Day 5: Nida and the Hill of Witches

I am in Lithuania on the Curonian Spit which borders Kaliningrad, Russia. Today taxis took us from the village of Nida  to have a look at other parts of the Spit. This is a nesting area for cormorants. It looks as though it has been destroyed by fire, but its the guano from the birds that is doing all the damage.

The taxis then took us to the Hill of Witches an  pine forested sand dune. Since ancient times the Midsummer festival was celebrated on the hill as well as throughout Lithuania. After Christianity came to Lithuania the celebration was renamed the St Jonas' Festival but many of the celebrations still have pagan roots. There are approximately 100 oak carved sculptures around the hill.

The collection of witches, demons, giants and fantastic creatures bring to life the myths and legends from this area of Lithuania.

Vadim, our tor leader kept us enthralled with his recounting of many of the myths.

Mmm is that something strange lurking behind the chair!

Some of the later sculptures that were added have a more playful theme.

Afterwards we split into two groups. One group were returning to Nida by bike, a distance of 30km! M and I decided that was just one km too many and we went back to Nida via the local bus service. Before returning we had a look at some sand sculptures which were beside the Lagoon.

Back in Nida we met up with everyone for an evening meal of smoked local fish.

This was followed by a boat ride on the lagoon as far as the Russian border which was marked by buoys.

We enjoyed watching the sunset from the boat.

 Once back at the marina we made our way back to the hotel as tomorrow we have a long journey to Riga, Latvia.