Beach on the Baltic Sea side
Yesterday I wrote about the adventure I had in crossing the Russian-Lithuanian boarder on the Curonian Spit, which is 100 km long and only 1/2 – 4 km wide at any one spot. Well today I want to continue that day by telling you about Nida, which is only 4 km from the border on the Lithuanian side.
Nida is a small little beach town and could be mistaken for any of the many we have on the US coast. Everything is close by, the people are very friendly, and during the summer it can be full of tourist. I settled on a small, almost cabin style, hotel where the owner did not speak English, but she was very enthusiastic none the same. From there I went for a walk along the boardwalk on the lagoon shore. The town is on the lagoon side of the spit, but the Baltic Sea beach is only 2 km away and it is absolutely gorgeous.
The wind vanes are called weather cocks and are very local on the Curonian Spit
Within town I found an observation tower to climb, but all you could really see was the tops of the nearby trees (they really should have made it a bit taller 🙂 ). The lighthouse would be a much better view, but it is not always open. There is also a museum for Thomas Mann, a German writer, and lots of shops and restaurants.
On the sand dunes
But, the best part of Nida is the Parnidis Sand Dunes just south of town. The lagoon shore walkway will take you right to them and you must walk up wooden stairs to reach the top, but once you are up there you are allowed to wander anywhere you want……until you find the southern barrier like I did. Haha. It is a wonderful experience walking among the dunes and you can get away from the other people quite easily and explore on your own, but if you are lucky you will run into some wonderful people towards the end and have a delightful conversation back, like I did. I met a couple with the guy from New Zealand and the lady from Finland and we ended up hitting it off so well we had dinner once we made it back to town.
