Latvia and Lithuania

2012-08-24: München – Riga
With Air Baltic we went from Munich to Riga in just two hours.
Not many people on board maybe because it was a early flight on friday. The Riga airport looked quite nice and modern. We went right through to the exit/baggage claim – most passengers stayed at the gates for connecting flights.

Riga – Lithuania
Europcar provided us with a small Toyota Yaris, absolutely enough for a four day trip around the Baltics. We directly went on the road and headed south to the border to Lithuania. Just before passing the border we had a Pizza in a shopping mall which looked a bit creepy – still in transition between socialism and capitalism.
In northern Lithuania we visited the Hill of Crosses, a pilgrimage site.

Curonian Spit
We stayed quite south in Nida (Deutsch: Nidden), just north to the border to Russia. Many tourists were here, including quite some elderly Germans. The city offers a museum for Thomas Mann who lived here 1930-1932.

A slightly different route more to the west led us back to Riga where we stayed for the final night and day in the Baltics.

2012-08-28: Riga – München
It was a great trip and the two countries at the north-east part of Europe have quite something to offer.