Ch 3-2 Ankunft - Klaipeda

We lay in our beds awake for a short time talking about impressions so far.  Mom realizes that this is not the Lithuania of her memories.  So far so good, and we still go on about the great service on Air Lithuania especially after the atrocious meal on Northwestern.  Are we so food driven?

Morning comes! Breakfast!  We're famished!  Dressed and down to the main restaurant we go. The large dining room is set up with a buffet and the room is already full of – eh gads – Germans!  There is a big tour group of them, so big it might be two groups actually. An invasion? Okay, we’re now Americans for all practical purposes.  Any nationality in a large group is to be avoided. In a herd they often exemplify the worst qualities of their nationality. There is something a bit off about sitting in Lithuania and hearing only German.

We’re hungry so take a quick look over the whole buffet before getting in line.  What a lovely assortment! If this is a sign of how things will be we’re happy. You may travel for the sights, but food will make or break the trip.  My parents maintained a German kitchen, never developed American taste buds. I never lack for good food in Europe unlike when I travel through America. Exception being one trip to Czechoslovakia right after the fall where I purchased a sausage from an outdoor vendor.  Yuck, truly inedible; made me recall Upton Sinclair’s infamous book about the meat packing industry. Tossed it after one bite. For all the years and all the travels that really isn’t much. Oh yeah, the Czech bottled beer was odd with a layer of sediment in the bottom; refrained from calling out ‘bottoms up’.

Oh gosh we are now stuffed, but in a promising mood to uncover more of this country. While waiting for my mother to come down and join me for breakfast, I went ahead and made arrangements for her to have a massage. I expect she’d enjoy that after her long flight. So when she heads off for her massage I head outside for a preview walk to see what I missed yesterday evening.

Early morning rush hour, people hustle along the streets. The hotel fronts on a river or perhaps a canal, I can’t determine which, north of the city center. There's a vibrant feel to the city, alive with activity. This is a port city but I can’t see any signs of a harbor even as I follow the river. The weather is lovely. After about an hour I head back to the hotel.

She loved her massage, her first ever. A genuine Russian trained masseur beat her up pretty good so by her standards means it was excellent. It has to hurt to be any good. She’s already excited about having another appointment when we return.

We go to meet our rental car agent at the hotel. Algeridas, first name basis, is prompt and also speaks English! This is a surprise. There hasn’t been much time for the country to get English in the schools since the border opened. The language requirement used to be Russian, English a possibility sometime later in their schooling. This young entrepreneur is 20-ish. I found his agency on the internet and the prices were so much better than those of the American companies. So what if I’m driving a used Opal instead of a new Volkswagen. Anyway it's better not to be too conspicuous as a foreigner. Forget that Mercedes!

Algeridas asks where we will be staying in Silute (our Heydekrug) and whether there will be safe facilities for the car. I’m puzzled by this question. I tell him the bed and breakfast we reserved which is all I know. He informs me that there is a problem keeping cars from being stolen, so he wants to make sure the car will be secured evenings. We wind up the paperwork and he takes me to where he has parked the car. To return the car at the end of our stay I need only to park the car on the street near the hotel and then tell him the car’s location. Easy as that. There is no hotel parking lot. Once we’re done with the car stuff we check out of the hotel and hit the road!

I have all my maps at hand and it proves easy to find a way out of the city heading south. The industrial scenery of the city outskirts is all new construction. Amazing how fast change has taken place. Several American businesses have facilities here, among them R.J. Reynolds and Kraft. They lost no time in establishing a presence. Generally it all looks very clean and neat, a bit reminiscent of traveling in Germany 30 years ago. People were very friendly back then too, back when the U.S. dollar was still a desirable currency and they pretended to like Americans. Although every time we toured any historic castle or estate the German guides made a point of stating that Americans bombed the place heavily in the war.

Memel Aerial View

We travel through little cities and villages whose names bring back memories for Mom. It looks more like current day rural Germany than old Memelland. And we get closer to Heydekrug.