Recent Articles
Lithuania
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Dunes, Amber, Boats and Forests on the Shores of Lithuania
As the day was drawing to its close I met the well-known amber hunter and guide Igor Osnač. After learning about this precious stone I set off with Igor to see if we could find some. He marched along the shore of the Baltic Sea looking for waves dark with sea weed while I trotted along beside him waiting to examine his ‘catch’ for pieces of amber ...
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Juodkrantė and the Curious Curonian Spit
It is an extraordinary place. Leaving the sunny sea front I was soon deep in the forest with weird faces peering down at me. Some of the structures provide places to sit and enjoy the eerie beauty of the place. I particularly liked the bench being carried by two wooden figures. I had this weird feeling that if I came back the next day this bench would be in a different place ...
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Nida on the unique Curonian Spit in Lithuania
Lithuanians love to explain natural phenomena through legends. The creation of this long, thin sand spit is attributed to the female giant Neringa. She was the beautiful, good and courageous daughter of the rulers of this land. Neringa would wade into the sea to carry distressed fishing vessels back to the shore. One day, when a violent storm was raging and the sea was throwing so much sand onto the shore it threatened to bury her parent’s castle. Neringa filled her apron time and again with sand from the sea bed to create an embankment …
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Nerija Hotel in Nida, Lithuania
Hotel Nerija is located in a quiet street near the centre of Nida. Nida is the administrative centre of the municipality of Neringa on the Curonian Spit. The hotel is within walking distance of both the shore of the Curonian Lagoon on one side of town and the beaches that fringe the Baltic Sea on the other.
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The Gradiali Hotel in Palanga, Lithuania
As I was only at the Gradiali Hotel for one night and, to be honest, more interested in a walk through the pine woods to the beach, I did not have time to try any of the many on offer therapies and treatments on offer. But I did have time to enjoy a very nice meal in the hotel restaurant. This was followed by a very good night’s sleep – it is really peaceful here.
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Palanga, the Summer Capital of Lithuania
I had saved the best for last - Count Feliks’s most precious gift to Palanga, the splendid neo-renaissance Tiškevičius Palace - his family home which he built in 1897 in the sacred forest of Birutė where he married his wife, Antanina. He stored his universally admired private collection of amber here, a collection that Antanina gave to Kretinga Museum after his death. Although the palace was badly damaged during the First World War Count Feliks restored it to its former splendour ...
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Klaipėda – A Celebration of Lithuania Minor
My first impression of the Lithuania town of Klaipėda was one of space, light and lovely buildings. This thriving port, the fourth largest, on the Baltic Sea has emerged from two major disasters, a great fire in 1854 and the devastation of the Second World War to become an attractive, interesting town with some unusual and unique attractions ...
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Vytautas Mineral Spa – My Favourite Hotel in the Spa Town of Birštonas in Lithuania
From the outside the Vytautas Mineral Spa resembles a long-armed space ship that has carefully set itself down on earth beside a lake surrounded by luscious green parkland. It was hard to believe that I was within five minutes' walk of the centre of Birštonas a pretty spa town in Lithuania ...
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Water and Whales in Birštonas, a Spa Town in Lithuania
The pretty spa town of Birštonas in Lithuania nestles in a loop of the River Nemunas. it owes its prosperity to the mineral waters that flow beneath it. It guards these precious waters through the belief that they are protected by a mythical whale ...