This morning we docked in Klaipėdia, the third largest city in Lithuania. David’s GG grandmother, Ziporah Wachman came out to Australia in 1890 from here with the rest of their children. Remember, her husband came out with the two eldest boys in 1888. We have no information on where she lived or anything but it is good to be here, at least.

We wandered around the town.  We were given a map of a walking tour which was fun so we went searching for the places on the map. Unfortunately many of the places were closed because it was Sunday.

Yesterday we walked more than 17,000 steps on horrible cobble stones – Aleks really kept us moving. We did another 10,000 here this morning on cobble stones so our legs are feeling it. We have another 6 hours in port but reckon we’ve done enough walking for today.

Again there some beautiful old buildings including this post office. It was built in 1893 & the exterior is a mix of neo gothic, classicism& jugend style – whatever all that means. It has a set of concert bells in the tower & they rang at midday which was lovely.

I took a photo of another old building in the same street, Liepu Street just as a horse & cart was passing:

Why did I mention a cat & mouse in the heading?  Well here they are:

So what are they doing here?

It seems the the granite sculpture of the cat with a man’s face was done many years ago. Rumour is that it has supernatural powers so you pet its tail & make a wish.

The mouse is just 17cm high & made of bronze & stone. It is decorated with a spell band which says “Convert your ideas into words – words will become magic”.  If you whisper into the ear of the mouse, your wish will come true.

I’ve been asked to post a picture of our ship so here is the Oceania Marina, a really lovely ship.

David features in both of those. It’s not a massive ship – it takes 1,200 passengers & has 800 crew. The second picture is during our sailing from Stockholm.  We are finding it really luxurious.

David is napping now so I’m going to head to the library, lie back on a lovely leather couch & read my book. The weather has turned again – it’s cool & windy & threatening rain so I’m not tempted to go out on deck.