PALANGA

The beautiful Baltic Riviera, is the long line of great beaches between the boarder to Latvia in north and Kaliningrad, the small Russian enclave, between Poland and Lithuania. The Baltic Riviera has several good cityes worth a visit.

The Baltic Riviera starts from Sventoi in north, passing Palanga on its way south, and after the big harbour city Klaipeda in the middle going down to the very beautiful celebre city Nida in the very south.

The biggest of them is Palanga, with a lot of tourists through all the summer season, and with a good mix of events going on all the season.

In addition to the wonderful beaches, a tivoli mixture of attractions, shows, restaurants, cafes along the partly Pedestrian street J. Basanavicius gt, which goes from the Pier to the main street in Palanga, this street hosts a lot of the famous and well known restaurants and cafees, where many of them in the evening are having live entertainment.

In addition a lot of Tivoli attractions, and we were pleased to register that the quality of this guesting Tivoli from the Netherlands was of very high quality in clusive an elegant Paris Wheel.

Some tourist attractions of very high international quality attracts the tourists, such as the Tyshkevich Palace with the famous Amber museum, showing the largest

known Amber Stone. In 15 halls there are shown more than 4500 exhibits
.

This castle is too hosting the classical concert seria called Night Serenades, and in the large parch 62 hectar Bothanical Park, which was founded in 1897 by count Feliksas Tyshkevich , is a Rotunda regularly with great brass music concerts of high quality.

In the Parc are other sights, such as the Birutes Hill, the sculpture “To you, Birute” by K. Petrikaite-Tuliene, The Grotto and other Park Sculptures the most famous

is perhaps “Egle the Queen of Serpents” by R. Antinis sr. erected in 1960.

There are some foreign tourists, unfortunately not many, as far as we could hear oin the spoken languages in the streets, cafes and shops, but this is a part of Scandinavia which is worth a visit, and therefore we do recommend the Baltic Riviera for

many visits.

The Euro has not yet come to Lithuania, the price level is still moderate, and it is possible to make a wonderful holiday and have a great time at a reasonable price. The Restaurants are good with a large variety of food, all that you want, wine, beer and refreshments at good prizes. Good service and pleasant atmosphaere.

Accommodation you can find for all prizes, in addition to tourist hotels and bathing resorts, it is too posible to

find private guesthouses with rooms of very different quality and prizes, depending on how close it is to the beach and the city center, as every where around. In Palanga, which is very crowded, I am shure that the young ones would like to be close to the center of the city with a lot of evening and night arrangements, but when growing up some of us prefer a more relaxed and quiet place, and it is possible to find too. And still only situated 5 minutes from the beach.

PALANGA HISTORY. According to he archeologists, people started to live hereas early as 5 thousand years ago. Palanga was first mentioned in written sources in XII century. People living in Palanga and nearby went fishing, gathered and processed amber, traded. Allready in the end of the XIV c. – middle of the XVII c. Palanga was mentioned in Hansa merchants routes. Palanga was too the most important Lithuanian port, and in the XV c. it was the only one that remained squeezed tetween the lands conquered by Crusaders and Brothers of the Sward.

SVENTOJI

Sventoji is an old firshermens settlement founded next to Sventoji rivers outfall. The port has been known since XIIIc. and was especially actively used in XVI-XVII c. Seriously competing with neighbouring Klaipeda, Ventspils and Riga ports. Because of intriging from the other ports, in 1710 the port was destroyed and filled with stones by the Swedes. A port reconstruction project is prepared, which would have positive influence on the development of the resort.

Honestly, we found Sventoji as a very charming and a very pleasant place to visit, and we found a great appartment complex, just in the very center named BANGA, where we got a large well keeped flat with 5 beds, small kitchen, bath, large terrasse overlooking the River. Only five minutes from the Sea side, which we could hear during the night. Wonderful, and good service, only 75 Litas pr. night.

Some of the staff at Banga was good speaking english, and the staff had the perect service minded feeling, which foreign guests are apreciating.

Sventoji has many cafes, restaurants some of them with music show, a small Tivoli, but the most interesting

was the River which you could cross by idyllic bridges to go to the Beach, the River surronded by small idyllic vacation houses, and a lot of boats for rent, and every where short way to the beaches.

NIDA and the Curonian Split

The most exclusive part of the Baltic Riviera is The Curonian Split with its biggest city Nida, situated in the very south, only two kilometers from the boarder to the small Russian enclave Kaliningrad.

Curonian Spit is 97 km of overland swath between the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Bay, which was formed more than 5000 years ago by sea surge and streams, sand and wind. As the centuries passe by, the struggle between the nature was very eratic, which troubled the eople living here. However, the contraposition of sand blizzard and fora has, with a lapse of time, formed the present Curonian Spit.

The Northern and biggest part belongs to Lithuania, 52 km. The other part belongs to Kaliningrad.

In 2000 the Curonian Spit was included in Unesco World of Heritage List as a cultural landscape site with a multitude of natural and cultural heritage assets. The National Park vegetation boasts about 900 plant species, including 31 species on the Lithuanian Red Bok. It is also home to approximately 40 species of mamals and as many as 300 species of birds.

The White Sea – Baltic Sea migration highway goes along the Curonian Spit. It is a permanent habitat for woodpeckers, trushes, skylarks, flycatchers. Undeniable the most impressive bird species are grey herons, sea cagles and cormorants.

Natural wonders, such as sunrise every morning and sundawn in the evening, are very close to each other. Nevertheless they form an idyllic entity. Curonian Spit is not only a splendid place for nature lovers but also a highly acclaimed and favourite seaside resort, known as Neringa, which includes the small settlements Nida, Preila, Pervalka and Juodkrante.

During the summer season, as nearly every where in Lithuania, traditional cultural events are going on, such as Folklore Festival, Chamber music and ecology festival, Arts festival, Feast of fisherman, Nida Jazz Festival, Film, opera and sympnhonic music, Choral and vocal music, Painting plenary designed for the traditions of expressionistic generation “Die Brucke”, and around Christmas and New Year a cycle of events.

Information about this, accommodation and other questions, can too be found on www.visitneringa.com and www.neringa.lt

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