May 9 - full day in Kleipeda.

Woke up early and hit the old town folk craft market. Just lovely. Wood carvings, porcelain, lace, amber…. all hand made with artisans on site showing their skills. We found a guy who is a 4th generation wood carver who puts amber and wood together to make beads and jewelry. We bought out his bead selection and he took U.S. $. Good thing,  as we had no Euros and there were no banks in the old town area. Mom bought some fridge magnets and things to take back as gifts. I bought her a pair of amber earrings as a Mothers Day gift.

Next stop - the amber factory we had made an appointment for. Situated in an industrial complex, it was similar to the sales warehouses of Hong Kong pearl factories. Shelves stuffed with amber of all shapes, sizes, colors and quality,workers busy filling orders, one woman photographing amber products in a corner studio setup…. organized chaos. We bought a lot. I am sure everyone will just love seeing our goodies once they arrive back home.

Leaving the factory, we went back to old town and visited an amber gallery loaded with amber jewelry and in the basement a museum and workshop to show production of amber from raw condition to finished jewelry. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed, but the museum was over the top amazing.
Their smoking pipes collection wanted me to start smoking a pipe, it was so good. The bug specimen section was fantastic. Mom has decided she is now a lover and collector of amber.

A very rare strand of beads. The bead are are least 250 years old and the amber itself is over 40 million years old.!

After that, Mom went back to our apartment to collapse, while J-Me and I walked over to the ferry and rode the ferry boat across the harbor to the Curonian Spit, which is a 50 kilometer sand bar joined to Kalinningrad, Russia and where a lot of amber is washed up after a Baltic ocean storm.

We walked up and down the beach hunting for Amber. We found a few small pieces of amber, but nothing special as no storms had occurred recently.

While walking back thru the forest, J-ME spied a lovely pair of lizards.

Rode the ferry back to Klaipeda

and closed out the day with smoked mackerel, cheese, crackers, beer, scotch, and chocolate.

Too tired to download photos for the blog, will catch up later. Writing this at 1:30am Tuesday, after a couple hours sleep.

 We leave to start driving to Poland early in the morning. Alright, more Polish breakfasts!!