Witch wood

I woke at some ungodly hour this morning to torrential rain. No surprises there then but I lay awake for ages worrying about how wet our bedding would get while the rest of the family snoozed away. We had agreed on an early start as we had a long way to go to Vilnius so I woke them up and, surprisingly, for a change there was only a couple of minor puddles inside the tent. However, it was still pouring so we packed up quickly and went to the cafe with our breakfast pastries to get a hot coffee.

We were soon ready to set off and made our way along the Curonian Spit until we reached Juodkrante where we knew there was a woodland exhibition of witches, dwarfs and demons. We were keen to get some pictures for Aunty Janet so, despite the still pouring rain, we parked up and trekked up through the woods. It was about a five mile walk and each time we rounded a bend in the path we came across amazing wood carvings either depicting the way of life in the village or witchy things (or maybe that is part of their way of life?). Wet to the skin we made our way back to the car, buying some smoked fish from one of the houses along the way. Most of the occupants seem to have a little fish shop business going on – even one house which had recently had a fire (having no roof left) was still occupied downstairs and open for business.

Fish face, and a statue...

We headed off on our drive to Vilnius, pleased that we had taken the walk despite the weather. We stopped at a motorway services along the way and decided to order lunch. We were very pleasantly surprised by the food. For 44 Lt (£10), Chris had a smoked herring and hot potato salad and the kids and I had freshly cooked omelette's and bread with drinks all round. All of it was cooked to order – such a nice treat.

The trip was really grim because the rain just kept on coming. I had earmarked a campsite about 25km away from Vilnius itself, on the banks of the lake at Trakai and overlooked by Trakai Insular Castle. It was a fantastic setting. Due to the damp state of our tent and sleeping bags (again) we booked a room for the night. It was very basic – imagine a large box, walls and ceiling lined with dark tongue and groove, with a chocolate brown carpet! Still, it was warm and dry and there was plenty of room to hang up our wet gear to dry out.

We set out for the supermarket for provisions for the evening and by lucky chance, came across a DIY shop who sold polythene by the metre. We are now in possession of a 4m x 6m polythene cover for our tent – classy!

Tea and a movie saw us all ready for a well deserved early night.