Someone was looking for Klaipeda info.....

Can't recall where I saw it, but in one of the threads on this board, someone was looking for information on Klaipeda so I thought I'd let you know how we spent our time there. It was in 2007 on Celebrity Century so some things might have changed.

I believe it was the first year Celebrity went there. It's mainly known for the Curonian Spit, a UNESCO world heritage centre. I did some research ahead of time and we decided we would get off the ship and jump on a local ferry that crosses over to the spit. It was a 10 minute walk into town and then 5 minutes to the ferry. You needed Lithuanian currency for the ferry so we had stopped in the old town square to use the ATM - no problems. We were the only English speaking people on the ferry and it was fun listening to everyone speaking Lithuanian (not a language I'd ever heard before). It was a 10 ferry ride. Then we turned right and made our way to the end of the spit. You can walk - maybe 20 minutes or there was a small shuttle train. On the way you'll pass the outdoor Maritime Museum which consists of 4-5 boats, a small settlers community - you could go into a few of the buildings (we looked at these things on the way back to the ferry), and then on to the Dolphin Centre and Aquarium. I had found a schedule somewhere online showing the dolphin show times, so while I'm not a fan of mammals being made to perform, we decided we would join the throngs of school-aged children and take in the show. Of course we couldn't understand a word of the commentary, but we got swept up in the enthusiasm of the children and the music. After the show we walked through the small aquarium area which is housed in an old fort (moat included!). Then we followed a pathway to the Baltic Sea side of the spit. What a beautiful sight! Huge white sandy beaches that stretched for miles. Followed another path back to the road that lead back to the ferry.

Crossed back to the Old Town and spent about 1 1/2 hours wandering around. It's a beautiful old town with well-kept buildings and lovely courtyards. There was a information centre with inexpensive internet access and you could rent bicycles there as well. The info centre is marked on the map found at the inyourpocket website below (green dot). There are two very good maps to help you get started until you can get to the info centre. There was a market set up in the old town square which I imagine sets up when the cruise ships come in. We bought a few amber pieces. No idea whether the prices were any good, we were just looking for something inexpensive to remind us of the day. Of course, when we were heading back to the ship we still had some local currency left to use up so DH had a beer and I had ice cream and the waitress got a tip equivalent to about $8!

In 2007 I believe they were starting work on building some sort of welcome centre down where the ship's docked. Unfortunately the Google Earth photos were taken in 2004 so can't tell if it was completed. There's a newer area of Klaipeda, but we didn't have time to look there.

The ship had offered tours to see the sand dunes on the Curonian Spit and there did appear to be a local bus that would have taken you from where the ferry dropped you off on the spit, but we decided just to wander ourselves. It was so nice to see a town that hadn't been spoiled by tourism. I think probably the majority of tourists were from the ship. I heard some people saying that it had been a wasted day as there wasn't much to see. We didn't feel that way. We quite enjoyed the day.

There aren't a lot of websites, but here's a few...

Information on the Curonian Spit can be found at:

http://www.nerija.lt - choose English at the top of the page

You can download an English guide book to Klaipeda on this site with good maps:

http://www.inyourpocket.com/lithuania/klaipeda

Information on the ferry. The old terminal is the one you want - just takes passengers.

http://www.keltas.lt/eng/

I have a Word document that I did using a Google Earth shot and marked with the dock, ferry, etc. Unfortunately, I can't get it to upload to the site, so if anyone is interested, let me know and I can e-mail it to you.

Hope this information helps.

Lynn

Lynn,

It's been awhile since your post, but I was hoping you still had the Google Earth Shot map of Klaipeda. If, so, please send to

swt@tampabay.rr.com

An old thread but certainly very helpful. The links still work. We'll be in this port in a couple of weeks. Lynn, thanks for the original post and SoManyPlacest2Go, thanks for resurrecting it!

You may like to look at a thread I started after our recent cruise.

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=43742200#post43742200