What a gloriously warm and sunny day in Lithuania.

We started the day with a visit to the Cold War museum and this place was beyond cool. It’s the site of old Soviet bunkers, and we got to walk around one.   It was really freaky, being in a compound that would have been top secret in it’s day. It was like stepping straight into a time capsule that buzzed with paranoia and secrecy. The layout was a maze of narrow corridors and low ceilings, designed to confuse anyone who didn’t belong. It was seriously claustrophobic, and as much as I hated it, I loved it!

There were mannequins posed as if mid-task, on the front desk, hunched over radios, another even had a gas mask on, and they looked disturbingly lifelike in the dim lighting. English translations and Cold War-era sound effects echoed around us, adding to the eerie atmosphere.

I imagined the people who once worked down there, sealed off from the outside world, probably living under constant pressure and surveillance. What a suffocating existence that must have been. I may even have I seen a photo of Mum and Dad’s old neighbour there! But he told us he was a Mig engineer, so maybe not.

After that, we headed to the Curonian Spit, a 100km-long stretch of sand shared between Lithuania and Russia. (Who knew Russia had a random sliver wedged between Lithuania and Poland? I certainly didn’t.)

Anyway, the spit turned out to be a bit of a tourist trap. First, we paid 25 euros for a ferry ride that lasted all of five minutes. Then, once we landed, there was another fee to enter the national park. I saw a sign that said 25 euros and thought, “Okay, fair enough.” But turns out, that was the car price. For a campervan, it was actually 50 euros. Fifty! At that point, we decided we could see sand dunes at home for free and turned around! We weren’t paying that!

All wasn’t lost though, as there was a beach, and it was free. And it just happened to be a nudist beach. How we keep ending up at these places is beyond me? Anyway, Mike got to have a bit of naked time and half a swim. Too cold he reckoned to go all the way in. But the air temperature was about 27 degrees, and I was tempted.

By the time we got off the spit, it was time to find somewhere to camp. As per usual, we drove through forests and bounced along rutted dirt roads. In the end we found a gorgeous spot overlooking the lagoon, the spit in the distance, and Russia to our left. We sat outside for the first time in ages, listening to the frogs as they croaked constantly and even put on a little show. It was the perfect place to sit, relax and watch the sun set.

Today we woke up at 4.30am! It’s sunrise and I heard a few cars coming in to go fishing. So we got up and drove to the other side of Lithuania.

We stopped off and looked at the Hill of Crosses. The first crosses were placed after an 1831 uprising against Russian rule, but it was during the Soviet occupation that the hill became something more. Religion was banned, the site was bulldozed multiple times, and yet people kept returning, often at night, to plant more crosses. It became a quiet act of resistance. No speeches, no protests, just symbols of faith rising again and again from the earth. But today it has over 100,000 crosses, statues and rosaries place by pilgrims around the world. It continues to grow and reminded me of the signpost forest on the Alaska highway, but with a much more sinister past.

After that we drove to a national park that has the deepest and cleanest lake in Lithuania. We found a fantastic spot right beside a lake. We pulled in on the grass next to a fire pit and had a nap. Then we got the knock. Okay, it was a daytime knock, but the ranger was telling us we couldn’t park there and that we had to be 25 metres from the water. Typical, I thought. The most perfect spot. But then he pointed to a spot a couple metres away on the gravel, and said we could park there. So problem solved and still a beautiful view.

Summer has finally arrived. The weather is stunning, although not warm enough to swim, but it seems like I will probably be moaning about the heat later in the week when it hits 30 degrees.

Tomorrow we’re going to explore the Cold War museum with involves actual underground bunkers from the cold war.

Today we visited Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. We don’t usually do cities, but we were passing nearby and I’d heard good things. We came in the back way, avoiding the main roads, and found parking for just 1 euro an hour which is not bad for a capital city.

Our first stop was the castle, which involved a steep hike up but was totally worth it for the sweeping 360-degree views over the city. Vilnius is more spread out than I expected, with lots of green patches and red roofs. It didn’t feel overly built up or hectic, just a bit offbeat in a good way.

On our way to the old town, a quirky little vegan cafe caught my eye. I ordered a cake that I have no idea what was in it, but it was rich, gooey, and absolutely delicious.

We wandered into the old town next, which felt refreshingly low-key compared to other European cities. Fewer tourists, more quirks. 

One of the coolest things we came across was this high-tech portal in the square. It’s a real-time video link to other cities around the world. We stood there waving to strangers in Ireland and France, who waved back. It was neat.

After that, we just wandered, soaking in the quiet charm of the buildings and backstreets.

Leaving Vilnius was a different experience from arriving. It was rush hour and so much traffic and I think if we had come in this way, we would have aborted!

We spent the rest of the afternoon getting out of Vilnius and looking for a camping spot. We drove down some rutted dirt roads looking at places in the forest, but wasn’t feeling the vibe. So we ended up in a beautiful spot overlooking a lake.

Today it was miserable and wet and we felt no motivation to move, so we stayed put. I finally got my Lofoten video finished which I’d been putting off, and we didn’t do much else. There is apparently a heat wave hitting Europe but it hasn’t reached us yet. But I’m sure it’s coming!

Highlights from the day:

Video finished.

We had 3 coffees instead of two.

We ate salad for lunch and dinner (maybe my diet has finally started!)

I beat Mike five times in a row at chess!

We’ll get off our fat arses tomorrow and do something.

Today started slowly, the morning was spent catching up on editing and organising stuff, so we didn’t leave our campsite until lunchtime. Sometimes the quiet, routine days feel just as important as the adventurous ones.

We took a detour to a palace in a town that had an unsettling vibe. The palace belonged to a count from the 1800s, and it was a little creepy. While it was interesting to see, I’m not sure it was worth the detour. Still, there’s something about places like that that make you wonder about the stories hidden beneath the surface.

Crossing into Lithuania brought an immediate change in the landscape. The farmland faded away, replaced by thick pine forests and calm lakes. Had we just transported back to Finland?

We spent hours looking for somewhere to camp that wasn’t in a mozzie infested forest, and finally at 8pm, we found a spot overlooking a lake. We don’t usually like camping near towns on a Saturday night due to local hoons, but a few other campervans are here, so it feels safe enough. There’s something comforting about ending the day beside water, even on the most average of days.

It got noisy for a while. A few loud motorbikes rolled up, then the pumping music from a bar up the road. But it all quietened down about 11pm and it was a peaceful nights rest.

Today we climbed the highest mountain in Latvia! But more about that later.

Despite being awake until after midnight last night, my watch this morning said I had a 92% sleep charge! Maybe I should go to sleep later more often. 

Today we went for a morning walk to a cave. It was down 1000’s of steps and all I could think about was, I have to walk back up these! It seemed like quite a long walk, and there were mozzies lurking, and the walk seemed to go on forever. When we finally reached the cave, it turned out we weren’t the only ones drawn to it. The place was swarming with mozzies! We took a quick photo and left. Mike found a different way back which thankfully didn’t involve walking up the steps.

We attempted some sightseeing in the town of Sigulda as it has two castles and some scenic walks. Unfortunately, it also has an alarming number of tourists and pay-to-park signs in every direction. We made a quick exit. I’m not sure why it’s so popular. The castle we saw yesterday in Cecis had nobody there and it was epic. It’s possibly it’s a hotspot for day trippers from Riga who enjoy queuing and paying for parking.

Next, we set our sights on the highest mountain in Latvia. Google directed us down a series of rutted dirt roads, which, to be fair, were still an improvement on the main road out of Riga. After about an hour and a half of bouncing around, we arrived at the carpark. From there, it was a gruelling 500 metre walk to summit. The mountain rises 312 metres from sea level, but as we are already at altitude, it was only about 50 metres of elevation to the top. I’m sure the steps we walked down this morning had more altitude! (They definitely had more attitude!) The biggest surprise? There’s a cable car you could take to the top, though it didn’t appear to be functioning. 

After our strenous climb, we settled down for an afternoon nap. We’ve decided to stay in the carpark here for the night, as it seems like a quiet spot in nature.

We were quietly enjoying our dinner when another campervan came in, totally avoiding the gravel parking area, and deciding instead to park on the grass. I thought it seemed odd, the way he sped in, and settled into a camping spot that looked like the perfect place to get stuck. And then he got stuck.

We heard the revving first. Then the spinning. A quick glance out the window confirmed that he was enthusiastically digging himself deeper. Of course we would go an help, but it was raining and we decided to finish our dinner first. By this time he had gotten himself well and truly stuck.

Mike took charge and  told him what he had to do. He needed to dig out the dirt in front of the rear wheels so he had less of a slope, and we gave him our chocks to put under the front wheel to try and give him more grip. We told him to let us know when we was ready and we would help push.

We’d just got our dishes done and settled for a game of chess when he knocked on our door. The three of us pushed while his wife drove. But she didn’t have the knack for getting out. Mike tried to explain, but our English to German translation must have eluded her. Or she just didn’t understand. So Mike hopped in the drivers seat and saved the day. With a kind of rocking back and forward motion of the van, he drove them out. They were absolutely elated. Bet they don’t make that mistake again (but no guarantees).

After that it was a nice quiet night at the base of Latvia’s highest mountain (AKA hill).

We had a nice nights sleep in the carpark in the town of Cecis and were up bright and early to explore the castle.

We arrived at opening time of 10am and were the first people through the door. And we both got in for half price as seniors! Senior age here is 60, so I’m not quite there yet, but they didn’t question me. I’m still not sure whether to be offended or elated.

On payment, they handed us a lantern with an actual candle burning inside. How cool is that? It was for the darker corners of the castle, and when they said dark, they meant it. The stairwells were pitch black, winding up through towers that probably hadn’t changed in centuries. The candle barely cut through the blackness, making us double and triple check our footing. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t pass health and safety anywhere else in the world, but that’s what made it so cool. It felt gritty and real, like we were discovering some forgotten fortress rather than following a marked tourist trail..

After the castle, we made a stop in Līgatne, a little town that used to revolve around a paper mill. The neat thing about this town was the cave cellars. Locals dug them into the sandstone cliffs to store food and keep things cool before fridges were a thing. Some of them even had little wooden doors and signs, like hobbit holes with a Soviet twist. They continued to make caves as late as 1975, but then they turned the area into a national park, preventing any further caves.

We also stopped by Zvārtes Rock, a giant sandstone cliff rising out of the river. There’s a local legend about it being a gathering point for witches. We didn’t see any.

After this we were very sightseed out. I found a place to camp for the night, down a rutted bumpy dirt road. They all seem to be down these places for some reason. Neither of us felt the “vibe” here, so we had an afternoon nap and moved on. 

We ended up in a carpark for a cable car across the river. We’re not doing that, looks too scary! It was about 7pm and very peaceful as there was no one else around. So we decided to stay. But then cars kept turning up all hours of the night. They weren’t noisy, no loud radios or anything, but it just made me wonder why people were turning up at midnight. It was weird.

Today we went to Latvia! We finally made it to the border town of Valga. This is an interesting town as it runs through two countries. It was once one big town called Walk, which was part of the Russian empire. In 1920, when Estonia and Latvia gained their independence, they ran a line through the middle of the town, and made it into two towns. Valga is in Estonia, and Valka is in Latvia. We had a little walk around, crossed the border and back again, as you do. Mike bought a satnav for the car as he likes to know where he’s going.

We then took a detour to check out another sandstone walk. The drive in was along a long dirt road, pretty typical once you leave the main roads in Latvia. It felt like we were completely alone out there, so we were surprised to find about half a dozen cars in the carpark. 

The walk is actually part of a much longer hiking trail. We met a couple of girls with big packs who were on day one of their 192 km trek. We just did a short 3.5 km loop to see the cliffs.

It was an easy walk, with steps and boardwalks most of the way. The cliffs themselves are tall sandstone formations that really stand out against the forest. Their pale surface is dotted with bee holes and some graffiti, the oldest we saw was from ’84, which I assume means 1984. There were natural arches, ledges, and cracks carved by wind and rain. The cliffs stretch for nearly half a kilometre and rise up to about 15 metres high. They were impressive.

After that, we made our way to the town of Cēsis, which has a castle we wanted to check out. We got there around 5pm (not sure where the day went), so we decided to leave the castle for the morning when we’d have more time as it closed at 6pm. The old town was nice to wander through, with its cobbled streets, old buildings, and a relaxed feel. We ended up going out for dinner and spent the night in a carpark not far from the castle.

It’s the halfway mark! We are allowed 90 days in the Schengen zone of Europe, and we’ve used up half of it already! We navigated to Valga, a town on the border with Latvia, only 1 hour away. But then I decided on a detour to a walk to some sandstone cliffs.

The trail wound through a peaceful pine forest alongside a quiet river, with sandstone cliffs towering on both sides. Along the way, we found caves, springs, and some interesting local folklore. We stopped at the sacred mother spring, where people traditionally came to collect water for its healing powers. Then there was the devil’s cellar. Legend says the Devil once lived there. The walk was lovely… apart from the swarm of mozzies tagging along. Strangely enough, it was still an hours drive to Valga.

Then we stopped at a road museum. We had no idea what that was, so we parked in the carpark, had some lunch then fell asleep for the afternoon. The road museum was going to cost 24 euros, so we still don’t know what the heck it is! Somehow the drive to Valga is still an hour away. I’m not sure how this happens.

The rest of the afternoon was spent making our way towards Valga. We started the ritual of looking for somewhere to camp for the night. The first place I navigated to was a bog. And not in a good way. The second place was overgrown, and was quite possibly taking us to another bog.

We eventually found a nice place on the edge of a gravel road. It also had a bog, but it was the good kind (a drop toilet), but there is a watchtower here. So of course we had to climb up.

It was 25 metres tall, and it was quite scary climbing up, especially when the wind picked up. But the view from the top was incredible. Oh, and we’re still 30 minutes from Valga! Only we could take a day to progress by 30 minutes. Maybe we’ll get there tomorrow. 

Today we realised we’d completely bypassed a singing beach, apparently 15 km behind us. We didn’t want to risk missing something called a singing beach, so we turned around and went back. As it turns out, the beach only sings on certain days, and today wasn’t one of them.

The beach stretches along the shore of Lake Peipus, a huge lake shared between Estonia and Russia. The sand is super fine, and under the right conditions it apparently hums when you walk on it. It was windy, and the waves were crashing in, so all we heard was the lake doing its best ocean impression. The beach has 30 kms of uninterrupted sandy shore. That is pretty amazing for a lake! We had a quick wander along the beach, then carried on.

The rest of the day we followed something called the Onion Route. It’s named that because they grow a lot of onions in the area (obviously), but also because of the old-believer villages dotted along the lake. Sounds a bit like something from a cult novel, but the old-believers are actually Russian Orthodox Christians who didn’t go along with church reforms back in the 1600s. The lakeside is lined with colourful wooden cottages, which were neat to see.

I was hoping to try an onion or fish pie, since that’s the local specialty, but no luck. So we stopped at a little shop and got some Russian potato chips instead. They were just normal chips but with a bacon flavour. They were okay.

Nothing much else happened today. It feels like we’ve seen the main sights now, so we’ll probably head into Latvia tomorrow. Not sure what we’ll do there, but we’re avoiding the cities, so we’ll see what we see on our way to Poland.

Tonight we found a quiet little forest parking spot to sleep in. It was peaceful, except for one car that drove past around midnight. Otherwise, all good.