Šiauliai itself is a pleasant enough city but not very photogenic! Perhaps the most unusual thing we found there was the largest sundial that we have ever seen. The shadow is cast by a very tall column topped by a golden statue of an archer erected in 1986 to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the battle of Saulė after which the town was founded.
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| Šiauliai Sundial |
There are some very strange things in Lithuania but perhaps the strangest is the Hill of Crosses a few kilometres north of the city.
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| Šiauliai - Hill of Crosses |
It is a mound rather than a hill which for generations has been a place of pilgrimage. It is completely covered with thousands of crosses – small, large, expensive, cheap, made of wood, metal or even crocheted wool. Some bear the names, photos, prayers or other mementos of dead relatives others commemorate a church pilgrimage. Every week newly-wed couples arrive to add their crosses to the collection.
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| Šiauliai - Hill of Crosses |
Interspersed between the crosses (and sometimes practically buried beneath them) are sculptures large and small – mostly of the figure of Christ. Although very odd it was a strangely moving place.
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| Šiauliai - Hill of Crosses |
Crossing the border into Latvia we had our first taste of Latvian roads. Some are excellent – for a short distance – but many, especially the side roads, are dreadful. Where there is tarmac it is often severely potholed and many roads are just gravel. In towns all over the countries we have visited so far, cobbles are widely used and in Lithuania many of the cobbles are being replaced with new ones giving a rumbly but otherwise relatively smooth ride. In Latvia the cobbles are often very old and irregular. On the positive side there is hardly any traffic on them!
The first city we came to in Latvia was Liepāja. There are some shiny new buildings in the town centre but close by are streets of houses, many built of wood, definitely in need of some TLC.
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| Liepāja - side street in the city centre |
Wood has been a very common building material throughout the Baltic States so far and many houses are very attractive. We rather liked this one:
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| Liepāja - lovely wooden house in need of TLC |
After lunch by the sea we had a look at St Nicholas Maritime Cathedral (Russian Orthodox). Originally built in the 17th century, it was used as a cinema and sports complex in Soviet times. Restoration is continuing – note the wooden scaffolding on the dome!
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| Liepāja - St Nicholas Maritime Cathedral |
Inside were tables laden with pans which two old ladies seemed to be filling with water – we didn’t discover why!
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| Liepāja - inside St Nicholas Maritime Cathedral |
The cathedral is in Karosta – a very poor part of the city which, for many years from about 1900, was a huge military base housing 25000 people. It was used for this purpose by whichever regime happened to be in control of this country, most recently the Russians. It is now largely derelict but one building, originally a military hospital but used since 1905 as a military prison for soldiers from the base who had broken the rules.
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| Karosta Military Prison |
The regime was very harsh but it was intended to be corrective and so there was no torture or killing except during WW2 when for six months it was used by the German army and executions were not uncommon.
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| Karosta Military Prison |
Our tour guide occasionally played the part of the Prison Commandant who had absolute power over the inmates.
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| Karosta Military Prison |
We headed up the coast to Pavilosta where we stayed two nights at the small marina.
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| Pāvilosta Marina |
It was idyllic and John decided he would like to stay there
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| Pāvilosta |
But with much more to see we travelled inland to Kuldīga which has the widest waterfall in Europe – 275 metres wide – but it is definitely not he highest at about 2 metres!
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| Kuldīga Waterfall |
This quaint little town is typical of many here.
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| Kuldīga |
Returning to the coast we quickly passed through Ventspils – a major and successful port where the buildings are bright, new and uninteresting – and spent two nights at a site in the forest a couple of hundred metres from a very long, deserted, sandy beach before travelling north to Cape Kolka.
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