I was up at 05.50 and went to
breakfast at 07.00. Most of the others
were already there. There were lots of
Germans in the restaurant and the greetings of “Morgan, Morgan” reminded me of
our trip on the Shongololo Express in South Africa, when we had to squeeze past
Germans and Austrians in the narrow corridor on the train. I had a slice of some eggy concoction which
was very nice, but the rest of the meal was decidedly mediocre.
Charlie Reads a Story |
Then we went back to our room for
last minute packing, followed by a long wait in the foyer before the bus
arrived.
When we were up in the
restaurant, we noticed a boat going past in both directions and wondered what
it was and why it was doing that. We now
realised that it was the ferry to the Curonian Spit.
We set off along a road through a
forest until we reached our first stop.
This was the Hill of Witches. We
walked in woods which were full of birdsong, but only a fleeting glimpse of an
occasional chaffinch. The damp weather
had brought the midges out in force and I was very glad I was wearing my
repellent. I lent it to some of the
others who were being attacked.
Wooden sculptures of fairy tale
characters were scattered through the wood.
Aija had a book which told the stories behind some of the sculptures and
got some of us to read them. I enjoyed
doing that, but some people were reluctant to take the limelight. At the end was an area for children with a
slide in the shape of two witches with very long tongues and a seesaw.
There were a few stalls at the
bottom of the hill and I bought a scarf and then Aija and I got a hot chocolate
from a machine in a small shop.
Kogas Ship/Restaurant, Juodkranté |
As we
walked towards the port of Juodkranté , I asked her if she had taken part in
the human chain which linked Vilnius to Talinn via Riga, organised by
pro-independence movements on the 50th anniversary of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August 1989.
She said that “of course” she had to.
She had stood on a bridge in Riga.
She said that it was very exciting and showed me how they held the hands
of those people standing next to them.
That got me very emotional again.
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