Capital for for culture

10:07am Friday 11th April 2008

THE views from the top of the 200-foot high sand dune seemed endless.

In front, a massive lagoon stretched to infinity, to the right the Russian border was hidden among the trees in the near distance, and behind, only hundreds of yards away, the crashing waves of the Baltic.

To the left was the 30-mile route winding between forests and sand that we had taken to reach this stunning spot on the Curonian Spit - a pencil-thin sliver of sand and trees that lies off the Lithuanian coast.

I was in Dead Dunes, named because fisherman who made their homes here had to flee when the shifting, fragile landscape eventually overcame their dwellings, now lying deep beneath the sand.

The unique Spit, now designated a UNESCO World Heritage site as one of Europe's most beautiful landscapes, has become a tourists' playground and a haven for wildlife, including deer and wild pigs, which can come out on to the peninsula's only road and pester tourists for food.

The road from Lithuania's third city, and only port, Klaipeda, runs the 60-mile length of the Spit - half of which is in Russia - through four picturesque fishing villages famous for their smoked fish.

Traditional blue-painted Scandinavian-style houses line the seaside roads, together with small hotels and guesthouses, many of them with saunas and Jacuzzis.

It is an outdoor lover's paradise, with a 30-mile long cycle track where at times only hundreds of yards separate the waters of the Curonian lagoon and the Baltic.

I took the short ferry ride from Klaipeda to reach the start of the road. A bridge was once proposed - but rejected on environmental grounds because of the sensitive ecology of the area. The Spit - known as the Lithuanian area of Neringa - is attached to the mainland, but at its southern end is the detached Russian state of Kalliningrad. You need a visa to go further than the half-way point on the road.

Basketball-mad Lithuania, one of the 15 satellites freed from Soviet rule in 1991, is still trying to establish itself as a destination for British tourists. But it has a lot going for it. It's green and has five national parks of exceptional beauty.

And it's cheap: very cheap. In Klaipeda, I lunched at the welcoming Memelis bar and restaurant built on three-storeys in a converted warehouse with its own microbrewery where you can watch fermenting away as you eat.

Tables on the first floor have personal draught beer pumps installed so diners can help themselves whenever they feel in need of a top-up. And the price, as in the rest of the country, is only around £1 a pint.

Food generally is equally good value. At the Memelis, with its cheerful and friendly staff, tasty fried piquant curd cheese with lemon thyme cost £2.20 and smoked beef and potatoes £2.10.

Klaieda and the Curonian Spit is around 200 miles from the country's capital, Vilnius, and can be reached by car, bus and on special tours.

A short distance to the north is the stunningly beautiful Zemaitijos National Park, an area of forest, lakes, wildlife and secluded villages - and one of Europe's most unusual tourist attractions.

In the heart of this peaceful landscape is a place that was a secret for years to the local population.

Four 30-metre deep concealed silos housed the SS-4 Soviet nuclear missiles that were trained on Britain and Western European cities during the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis.

It was abandoned in 1979 but is now open to tourists, just as it was left when the Soviet troops withdrew.

You need a guide to take you here, but it can be arranged through the nearby national park information centre for only £1 in high season.

Lithuania's capital, Vilnius - European Capital of Culture for 2009 - is a jewel in the Baltic state's crown. Its Old Town was placed on the World Heritage list in 1994 and has been painstakingly restored since.

Again, the horrors of the past creep in - the Genocide Museum recalls in chilling detail the Holocaust in which 90 per cent of the city's Jewish population perished.

But today the Old Town - one of Eastern Europe's biggest - is a place of picturesque streets, markets, historic buildings, pubs, bars, cosy restaurants and a buzzing nightlife.

Luckily, it has so far been spared the worst excesses of those plagues of European capitals, the British stag and hen weekend.

It's also the only place I have been where they serve beer by the metre. A metre of beer is a long board cut to contain ten-pint glasses with a selection of beers, which is placed in the middle of the table. It's advised to have several friends with you when ordering one of these!

For more information on Lithuania, check out www.travel.lt or www.lithuaniatourism,co.uk.

Double rooms at the Europa Royale hotel (www.europaroyale.com), in Klaipeda, cost from £70, and at the Navalis Hotel (www.navalis.lt), Klaipeda, doubles start from £80. In Vilnius, double rooms at the Ramada (www.ramadavilnius.lt) are priced from £76.

There are flights daily from Gatwick to Vilnius with airBaltic or Flylal. Ryanair flies to Lithuania's second city, Kaunas.

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