Lithuania

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We drove down from our unsuccessful cow-spotting to the Curonian Spit, off the west coast of Lithuania. We took the ferry across and stopped at the Witch's Hill to see the various sculptures along a path, all done by artists in the 70-80s about different figures from legends and fairytales. Unfortunately, the only thing Si remembers is the three snakes he saw along the way. We then went down to the town in the south, Nida, and camped there. We took a walk along the beautiful Baltic Sea side of the spit -- the best beaches we've seen so far -- and found some amber, the 'gold of the sea' that the region is famous for. We crossed back to the mainland and I convinced Simon to take a detour to Siauliai, a small town famous for its Hill of Crosses, planted there for centuries and in defiance of the Soviets, who apparently bulldozed it on three separate occasions. We then went to Trakai, a town just outside of Vilnius, famous for its beautiful castle on an island and the Karaim community there. We stayed the night on the banks of the lake with a view of the castle and went to Vilnius the next day. It's a great city -- the university is in the middle of it and there is a breakaway republic across the river. The best museum there was the KGB headquarters. We went back via the Kariam museum and restaurant in Trakai and then stopped in the border town of Druskininkai, famous for its hot springs and mud baths, for the night. The next morning it was on to Poland . . . E