Past horror lost in beauty

Feb 9 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Peter Beal discovers a Unesco World Heritage Site

WHEN I reached the top of the 200ft-high sand dune, the view to each side seemed endless. In front of me was a massive lagoon stretching as far as the eye could see, to my right the Russian border hidden among the trees in the near distance, and behind me, only hundreds of yards away, the crashing waves of the Baltic.

To my left I could look along the 30-mile route winding between forests and sand that we had taken to reach this stunning spot on the Curonian Spit – a pencil-thin sliver of sand and trees that lies off the Lithuanian coast and goes on for miles and miles and miles.

I was in Dead Dunes, named because fisherman who made their homes here had to flee when the shifting, fragile landscape eventually overcame their dwellings, now lying deep beneath the sand.

The unique Spit, now, like Liverpool’s waterfront, designated a Unesco World Heritage Site as one of Europe’s most beautiful landscapes, has become an tourists’ playground and a haven for wildlife including deer and wild pigs, which can come out onto the peninsula’s only road and pester tourists for food.

The road from Lithuania’s third city, and only port, Klaipeda, runs the 60-mile length of the Spit – half of which is in Russia – through four picturesque fishing villages famous for their smoked fish.

Traditional blue-painted Scandinavian-style houses line the seaside roads, together with small hotels and guesthouses, many of them with saunas and jacuzzis.

It is an outdoor lover’s paradise, with a 30-mile long cycle track where at times only hundreds of yards separate the waters of the Curonian lagoon and the Baltic.

I took the short ferry ride from Klaipeda to reach the start of the road. A bridge was once proposed – but rejected on environmental ground because of the sensitive ecology of the area.

The Spit – known as the Lithuanian area of Neringa – is attached to the mainland, but at its southern end in the detached Russian state of Kalliningrad. You need a visa to go further than the half-way point on the road.

Basketball-mad Lithuania, one of the 15 satellites freed from Soviet rule in 1991, is still trying to establish itself as a destination for British tourists. But it has a lot going for it. It’s green and has five national parks of exceptional beauty.

As in most of Eastern Europe the horrors of the past haunt everywhere. In Klaipeda two thirds of the city was destroyed in the fighting between the Nazis and Soviet troops – but much survived and the small city of 185,000 people is now making the most of its restored pedestrianised streets and historic buildings.

A short distance to the north is the stunningly beautiful Zemaitijos National Park, an area of forest, lakes, wildlife and secluded villages – and one of Europe’s most unusual tourist attractions.

In the heart of this peaceful landscape is a place that was a secret for years to the local population.

Four 30m-deep concealed silos housed the SS-4 Soviet nuclear missiles that were trained on Britain and Western European cities during the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis.

It was abandoned in 1979 but is now open to tourists, just as it was left when the Soviet troops withdrew.

I walked along the damp, gloomy and narrow tunnels next to the silos, where the soldiers would spend up to two weeks at a time beneath ground, and then scrambled on hands-and-knees in the dark through a 2ft-wide shaft to peer down the deep chamber that once housed the atomic warheads trained on the West.

Chillingly, around the metal rim are painted the co-ordinates that targeted individual cities.

Most people in Britain would be hard-pressed to name Lithuania’s capital. But Vilnius – European Capital of Culture for 2009 – is a jewel in the Baltic state’s crown.

Again, the horrors of the past are always here – the Genocide Museum recalls in chilling detail the Holocaust in which 90% of the city’s Jewish population perished. But today the Old Town – one of Eastern Europe’s biggest – is a place of picturesque streets, markets, historic buildings, pubs, bars, cosy restaurants and a buzzing nightlife.

Luckily, it has so far been spared the worst excesses of those plagues of European capitals, the British stag and hen weekend. It’s also the only place I have been where they serve beer by the metre – a long board cut to contain 10 pint glasses with a selection of beers, which is placed in the middle of the table. It’s advised to have several friends with you.

Bizarrely, Vilnius is the only place with a statue of legendary rock musician Frank Zappa, who had probably never heard of the city when it was erected. Amends are now being made by having a copy placed in his home town of Baltimore.

Peter Beal stayed in Klaipeda at the Europa Royale hotel, doubles from £70, www.europaroyale.com and at the Navalis hotel, doubles from £80. www.navalis.lt. In Vilnius he stayed at the Ramada – doubles from £76, www.ramadavilnius.lt

Flights are available daily from Gatwick to Vilnius with airBaltic or Flylal. Ryanair flies to Lithuania’s second city Kaunas.

More information about Lithunania at www.travel.lt or www.lithuaniatourism.co.uk

Currency: Litas (around five to the pound).