever seen by us to date for sure. Centuries ago, trees were planted of the majority of this sand bar to prevent erosion. At least that is the case for the Lithuanian half. The southern half is Kalingrad Russia. Today, we all can say in total honesty, "we can see Russia from here". 😃 First stop on the spit was to climb over the huge dune to the west side and the shore of the Baltic Sea. This is where amber can be found. Amber was formed by tree resin over 50 million years ago. Old stuff! We did scrounge a few specs. A woman jogging on the beach towards me, stopped and dropped a hand full of small chards of amber in my hand. Not sure why so speechless, the most generous gift or the really loose fitting upper torso clothing.... Next stop, Hill of Witches. Here witches are intuitive intelligent women. This is an outdoor sculpture gallery on this forested sand dune filled with nearly 100 carved wooden figures by Samogitian folk artists. There is a folk tale to go with each figure. Our most excellent guide regaled us with many stories. Was very fun!
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