Sights in Palanga
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Basanavičiaus Gatvė Pier
From the end of Basanavičiaus gatvė, a boardwalk leads across the dunes to the pier. The original wooden pier dated to 1888. By day, street vendors sell popcorn, ledai (ice cream), dešrainiai (hot dogs), alus and gira here. At sunset families and lovers gather here on the sea-facing benches to watch the sunset.
From the pier end of Basanavičiaus, a walking and cycling path wends north and south through pine forest. Skinny paths cut west onto the sandy beach at several points and, if you follow the main path (Meilės alėja) south onto Darius ir Girėno gatvė, you reach the Botanical Park where cycling and walking tracks are rife.
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Amber Processing Gallery
A key stop on Lithuania's Baltic Amber Road is an old barn that has been renovated and given a lick of yellow paint to become a workshop where raw amber is crafted.
In the 17th century there were a dozen or so such workshops, which today's Amber Processing Gallery, run by the Palanga guild of amber masters, emulates. In the late 1880s Palanga was one of the largest amber-processing centres in the Baltics, its amber products being transported to southern Russia then mailed on to the Caucasus, Germany and France. A gallery sells finished amber pieces (jewellery, sculptures, chessboards etc), as does upmarket amber jeweller Valentina ir partneriai.
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Botanical Park
Lush greenery and swans gliding on still lakes make Palanga's Botanical Park a haven of peace after the frenetic-paced beach and town centre. The 1-sq-km park includes a rose garden, 18km of footpaths and Birutė Hill (Birutēs kalnas), once a pagan shrine. A 19th-century chapel tops the hill. But the highlight of the park area is the Amber Museum which showcases 20,000-odd examples of Baltic gold.
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Basanavičiaus Gatvė
A dead-straight stroll along Basanavičiaus Gatvė is a sight in itself - and the way most holidaymakers pass dusk-lit evenings. Stalls selling amber straddle the eastern end of the street and amusements dot its entire length - inflatable slides, bungee-jump simulators, merry-go-rounds, electric cars, portrait artists, buskers, musicians, and street performers with monkeys. Party madness!
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Kretinga Museum
This winter garden has seen better days but the green-fingered might still enjoy the tropical mirage of 850 species of exotic plants blooming forth in a tatty classical glasshouse at the Kretinga Museum, 10km east in Kretinga. The hot house opened in 1875 in one of the many homes of the Tyszkiewicz family of Polish nobles, but a fire devastated it in 1915 and in 1940 the Soviet Army destroyed it.
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Birutė Hill
Once a pagan shrine. According to legend, it was tended by vestal virgins, one of whom, Birutė, was kidnapped and married by Grand Duke Kęstutis. A 19th-century chapel tops the hill.
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Amber Museum
The highlight of the Botanical Park area is the Amber Museum, inside a sweeping classical palace (1897). The museum showcases 20,000-odd examples of Baltic gold.
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Antanas Mončys House Museum
The Antanas Mončys House Museum displays sculptures, collages and masks by Lithuanian émigré artist Antanas Mončys (1921-93).
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Klaipėdos Galerija
Contemporary art is showcased at Klaipėdos Galerija and Savickas Paveikslų Galerija, a twinset of galleries in an interior courtyard.
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Savickas Paveikslų Galerija
Contemporary art is showcased at Klaipėdos Galerija and Savickas Paveikslų Galerija, a twinset of galleries in an interior courtyard.
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Dr Jono Šliūpas Memorial House
Fascinating B&W photos of old Palanga fill the Dr Jono Šliūpas Memorial House.
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