We bussed from Vilnius to Klaipeda, with our habitual stash of snacks and extra food for the ferry ride ahead.
9/20/24 from Doug: Last night we boarded a big ferry in Klaipeda, Lithuania’s port and slept in a cabin with view.
Today looking at my Maps-Me app I see two nearby location pins, one from Klaipeda and another in Gdansk- left from our 2020 visit. Between the two lies Russian, Kaliningrad, formerly Prussian, Konigsberg, where Kant professed enlightenment and penned three critiques: of reason, judgment (aesthetics), and metaphysics of morals.
We are avoiding Russia, avoiding Kaliningrad riding past it by sea non this ship to Kiel.
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I had a less philosophical reaction. Could NOT believe how huge the ferry was, and called it Ferryzilla in my mind.
Capacity was something like 1300 passengers+ trucks/ cargo.
There were maybe 125 people on board our trip.
Once we left sight of land I felt like I was suspended: between terrestrial locations, between sea and sky. I got up early/ predawn and was well, well-rewarded.
The only other people were a a couple n flannel pajamas and heavy jackets on the lower, smoking deck, the woman clutching their little fluffy dog.
I climbed to the top deck/ helicopter landing pad and witnessed an ethereal sunrise with the sky gathering color in a race with a bank of surface fog. The fog won.
from Doug: Off at sea, we pass a Baltic sea-borne windfarm with looks like more than 100 towers, between Poland and Denmark, minded by a tender ship.
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We settled in at a window-side table and read and stared and enjoyed the pastries we had packed, and then our lunch. Pretty soon we were seeing stretches of coastline: some of the northern coast of Germany, some of southeastern Denmark.
And then the ride was over and we were in Kiel.