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Bill and Liz's Excellent Adventure Liz and Bill prepare to embark on their excellent adventure....

Krakow - Riga

LATVIA | Sunday, 19 August 2007 | Views [1261]

It's been a while since I last sent an update, but as we have travelled further through the Baltics internet access has been problematic!

I think in my last note we had just arrived in Krakow. Krakow was quite a nice city, but nothing to rock our socks off. Better were the 2 day trips we did from there. The first was to a salt mine just out of town. We managed to hail down a mini bus heading in the right direction and made the very hot and sweaty trip out to the mine. The mine itself is awsome though, as the miners were digging out the salt rock they also left behind an array of sculptures out of the salt, also a full-size underground cathedral where everything was made of - you guessed it - salt!! Even amazing chandeliers made of salt crystal.
The other day trip from Krakow was to the Auchwitz concentration camp. The experience was actually a lot more disturbing that I thought it would be. The sickos that were the Nazis actually sent the hair cut from all the exterminated prisoners to textile mills and made cloth out of it which was used as well as socks for the soldiers etc. There were also piles and piles of glasses, prosthetics and shoes (the worst being all the childrens') that were recovered by the Soviets when the took the camp and what was on display was just a small demonstration of all the people that lost their lives there. I lost it a little bit when we went into the gas chamber as the feeling of loss in there was indescribable.

Next was Warsaw which was - well.... nothing much. More of a business city which we only spent a day in on our way to Vilnius in Lithuania. Vilnius is an amazing city, with many perfect baroque buildings. We found an awsome bar/restaurant on a hill in the bush overlooking the city and watched as the sun went down on a hot day with a cold beer - bliss!! Also took a day trip to the lakeside town of Trakai with a farytale castle set on the lake.

From Vilnius we headed West to the Klaipeda and the Coronian Spit national park. We met our friends from Belgium Simon and Annelien who were also travelling around the Baltics on summer holiday but were heading from north to south. Annelien and Simon had a car which proved great to get to some of the out of the way spots. We went onto the spit and visited the Hill of Witches with amazing and spooky creatures of the night carved out of trees and logs. Also did a spot of dune walking. We also went to a disused Soviet bunker which used to hold 20m nuclear warheads which were strategically pointed at various major European cities during the cold war. The Hill of Crosses was another highlight (can best describe in photos which we will try to post asap).
Spend lots of time lazing on the beach, although the weather took a small turn for the worse which meant a night at our cabin playing poker! Bill and I ran onto the beach during a huge thunderstorm in the pouring rain and watched it light up the beach to nearly daylight and lightning zigzag to the earth. Awsome!!

Now in Riga, Latvia. We both feel like a small break from the big cities so next stop will be Sigulda in the Latvian countryside which has many nice walks, caves, forest etc. After that to Estonia, Helskini and then finally St Petersburg on the 28th Aug.

Liz and Bill xx

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