Saturday July 14, 2007
Had a bit of a nothing-day yesterday – or an everything-day, depending how much you chose to do onboard ship – while we cruised from Copenhagen to Klaipeida (pronounced ‘Clay-pitter’), founded in 1252. Lithuania formed a part of Germany until 1919, then became part of the Soviet Union until 1990, when it finally gained independence. Klaipeda (this very small country’s third largest city) got seriously smashed-up in Word War II, and, compared with the neat-&-tidy towns we saw in Norway and Denmark, it looks rather tired.
Our tour today began with a 10-minute ferry ride from the very busy port (cranes everywhere you look) – then we headed north of town, along the sandy, foresty Curonian Lagoon. At a coastal resort (popular with Germans and Russians) we visited an amber museum for some oohing and aahing and shopping – chased down by a quick coffee.
Then we took to our feet, and went walking in the forest – up what the locals call the ‘Hill of Witches’, where a carved collection of weirdly-wonderful sculptures was waiting for us. Sounds spooky – but it was actually a lot of fun, and untold photos were snapped of our mad midlifers draped all over these things.
It was gloriously sunny and hot by mid-afternoon as the Marco Polo sounded its horns and sailed away yet again. So we all sat out on deck, eating a late lunch and listening to the ship’s resident jazz band … while a big, grunty tugboat pulled us out into the current, and a smaller orange pilot vessel escorted us through the chop and spray into open sea.
PEOPLE NEWS: More mad awards were passed out today:
* The ‘AWOL Award’ to Doris W – for being overlooked by the ship’s computer when she came onboard the day before yesterday (everyone thought she was ‘absent without leave’).
* The ‘Shipboard Romance Award’ to Betty S and Bev C – both of whom were seen dancing with tall dark strangers in the Ambassador Lounge.
TOMORROW: Waterfront saunas, old villas, an ancient fortress, and a fleet of giant icebreakers. So stay tuned …
Yours bloggedly – JOHN
P.S. Don’t forget – if you want to leave a message for someone in our group, just click on ‘COMMENTS’ under the title for today’s blog, and type away! And if you want a better look at some of the photos here, just click on them and they’ll enlarge – magic!
To Bev C: A tall dark stranger eh???! You go girlfriend! Great to be able to read what your all up to over there. Love Rachael.
High Johnny … so appreciate all the updates – just fabulous. I wanted to be on board for the Jazz band & coffee – sounded like a bit of me. Rob – how come you weren’t dancing with the dark stranger??? 🙂 . Continue to have amazing fun and we’ll wait patiently for your return. Big hugz me xx
Hello Heather T
Forgot to tell you Josh now has his learners permit…watch out other drivers!! Andy took him for a little drive and was none too impressed when Josh nearly took out the gate as he turned into our drive…can laugh about it now, but probably not at the time. A bit like when I took the boys up to Auckland and Andy went to feed the pigs. One of them had some how got in with the neighbours sheep and was fighting with them. Andy was trying to coax her back whilst being butted from behind by the other pig who was trying to get at the food he had…have you got a good visual on that? hahaha
The weather has once again turned horrible and more rain for the poor people up North who are still trying to clean up after the last downpour.
Ok must away.
Love from
Dear mother of…..(Andy),Ngi,Josh & Dylan xxxx