The Koronian Spit (Peninsula)
Trip Start
Jun 22, 2010
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Trip End
Jul 01, 2010
Klaipeda-Nida-Palanga, Lithuania
Saturday, June 26, 2010
After visiting Klaipeda we took a ferry to the Kuronian spit (very long and thin peninsula).
Our first stop once on the peninsula was to the village of Juodkrante to hike through the forest to see the Hill of Witches. The forest is filled with wood carvings of folk artists, many of them are characters from Lithuanian fairy tales. Lithuania is a very spiritual and mythical country where superstitions abound. Each witch on the path through the forest has a place in mythical history and our guide was well versed in all the details.
After we walked through the Hill of Witches, we headed down the end of the Peninsula to Nida. Here we toured the summer home of Thomas Mann, the Nobel Prize-winning author of Death in Venice, Doctor Faustus as well as Magic Mountain. When visiting the Kuronian Spit, Mann was so captivated by the serenity and view that he built the cottage with the proceeds from winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. For my husband, I took a picture of Mann's view out of the window from the second story room, where he wrote many of books, essays and short stories. In 1931 he even wrote an essay titled "My Summer House."
Next we trekked on to the High Dunes which became a Unesco protected site after the Russian occupation. The Dunes separate the Kuronian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. These Dunes reach up to 60 meters and are known to give energy and healing powers. Doctors even tell patients to come to the High Dunes to heal illnesses. We did meditate for a while and it was breathtaking as well as peaceful.
more later.....ilene
