Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a heatwave. Part 4

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melsea
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Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a heatwave. Part 4

#1

Post by melsea »

21st May

Klaipeda, Lithuania.

Sunny & warm, very warm!

Not quite knowing what to do since in the Daily Horizon it could have been interpreted in such a way that one might thought it was worse that it is. The shuttle bus of which the local authority would be providing 1 complimentary bus for those with walking difficulties, but unfortunately is not wheelchair adaptable. A journey of 20 minutes to the Theatre Square. There were just four times you could pick up shuttle to the square 10am, 11am, 1.30pm & 2.30pm. On the way back it was half an hour later than the above times. It said Klaipeda Old Town was 800 metres from the ships berth with a nice leisurely walk along the river with a couple of restaurants along the way. All that said it was a lovely walk into town. As you left the gates from the port a few local young people gave you a map. The walk into town was indeed lovely and yes there were a couple of places to eat along the way. There were a number of boats and yachts in the small marina which had also an Old Mill that is now a hotel. After a few more minutes you came to the first bridge that you could actually cross over the River Dane and it is the beginning of the town. Took no more than ten minutes. Also just before the bridge there were crew members connecting to the internet. I had tried to to upload a report while in Gydnia but the website was shut down due to maintenance or upgrade or something like that and today I only managed to get emails and nothing else. Continuing along the river across the road but not across the bridge there was a really lovely big white tall ship having work done to it. In fact it has had a complete overhaul & renovation. The ship is called the Meridianas and it was built in Finland and has been owned/controlled by various countries over the years while being here in Lithuania.
Not far from the tall ship there was a building that was not out of the ordinary except for two things. At eye level there are a group of buttons attached to the wall and straight up towards the chimney there is a large bronze statue of a chimney sweeper which I shall quote from the info I was handed at the port. "There is a belief if one shall touch at least a button of the chimney-sweep on the New Years morning luck will accompany you through the year. The Klaipeda like 2.3 meter high bronze chimney-sweep found his place on the edge of the house, hence, there is no chance to reach him nor his button. However, Klaipeda City men believe they shall be more fortunate from now on. This luck will be enough for you too. (Sculpture by Klaudijus Púdymas).
I walked towards the part of Klaipeda old town which was a quaint area and in fact much of this place is old but some areas more so than others. I inadvertently came across the old theatre square which is where the shuttle bus had dropped of passengers. In this square there was a troupe of young musicians playing traditional music of their country. It was very good. On the edges of this square there were stalls of various goods being sold as well as artist showing off their work to sell. Quite a number of the stalls were selling amber jewellery, I looked at all of them and I finally made my choice and bought a necklace for 20€.
Deciding to amble more around the town I looked at the piece of paper I was handled when I left the port. It was actually full of interesting information, it was a sightseeing route of various pieces of art sculpture as well as buildings of point of interest. So off I went in search of some of these. I came across a number of them and it makes for an interesting free walking tour of this lovely small place. The cutest sculpture was a little mouse sculpture which is next to the Kurpiai Jazz Club. The info says it is not a simple mouse. A modest 17cm high creation made out of bronze and stone, on the opinion of the authors is magic. a minor sculpture is surrounded by a bronze band with spells: Convert your ideas into words, words will become magic one may only whisper into the ear of the that mature and good will is going to become true.(Sculpture S. Juts us, S. Plotnikovas). Make what you will of that statement. Not sure I fully understand it but maybe it has been lost in translation? There was another area of the town that was peaceful and it seemed that this was a place the locals would come too, it was a park that had a little lake.
It was soon time to make my way back to the ship. Near to the Mill Inn Hotel which is not far from the ship thee is a small bridge which when I got there it was open, I hadn't noticed that it was one that would open. There is a timetable nearby that shows when it is open & closed for either foot passengers or small boats. It showed that it was going be opened in 10 minutes. I saw on the opposite side two men in high viz jackets and wondered why but all became clear when it was time for the bridge to be brought back into line so we could cross. The two men carried what looked like a large T bar looking key and placed it into a hole and together they turned this big key which brought the bridge in line and off we all walked across to continue on our way. In my case back to the ship.
Our sail away was a good one as it was nice and sunny. Opposite where we were docked it was very green and you could almost think you were in a Scandinavian landscape. When we had sailed out of a channel like causeway away from a fairly built up and a busy container port area behind us in the distance it was quite a surprise to see a very long stretch of white sandy beach which went far into the distance. Apparently not far in the forest is a place I have never heard of 'province of Kaliningrad'. So I am certainly learning new things on this cruise.

A sea day coming up before we have 3 days of ports. Two days in St.Petersburg and then Tallinn, Estonia.

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Belle53
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a heatwave. Part 4

#2

Post by Belle53 »

Really enjoying your reports, we stopped at Klaipeda on our Baltic cruise and not knowing what to expect from this port found we were pleasantly surprised. We also did the DIY walking tour and I remember the ship, chimney sweep and mouse. Looking forward to reading about St Petersburg, we had a wonderful couple of days there.

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