SEASIDE CYCLE ROUTE Guidebook Trail guide and map M 1 : 50,000 DEAR READER AND CYCLIST! Using the Cycling Guide of the Lithuanian Seaside Cycle Route you can plan a cycling CONTENT Now in your hands – the description trip according to your individual desires. In of the Lithuanian Seaside Cycle Route. It this booklet you’ll find detailed maps at the How to Use the Guidebook 3 will lead you along the cycling trails of the scale of 1 : 50 000, information on accom- Map Legend 4 Lithuanian Baltic Sea coast. This route is the modation, catering, bicycling, etc. as well as The Region of Western Lithuania 6 first to have the new Lithuanian cycle traffic a description of the sights. signs. This book was made possible due to We provide you with a separate map of Klaipėda 11 the support of the European Union PHARE the Lithuanian Seaside Cycle Route (scale About the Seaside Cycle Route 18 2002 programme implementing the project 1 : 200 000), which shows you the most “Marketing of the Lithuanian Seaside Cycle beautiful two, three, and seven-day trips on Planning Your Tour 18 Route and Publishing of a Cyclist’s Guide.” the route. Furthermore you’ll find addresses How to Come to the Lithuanian Seaside? 19 The Lithuanian Seaside Cycle Route of local tourist information centres and other heads along the 100 km of the Lithuanian useful contacts. From Klaipėda Kuršių Nerija to Nida 22 Baltic Sea coast from Russia in the South More details on the Lithuanian Seaside From Klaipėda to the Latvian Border 40 (Kaliningrad Region on the Curonian Spit) up Cycle Route, its sights, services and From Klaipėda to Rusnė Island to Latvia in the North. The route shows you geographic co-ordinates in the National Along the Seashore 60 three different regions of Lithuania, which Tourist Information System are available on differ in their history, culture and landscape: the website www.travel.lt or from the tourist General information 90 Žemaitija (Samogitia) – also called Lower information centres. Service Index 93 Lithuania – North from the city of Klaipėda to We wish you a pleasant ride! the Latvian border, the so-called “Lithuania Locality Index 98 Minor”, also called “Prussian Lithuania” or The Editors “Memelland” – South of Klaipėda on the land side, and the Curonian Spit. 2 HOW TO USE THE GUIDEBOOK indicated on the map are marked by iden- on specialised and tourist services (bicycle tical numbers in parentheses, e.g. the Castle shops and maintenance, bicycle rentals, First of all choose a route. In the publi- Museum (1). bus and railway stations, ferry, etc.) with cation you’ll find all three Seaside Cycle contacts listed. The descriptions of the main Route sections described at length along Texts trail routes from Klaipėda to Nida and from with general information on the Western The publication presents a detailed descrip- Būtingė to Rusnė Island are in red italics. Lithuanian Region and its centre Klaipėda. tion of the route of each part of the map At the end of the guidebook you’ll find the with distances indicated (km), towns, small index of services where, in accordance with Maps towns and places to visit. Next to the names the order of description of places below each The trail maps in the publication are of the sites the number of the map where town name, other services and contacts are presented in scale 1 : 50 000 (1 cm = they can be found is specified in brackets, indicated: hotels, guesthouses, farmsteads, 500 m), the Old Town of Klaipeda is in scale e.g. [map No. 1]. There is also information camping, restaurants and medical aid 1 : 10 000 (1 cm = 100 m). On page 5 you’ll points. The maps indicate public dining and find the Seaside Cycle Route map divided into bank branches in all towns as well as bank parts and numbered. Each part is discussed machines in small towns, since there are lots more comprehensively later in the guidebook. of them in big towns. In each part the directions of cardinal points and pointers to other parts of the map are indicated. The bright yellow-red-dotted line indicates the Seaside Cycle Route, whereas the red-dotted line shows other possible connections and alternate bicycle routes. Distances between towns are indicated in kilometres. Places to visit and services are indicated by arbitrary signs and symbols. All the places to visit mentioned in the text and 3 MAP LEGEND Tourist information Viewpoint Side street Local road Hotel Lighthouse Road under construction Guesthouse Hill fort Railway Country tourism homestead Cemetery Ferry line Camping Architectural monument (building, River, canal (width 10–30 m) estate) River, canal (up to 10 m) Rest area Church Hospital Natural monument Settlement Ferry / quay Historical monument (memorial homestead) Museum Garden Milestone Bicycle repair and shop Bicycle route on the Lithuanian seashore Forest Bicycle rental Optional bicycle route Bus station Country border Swamp Municipal boundary Railway station Protected area boundary Sand, peat bogs, dumping ground Airport Highway Cultivated field Customs Rural road Border crossing point Regional road Lake, pond, sea, lagoon Main street 4 THE REGION OF WESTERN LITHUANIA strip of sand, which came to the surface of part to Kaliningrad District of Russia). Today the Litorina Sea 7,000 years ago, was a real forests cover about 70 per cent of the spit, Over 200-metre-long cycle trails, which creation of the sun, wind and water streams. nearly all the remaining part is bare dunes encircle the most beautiful parts of the Today a high 97-kilometre-long strip of dunes and sands. Over 960 species of plants grow Lithuanian seashore, run in three directions and a dark forest continue from Kopgalis to there and 37 species of mammals are found from the city of Klaipėda. One section winds Krantas (Zelenogradsk). It ranges in width there (many of them are entered in the Red through the Curonian Spit from Klaipėda to from 370 metres near Šarkuva (Lesnoje) to Data Book of Lithuania). You can come Nida, another runs north towards Latvia and 3.8 kilometres near Bulvikis Horn. The total across insects in the spit that can be found the third one goes down along the Curonian area of the Curonian Spit is 180 square kilo- nowhere else in Lithuania. During spring and Lagoon to Rusnė Island. This unique route metres (its northern part from Smiltynė to autumn migration 15 million birds fly over covering almost the entire Lithuanian coast Nida belongs to Lithuania and the southern the spit. Over 70 species of fish breed in the and seashore offers us the chance to get to Baltic Sea near the spit. know the nature, culture and ethnic peculiari- The first residents moved to the Curonian ties of the land better. Spit in the Stone Age. A safe environment, Klaipėda–Nida. “The landscape is such luxurious forests, and the abundance of a creation of a nation as is the language, fish and animals allured them there. In folklore, mythology, and art.” (Marcelijus the seventh century the Vikings began to Martinaitis). The landscape of the Curonian attack the residents of the spit. Around the Spit formed under extreme conditions by tenth century larger settlements began to means of human wisdom and hands, making be established in the locality: the Prussians use of the wind and plants, and correcting and Sembians lived south of Nida, the the mistakes that had earlier been made by Samogitians and Curonians lived north of it. nature, to make it suitable for living, working In the thirteenth century the place became and resting. a “highway” between the Teutonic Order The first mention of the Curonian Spit was and the Order of the Swordbearers along made in documents in 1322. This unique Parnidis Dune. which armies constantly moved; several 6 castles were built there. After the Battle of had a cemetery with wooden crosses, called hotels in Nida. Pedestrian paths and observa- Žalgiris (Grünwald), German colonists started krikštas. However, no settlements of that time tion points were made in the dunes, beaches to take up residence in Nerija and in the have survived – “sand drove away the living were adapted to the needs of holidaymakers. sixteenth–seventeenth centuries residents and buried once again the dead.” According to the 1844 regulations each from Kuršas and Lithuania moved there. At the end of the eighteenth century the boat of the Curonian Lagoon had to have a A transit road between Karaliaučius and Riga residents of the spit sensed the threat posed weather-cock – over time these weather- had an impact on the nature of local settle- by sand once again; sandstorms buried cocks have turned into original works of art. ments – coach houses and inns were opened Karvaičiai, Nagliai, Old and New Nagliai under The Curonian Spit was popular with many there. Fishermen’s farmsteads nestled up to the dunes. All that was a consequence of the German celebrities: L. Passarge described them. Specific geographical conditions deter- 1756–1763 war and the woods being cut “A Trip through the Curonian Spit” in 1868, mined a closed way of life. Each settlement down by the Russian army. E. Humperding composed an opera after the “Perhaps nowhere else in the world can a fairly-tale “Häsel und Gretel” by the Brothers more sorrowful place be found. Only shifting Grimm at a hotel in Nida. In 1929, German sand and water: no tree, no shadow, no well writer and Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann to have a refreshing sip of water…” (Russian came to Nida for the first time. Though he traveller P. Rozenval, 1814).