My mother had one of those big birthdays this year – instead of a big celebration we had a small family reunion … with Lake Constance being my mother’s choice of destination.
My parents picked me up Friday midday and we made our way down to Friedrichshafen at the front of Lake Constance – a drive of about four hours.
My sister and nephew joined on Saturday – both days were spent, exploring town – and included a visit of the Zeppelin Museum on Saturday.
In Five years are over once more – and it is time, to head back to Kassel for a fit of contemporary art at the biggest exhibition of its kind on the planet – documenta fifteen.
The approach for this edition was a bit different than with previous ones, with the role of artistic director being given to the Indonesian art collective Ruangrupa. Other art collectives were asked to join – who in turn added like-minded artists. The result – in my view – was a fairly one-sided system-criticizing exhibition with (at least for me) no real WOW-moment. Well – and the controversy around antisemitic elements in several pieces of art in the exhibition is just the next thing.
In any case, below a couple of impressions from the exhibition …
We made it back to Riga after a long drive of about five hours. I had a nighttime walk around town after dinner (and drinks), to get in some final impressions of Riga – and final impressions of this trip.
Overall this has been a very loaded trip – with many, many things to do and see. The trip clearly showed off on the cultural heritage and history of the three countries – but (at least from my perspective) also gave insight into the lively scenes of art, food, drink and music in all three countries. I also quiet enjoyed visiting the National Parks and of course the gastronomic delights during the trip.
Coming back, I would probably do things differently – focusing on the main attractions only, much fewer churches – and more nature, more hikes and more focus on trying delicacies, local food and drinks. Exploring the craft beer scene here might be worth a trip on itself. But for now – Good Bye Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania!
Today was the final full day of trip. We had the morning for some final explorations around Nida – before a midday pickup for the long drive back to Riga.
The weather had changed, today it was cloudy with occasional sprinkles of rain and colder than yesterday. I used the morning, to make my way over to the Thomas Mann culture center, check out the exterior, before continuing over to the Baltic Sea for some final views of the ocean for this trip. For the way back to Nida I once more picked a trail going across the Parnidis Dune.
We had dinner in a Mexican restaurant just at the front of the lagoon. I took below photos after dinner … and now sharing those night impressions here.
This gallery contains 15 photos.
From the hotel it was to the port, where we had chartered a boat for a trip out to the lagoon to catch views of the great dune (Sklandytojų kopa). In contrast to the Parnidis Dune, the great one is … Continue reading
This gallery contains 16 photos.
Today we had a full free day – and I decided, to make it an active one. I had an early start in the morning, getting ready to do a hike around the Parnidis Dune. I first made my way … Continue reading
We made it to Nida – a (if not the) resort town at the Curonian Lagoon – in the early evening. After dinner there was enough time for some first exploration of town and a walk into the Curonian Spit National Park and up to the viewpoint on the Parnidis Dune.
Today was mostly a driving day. We left Vilnius in the morning for a drive of 300km to the port city of Klaipėda. During a guided tour we got to see the main attractions of town – starting with the Meridianas (a renovated sailing ship, now serving as a restaurant), then into town for the wood-framed buildings, an odd collection of sculptures and installations and – of course – an option to get stocked up with some amber.
After about two hours we were back on the bus, making it to the ferry terminal, for the short hop over to the Curonian Spit, where another drive of about an hour was waiting for us.
This gallery contains 20 photos.
Today was dedicated to Vilnius with a full day of exploration of town and its many, many churches. We kicked it of at the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, a catholic church in Baroque style. From here we … Continue reading