Klaipeda Wednesday 6 July 2016
We are starting where we left off last year. Again we are joined by Tom's brother, George. The weather is somewhat stormy so we booked into a hostel for the night and hope that it doesn't rain all day tomorrow as we cycle down the rather beautiful Curonian Spit. We have spent the last week and a half travelling here by boat to Holland and then train, first to Lublin in Poland to visit our friend Ela and then on by train and cycle to Grutas Park, Lithuania, where there is a collection of discarded Soviet era sculptures and art. Then bus to Vilnius where we spent three days. Today we came by train to Klaipeda.
Everywhere we have stopped there have been reminders of the destruction and horrors of war and the occupation of Eastern Europe that followed. Both in Poland and Lithuania we are seeing the hopeful signs of regeneration, much of it funded by the EU. We are pleased that we in Britain have been able to support this through our EU membership. Now we continue our cycling in the wake of Britain voting to leave the EU. We are sad to be leaving, but far worse is the racial hatred that has been generated and the many lies that have been told to lead people to believe that the cause of economic stress and hardship is the result of migrants, particularly from Eastern Europe. We enjoyed a meal this evening in a square on the other side of which Hitler gave a speech from a balcony. If you repeat lies enough people will believe them and particularly if they are repeated in the press. This is how the Nazis began. In one museum in Vilnius there was a section on Jewish children who had survived the war, often because they were adopted or hidden by non-Jewish families. Their stories were heart warming but what stays with me are the accounts of the hundreds of children taken out from the ghettos to be shot. The soldiers didn't bother to shoot the babies. They were just thrown straight into the pits. When I look at the children playing here now I keep remembering what happened in the past and what could happen again. Unthinkable? I am sure the people in Lithuania would have thought it unthinkable.
Back to Klaipeda though. We had time for a walk round the old town. Not much of it left but it had a definite German feel showing its German origins.
I was going to add some photos but can find no way of doing it. What has happened to the iPad between last year and this? I will try again tomorrow.
We are starting where we left off last year. Again we are joined by Tom's brother, George. The weather is somewhat stormy so we booked into a hostel for the night and hope that it doesn't rain all day tomorrow as we cycle down the rather beautiful Curonian Spit. We have spent the last week and a half travelling here by boat to Holland and then train, first to Lublin in Poland to visit our friend Ela and then on by train and cycle to Grutas Park, Lithuania, where there is a collection of discarded Soviet era sculptures and art. Then bus to Vilnius where we spent three days. Today we came by train to Klaipeda.
Everywhere we have stopped there have been reminders of the destruction and horrors of war and the occupation of Eastern Europe that followed. Both in Poland and Lithuania we are seeing the hopeful signs of regeneration, much of it funded by the EU. We are pleased that we in Britain have been able to support this through our EU membership. Now we continue our cycling in the wake of Britain voting to leave the EU. We are sad to be leaving, but far worse is the racial hatred that has been generated and the many lies that have been told to lead people to believe that the cause of economic stress and hardship is the result of migrants, particularly from Eastern Europe. We enjoyed a meal this evening in a square on the other side of which Hitler gave a speech from a balcony. If you repeat lies enough people will believe them and particularly if they are repeated in the press. This is how the Nazis began. In one museum in Vilnius there was a section on Jewish children who had survived the war, often because they were adopted or hidden by non-Jewish families. Their stories were heart warming but what stays with me are the accounts of the hundreds of children taken out from the ghettos to be shot. The soldiers didn't bother to shoot the babies. They were just thrown straight into the pits. When I look at the children playing here now I keep remembering what happened in the past and what could happen again. Unthinkable? I am sure the people in Lithuania would have thought it unthinkable.
Back to Klaipeda though. We had time for a walk round the old town. Not much of it left but it had a definite German feel showing its German origins.
I was going to add some photos but can find no way of doing it. What has happened to the iPad between last year and this? I will try again tomorrow.
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