[ Klaipeda port information   Baltic 2014 ]
Day 11, Wednesday 2 July, Klaipeda

The tour started with a sightseeing drive through the town.   In reality we were already en route but we had to pass through the town and the guide gave a commentary on all that we passed.   As it was quite a long drive to the Plokstine missile base*, we had an extensive explanation of the history and culture of Lithunania and what it was like under the Russian occupation (protection!) during the cold war.   The area where the site was, was in a national park, and we first made a short photo stop (Google maps) at a lake.   The missile site was quite close and when we arrived there was quite a dash for the toilets before we began our tour, for which we had a specialist guide.

*LatLonglocation
The coordinates given for the site
are wrong, the correct ones are:-
56.03031821.906410for the museum
56.03229021.906308for the missile site

and this is the link to the site on google earth.

We started off in the main control center in the middle of the site having photographed the top of the silos which were located round the control room at the four corners of a square.   We visited three rooms (about 1/6th) on the top floor and three or four on the second (lower) floor.   We then went along a tunnel to the top of one of the silos.   We were warned to take care we didn't drop anything down the silo as they could no longer get to the bottom so anything that went down would stay there.   There had been lifts for each silo but they were no longer working.   The site cost as much to build as a small town, but no missiles were ever fired, not even test firings.   Once the U.S. stopped using planes for reconnaisance, and switched to satellites, the site was abandoned; the missiles removed but the equipment was left there.   MAD continued with nuclear submarines.   Once Lithunania became independant the locals found the site and any valuable equiment was stripped, including any easily removable metal to be sold as scrap, thus destroying the site.   When the national park was formed and they took over the site, with the help of the European Union the site was restored as a cold war museum, and is now one of only four such cold war sites remaining.

On the way back we passed a field that had been recently cut for hay which was full of storks and stopped for a photo opportunity.   We had been seeing storks all day atop their nest platforms.   We stopped for lunch at a traditional Lithuanian inn which has a good reputation as the Klaipedans drive out to eat there.   (I couldn't find it on Google, but it is marked on my map).   We had a cold red beet soup, different to borscht, served with dill potatoes followed by cepelinai and potato pancakes with stuffing (which the guide called gravy?) and sour cream.   Some people were not keen on the food but we found it delicious.   We had further commentary on the way back, and some asked to be dropped off in the old town for shopping.   As it was a ten minute walk back to the ship and there was only half an hour before gangway-up, in the event only two got off, although about ten had originally requested it.   The couple who did get off in town made it back with 5 minutes to spare, but the last coach was one minute late in getting back.  

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