Lithuania’s third largest city, and main port, Klaipėda was a pleasant place to spend a couple of nights as a base to visit Curonian Spit National Park. Until the 1923 it was part of Germany, important as an ice free port on the Baltic Sea.
It now has one of the largest collections of outdoor sculpture in the country, ~120 of which are in the Klaipėda Sculpture Park.
Around 60% of the buildings in the city were destroyed during WW2 but some heritage buildings survived.
The riverside is very pleasant, and home to the “Sūduvis”. This is a 1950s German mine hunter donated to Lithuania in 1999, and turned into a ship museum in 2021.
This huge bank of earth was once home to the 13th century Klaipėda Castle, which is now being rebuilt. Inside the man made hill is the moderately interesting The Castle Museum.
The Curonian Spit is a 98km long peninsula near evenly split between Lithuania and Russia, which contains the largest sand dunes in Europe, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a short ferry ride from Klaipėda.
Before connecting to a 1.10 hour bus ride down to Nida, the southernmost of the four villages in the Lithuanian part of the spit. There is distinctive red and blue architecture in the island.
The most popular activity on the spit is cycling, with with flat terrain and plenty of paths.
Just south of Nida is the 52m high Parnidis Dune and other giant sand dunes stretching out to the border with Russia.
On the way to Klaipėda we stopped at the Hill of Crosses. Started a few centuries ago, it commemorates those who have been lost, with anyone able to add a cross. The authorities (particularly the Soviets) have removed or bulldozed the crosses over the the years but the site has continued and these days is home to ~200,000 crosses, ranging from the tiny to the huge.
