26/07/08 - One last dip in the Baltic.

We'd parked up late last night in the Keremu national park among some
trees overlooking a small fishing lake. When I got up at 0430 this
morning there was already a fisherman trying his luck! Not me (Marea)
though, I went back to sleep and awoke at eight to yet another perfect
day. Our 4th in a row of 27ish degree blue sky days. It seemed a pity
the plan for today was to put a few miles behind us, but first we
drove to the beach for breakfast and a much needed swim/wash.
On realising that this 32km white sand beach might be our last view of
the sea until we reach Italy or the South of France, we decided on a
side trip to the same seashore at Jurmala.
So it would seem did everyone else in Latvia as we almost gave up on
finding a park. I'm glad we did eventually find one, because walking
on this beach was certainly an experience. The natural scenery was
beautiful and golden, though the same can't be said for the all pasty
fellas in their speedos. Daniel was no fun, he doesn't approve of my
rude, people watching commentary;-)
After we'd dipped our feet into the Baltic sea for probably the last
time, we headed south to Lithuania and the city of Sauliai.

The first thing we saw was four limos all decked out for a wedding. It
must be a very posh wedding, we thought. Incorrectly, as it turned
out, because then we saw at least four different brides, it was as if
everyone in town was either getting married or was a guest.
Sauliai is apparently known as the city of the Sun, because of the
13th century 'battle of the sun.' So as we we walked around the town
we took in all the obligaory sun related sights... Sundials, a 'Dawn'
statue, a cockeral weather vane... you get the picture.
Around 17:30 we headed out to the Hill of Crosses, our real reason for
visiting Sauliai. No one knows when crosses first started appearing
here, but their appearance is related to the 1863 rebellion and
repression. During the Soviet occupation it became a symbol of the
Lithuanian people rebellion as it survived several unsuccessful
bulldozings by soviet authorities from 1961 - 1985. Today over 100,000
crosses from almost every country in the world commerate people's
suffering, hope and gratitude. It is also a very popular place for
wedding photos and we saw at least another 4 wedding parties whilst
there!
With Marea at the wheel for a change we headed east toward the
Aukstaitijos National Park, or at least as close as we could get
before sunset. Along the way we picked up a couple of Estonian
hitchhikers. They were on their way to Germany but we were only able
to help them out with 55km of their >1000km journey!