Curonian Spit National Park- 58 km ride

Today we took a cruise down to Nida the bottom end of the Lithuanian part of the Curonian Spit. Below Nida it belongs to Russia. It took 2 hours and guess what... rained a bit!! There were many bikes all racked up very nicely, obviously ferrying over and riding is a very common thing to do. We firstly rode a little way on bike paths to Parnidis Dune, a national park and an ancient sundial/calendar statue. We then made our way to Nida town to have lunch, I had beef tongue and salad, very nice.. We then made our way up the Seaside Cycling Route crossing over from east to west and back again over some steep hills, going through forset which was nice and sheltered or along the coast where it was very windy, very much like our wind!. We visited a few sand dunes along the way. One was well pathed by a wooden walkway and quite a hike. It was the "dead" dunes where you could sea the Baltic Sea to the west and the Baltic Lagoon to the east. The lagoon lies between the spit and the mainland of Lithuania. We also visited another amber museum and tasted their version of the national amber liqueur- more tasty than the one in Vilnius.
We stopped for a look and those of us brave enough to jump in the Baltic Sea. The water was about 18 degrees so warm to me! Others didn't want to. 3 men did and me. It was very refreshing to the muscles and get the sweat off to continue the ride actually. The beach was very much like the East coast of Flinders, under toes, long breaking waves, windy, but the sand was more orange. It was great. After that we continued on to a Cormorant spotting place, they are not welcome there as their acidic poo is killing the forest.
We then continued on up for a few more hours and only just caught the ferry back home with seconds to spare - Minda our guide was very happy with us. This ferry ride was only 10 minutes
We were home at 7.30 and eating by 8.30 at a restaurant in our "Old Mill Conference" accomodation. This was a set menu as it was a pre- organised and paid for dinner with the tour package. Chicken soup, chicken breast with a lovely creamy sauce, salad and mashed veg, plus a lovely dessert. Just what we needed after a big day riding, climbing sand dunes, swimming.Read more