Delving Deeper into Lithuania

We're up early and off to visit the slightly controversial Grutas Park. A private collector has acquired many of the discarded statues from the Soviet era, once adorning town squares, and exhibited them in a parkland setting with other artifacts from that time.

Powerful, eh?

We travel on to a 'farm camping' site, just west of the town of Trakai. Nice site but it's shared with a summer camp for lots of children - so restful it's not..

It's our turn later as we have a shared group meal and folk evening which involves us participating in traditional folk dancing.... OK, OK, I know..
High quality stuff, though, and interesting to hear folk styles from each region of the country. We're told that the traditions are being kept alive.

Also tried the locally made schnapps that's won an award..,....

Traditional Lithuanian Folk

Day 2

A trip into Trakai the next day with a local guide takes us through Lithuanian history and details of the reconstructed island castle in the town, reconstruction having begun in the Soviet era.

Something slightly scary about this suit of armour..

The town is the centre of the Karaite culture in Lithuania with 60 residents. They have their own religion and customs and we learn as much as we can. Really, really wish I could remember all this interesting stuff.

Sue tries the local Kibinai which are basically rather nice Cornish Pasties or Spanish Empanadas, if you prefer. Pity they're made of wheat.....

Off to the capital, Vilinius, tomorrow, so 'bye for now.

Into Lithuania

So, the tour begins....

See Lithuanian Country Profile (in 'web version' of blog)
Also: Happiness Survey

Our tour leader and joint owner of Mir Tours has given us highly detailed roue instructions so we head off to meet in Lithuania sometime in the afternoon at our pre-booked campsite.

Because our caravanning satnav (which understands the size of our 13+m outfit and routes us accordingly) died a couple of days before we left the UK, I have our Huawei tablet rigged on the dash running a CoPilot app which does the same thing. It talks  to the internet through my phone but it's not quite the usual neat setup; it works, though and gets us here over some incredibly bumpy roads.



After one minor diversion we roll up at site and take a group walk into the nearby Spa town, Druskininkai. We see a wonderful old Russian Orthodox church amongst other sights and then eat at the campsite restaurant with friends. A good day.

Russian Orthodox Church

 Catholic Church

Onward tomorrow...

Mragowo Meeting

Well, here we are at Camping Seeblick, Ruska Wies near Mragowo, and a nice site it is, too. So, this is the beginning of the Group Tour part of our adventure and there's always a little anticipation at this stage. Looking forward to it.

(Thanks Google - says my Huawei)

Hope we can get some sleep tonight, though, because there are two pools of frogs, yes, FROGS, the VERY LOUD croaking variety. Listen:

We've left time for a day exploring this lake district and, importantly, a couple of days relaxation and mingling as other group members roll in. Should be fun.

Day 2

The official meet-up day is Sunday, so that means we have two 'free days'. Today we visit some local highlights and tomorrow we'll stay on site and get sorted for a hectic tour.


We head off to Swięta Lipka to see a superb baroque church (17 Century). It has an organ with 5000 pipes and gold-embossed angels. We stay to see a recital but we aren't prepared for the sight of twirling angels and trembling bells as it grinds to the crescendo..... er, not sure about that at all... definitely not sure. On the other hand it certainly livens things up, but which way does the congregation face? It's great to see this this mechanical marvel in action, though, and wonderful that it is so well preserved.  Here's the organ (movie not ours)

Next on our list is Wolf's Lair, Hitler's HQ for the invasion of Russia. It was here that an assasination attempt was made by a group of high ranking generals; it failed and 5000 suspects were executed as a result. How many lives would have been spared if it has succeeded?

We see many of the destroyed heavily armoured bunkers, including Hitler's, as we walk the site with the supplied guidebook.

We call in at Gizycko on the way back and, by chance, choose a really good restaurant where we eat some fresh fish. .. then on 'home' where.....

Surprise!  Two of our old travelling friends have pitched next to us. After hugs and manly hand shakes, two more appear. We all know each other well and it's a great reunion. Adventures beckon.

Day 3

We pop onto the nearest town to say a goodbye to Polish culture for a while. As ever in these parts, it's on a lake, tidy and rather nice, too.

Back at base, our serene campsite is now full with an ACSI tour group of Austrians and Germans - and, of course, our fellow Brit travellers are rolling in, two by two, followed by Sabine, our tour leader - the only other caravanner. We chat, bond, laugh, have our first group meeting followed by a welcome meal from the barbecue. Adventures await.

Elbląg Adventures

We make a relatively short trip to Elbląg as a stop over for a couple of days before we head to our meeting point for the Camping and Caravanning Club's escorted tour with six other adventurers.

We're here to visit the vast Malbork Castle and investigate the unique Elbląg Canal with its method of raising boats between levels.

We arrive at a camp site right by the river and decide to head off to the Castle, where we manage to get a self guided audio tour without the expected crowds.

Malbork Castle was once the HQ of the Teutonic Knights and is the largest Gothic castle in Europe. Well worth the visit: highly recommended.

Here it is:

The outer skin has been rebuilt following WW2 destruction so it looks to be in wonderful condition.

This large hall's ceiling is held up by a single post. Someone seems to have got their sums right....

We decide to stay for a second night to take a trip on the Elblag Canal; it turns out that the ticket office is 500m from the campsite and we grab two seats on a trip leaving in the morning.

The more-or-less five hour trip up the canal the next day includes a coach ride back and seems to us the ideal way to experience this brilliant bit of hydro engineering by Georg Steenke

Although the main attraction of the trip is the engineering, sailing along through rivers and large lakes populated by hundreds of nesting birds is a fantastic experience in itself and shows us yet another fascinating face of this country.

How about some pics...

Looking to the stern as we ride up the slope

Journey's end

Using the height of the water to power the winches that raise the (largish) boat up the inclines in cradles while we're all still on board is very clever indeed. It also surprises that it's quite slick, too; it's probably a lot quicker than a series of locks. Wonderful.

Someone else's boat going up..

If you have three minutes to spare, here's Edbląg Canal: The Movie

So that's it: another mini adventure!

Off to Camping Seeblick at Mragowo tomorrow. See you there ABW

.......

Before leaving Elbląg the next morning, we take a walk into this developing town; there's a lot of development going on, all in sympathy with the Polish five storey narrow house design. Impressive indeed.

Interesting style for the stained glass windows in the cathedral..

Great conservation, great development; pity about the roads.