Preuscher: Why it takes 52 minutes to walk three kilometers

When I arrived at the Klaipeda train station this morning after a very nice trip from SIauliai, I put my hotel into maps and asked it to calculate a route for me to walk the approximately three kilometers to my hotel. Wait, what, 52 minutes? I walk slowly, but not THAT slowly. What was going on? Well, the hotel is on the other side of what they call the lagoon and the bridge I saw on the map was actually a ferry line! Yes, I needed to take a ferry (for only EUR 1 round trip) to reach my hotel. Kinda cool. Also kind of a hassle because all of the museums and things are on the mainland. But also conveniently located to explore the Curonian Spit.

The challenges continued once I got off the ferry as maps thought it would be great to have me walk along a highway without a shoulder or sidewalk. Um.... I selected a slower route that ended up being on paths through the woods. Yes, with my rollaboard, which admittedly can be converted to a backpack, but I was thinking of that more for urban settings like the post-papal human traffic jam situation. But it was a rather nice path, so off I went.

The hotel is truly minimalist, but is part of a yacht club (that's the name, but not like what you'd expect of a yacht club in the US with fancy people dressed well and calling each other Buffy and Chuck). So the view outside my door/window is of both boats here in the marina as well as large ships in the lagoon. Super cool.

Docked outside my hotel room

It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so a slight change in plans. As I disembarked from the ferry, I saw a bus parked there that indicated it was bound for Nida and other places. When I checked in at the hotel, I asked if that was for a tour group or if it ran on a regular basis so I could perhaps fit in the Curonian Spit (a UNESCO world heritage site since 2000). It does indeed run regularly and is only EUR 4 for the approximately 55 kilometers down to Nida, which takes about an hour and seems like a deal.

Nida is a delightful and often-picturesque little fishing town. The spit is approximately a mile wide with the Baltic Sea on one side and the lagoon on the other side and the Parnidis dunes in between. I hiked around the rather fragile dunes (you're to stay on the established boardwalks and trails to protect them), being careful to also stay on the boardwalks as that's one of the ways to ensure you do not casually wander into Kaliningrad! (No joke, it was just a kilometer or two further as they own part of the spit as well.) Also hiked up to the rather smart-looking lighthouse in the other direction. Alas, didn't have time to actually make it to the Baltic Sea. Maybe tomorrow if the weather cooperates (I can actually take a trail here by the hotel that goes across the entire island).