Hi friends,
this time I am sitting in the waiting
area in front of the Russian/Estonian Border which gives me some opportunity to
catch up with the events of this week. Yes, I know, I owe you some more
pictures but time…
Hope that in St.
Peteerburg I shall have a little less
stress…
Indeed I broke all kinds of good
intentions the main one only to travel at my speed and stop wherever I like it…
If I had done that I probably would still be in Bialystok… This whole Baltic corner will have
to be another trip. There is sooo much worthwhile seeing…
But let me report chronologically.
Leaving Vilnius I turned towards Trakai, a
castle that is one of the main sights in Lithuania. Never mind that it was
mostly reconstructed, mainly over the last 50 years. It’s still highly interesting,
impressive and educational.
In fact originally there were even 2
castles in the vicinity but one was already destroyed in 1391 and never
rebuilt. Present Trakai was built by German merchants and got the Magdeburg
City Privileges in 1409 and was an important trading place where even English
Merchants resided. In the Middle Ages many political figures passed through
there. Most of the destruction took place in the 17th and 18th
centuries in the end less so by wars but by regional residents who enjoyed the
high quality bricks as building materials for their own projects. Finally, in
the second half of the 19th century some historians recognized the
importance of the place and started to conserve the ruins. But for a long time
the funds were insufficient for any serious reconstruction. In the 50s then
serious building started which lasted well into the 70s. Now it acts as museum
also for everything that would sort under “Applied Arts”, some objects more
interesting than others…
I continued towards Klaipeda
aka Memel which used to be an important Hanse harbor and also today is the most
important, because ice-free, harbor for Lithuania. Unfortunately it
suffered terribly at the end of WW II which is the reason why little is left of
the old town. What is left though is the old paving. Thank God my dentist in Vienna is first class as
otherwise I think I would have dropped some fillings although I really drove
slowly. As a consequence I didn’t spend much time but left town to find a place
to park Datcha for the night. It was the nicest so far, in the middle of the
forest with all services except internet which was supposed to be there but
didn’t work.
By next morning the weather
deteriorated and I drove off into the rain which accompanied me most of the
day. I stopped at Palanga which is and always has been a beech resort. Unfortunately
only few old (wooden) buildings are left but the modern architecture does have
some charm. The Polish Count Tyszkiewicz
built himself an impressive little mansion there in 1897 (designed by
the German architect Schwechten). But in 1939 the family was apparently asked
to relocate but had to leave the amber collection started by the count (and
probably a few other items). Further damage was inflicted during the war but
now all has been restored and the Amber museum is as impressive as it is
educational. Lots of things about Amber I learned there what I never even
realized I wanted to know… Unfortunately all my pictures from this town went to
File Nirvana, I have no idea how that happened.
But what really made my day came on
the following stretch to a village with the name of Zemaiciu Kalvarija with has
a nice baroque church that I could see from outside but it’s fancy inside I
only know from a picture in my travel guide. So the sight of the day was a
Gable Cross! It was on an old house on the way and must be the most northern
one left.
My next (short) stop was at the Hill
of the Crosses. This place dates back to 1831 when some insurgents who couldn’t
bury their dead put crosses there to remember them. That habit escalated
inasmuch as people started to put crosses there after e.g. being healed from
sickness or had other fortunes to be grateful for. So in 1963 the Communists
thought enough is enough and ploughed under all the crosses. Only to have to
repeat that exercise in 1973 as new crosses had appeared despite the presence
of guards including KGB people… Guess
what: soon new ones appeared and especially since 1988 the number has grown to
now over 50000…
Thanks to Schengen the border crossing
was unnoticeable except for some derelict buildings and soon I arrived in Riga. It was evening and
I parked Datcha next to a couple from Judenburg the wife of which had been a
cleaning lady at our Raiffeisen Bank there and immediately spotted my Gable
Crosses. Riga
is beautiful, I knew as it was the only place I had been before (2008). Little
had changed and I, unsuccessfully, spent some time to find replacement
motorcycle gloves and proceeded to revisit the old city which is even more
beautiful than Vilnius.
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Thursday noon I left for Tallinn (ca. 300km) and
spent the night at a nice little camp ground not far from the sea which also
was sofar the cheapest only charging EUR 7.50.
So Thursday late afternoon I arrived
at my camp ground in the yacht harbor
of Tallinn where I would
spend 2 nights. When I unloaded my Yamaha, the (almost new, bought in Minsk) battery again was
“flat” again. Thank God I could get it started with the kick-starter so I could
go to town which is forbidden for non-local cars but not motorcycles. I took
just one look and was delighted. It reminded me of my mother’s birth place, Goslar, as 2/3 of the
city fortifications are still intact. But the whole town is a delight and
certainly worth a trip. Of that opinion seemed to be lots of other people as
the whole old town was full of tourists. As it stayed light till after midnight
I enjoyed walking through town till late.
The next morning I found a Yamaha
place and they diagnosed my battery to be faulty (short circuit inside). So I
had to buy a new one which apart from another EUR 45 cost me the better part of
the day. Nevertheless I managed to see almost every corner, one nicer than the
next and I even climbed the 238 (high) steps to the platform of the cathedral
tower with a breathtaking view (in addition to the hike) of the town. I’m
afraid that for the pictures you’ll have to wait till tomorrow or the day after
as today it is really too late. But I almost got a cramp in my digital finger
from pressing the button…
I then dropped into an Italian
restaurant to watch “the” game and had to put up with the triumphant Italians
present…
The next morning I packed up and went
direction Russian border not without stopping by a very interesting estate of the von Pahlen family who were
forced to go back to Germany
in 1919 after the first independence of Estonia. Here the links for those
interested:
From there to waiting area of the
border it took about an hour and it was 1415 when I arrived. The procedures
there were “interesting”. You first go to a preregistration kiosk where you pay
EUR 1.10 only to get told to wait in the parking area till you are called up on
a signboard. The guy there who only spoke Russian or Estish told me on a screen
I at least had to wait 16 hours…. It took me a while to digest the message when
I looked on my receipt showing 16:00 which was quite a different story (ca. 1 ¼
hrs). I fact I was waiting till 1700 as the Ests seemed to give preferential
treatment to the locals. I went to the second kiosk to get the next slip, not
without first paying another EUR 3.10 although only EUR 3 were on my receipt.
Not a big amount but an interesting business model if you figure that a few
hundred cars must be passing every day… I then drove to the real border waiting
line where about 20 cars were ahead of me. That took another hour and I was
very glad that I had my own private bathroom… After that it went smoothly and
by 1915 I was finally through. The Ests were ok but the Russians were extremely
relaxed and friendly, helped with filling out the forms, smiled, joked and
conferred with me on a first name basis and the customs control consisted of
one guy stepping into my Datcha, looking in the bathroom for hidden persons
turning around and leaving with “do swidania”, the whole procedure finished in less
time than I can type this (no nasty comments please).
The first 30 kms to St. Pete were a
bit of a shock absorber test run but then the road changed to European quality.
With the additional hour time change I arrived at my hotel/camping ground in
the city at about 2300. It’s not far from the city and quite conveniently
equipped.
Today I met my friends from NY for a
special tour of the Stroganov
Palace, a very memorable
tour. Baron Stroganov was extremely rich as a result of his salt mines and
showed it.
After the abuse by the Communists it
is now in extremely nice condition minus the paintings many of which went to
the Hermitage. Some interesting details were the vaulted ceilings in the Baron’s
working room which acted as an amplifier/hearing aid for his the baron and
mirrors of about 15sqm size which were apparently originally made in Russia but
now had to be made in Finland. It is interesting to see which technological
abilities were available at that time.
After a lunch with Beef Stroganov and
a visit at the main post office which also survived the war I said my farewells
to my friends who leave at 3am for their return flight to NY and went on to
other friends with whom I had dinner and will stay overnight. Tomorrow though I’ll
move back to the place where I spent my first night, but this time I’ll rent a
room for the rest of my stay here and then the real sightseeing will start…
So again I have to ask you for your
understanding that pictures will be delayed…, maybe tomorrow…
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