For the final leg of our winter roadtrip, we visited a fireclay sculpture park in Jelgava, Latvia, followed by the mysterious Klaipeda Castle in Lithuania. We crossed the Baltic Sea and spent the night on board the DFDS Klaipeda-Karlshamn ship. Thankfully, it was a smooth sailing! Then, we drove through a snowstorm from Sweden to Norway, and home to our adorable housecats.

This was our route for the entire trip, c/o Google Maps:

The stay in Riga was short, but filled with freezing cold (literally) memories from the Christmas market. We enjoyed the breakfast at Riga Islande Hotel and left them a 10 star review: “Free parking space, spacious room, comfy beds, excellent breakfast.” Then, we were back on the road from around 9am.

As the idea of crossing the border to Latvia was spontaneous, we didn’t have specific attractions to visit. When we felt like we needed to get out for fresh air and stretch a bit, we just did it. Jelgava is a city about 41 kms from Riga. It’s the 4th largest city in the country. We stopped by there and enjoyed seeing some fireclay statues surrounded by snow. Even the water surrounding the Post Island, a recreational spot in the city, was frozen.

Our next stop was a restaurant in Joniškis, Lithuania. We thought that it’s our last chance to grace our palates with Lithuanian dishes, so we went to that restaurant, even though it wasn’t very easy to find. I can’t even remember the name of the restaurant, but locals seemed to love it and gave it wonderful reviews. They’re popular for their home-made Lithuanian dumplings. Sadly, they were not very ready to receive visitors a little past lunch. Their menu was limited, and I we only got to order salad and soup. It’s fine though – we were still satisfied.

We reached Klaipeda at around 4 pm. We had the ship departing at 9pm, so we had plenty of time to explore the coastal city a bit. The place was covered by a meter of snow! It was fun to walk around, and the cranes looked like they were dancing.

The Klaipeda Castle, a.k.a. the Memel Castle or Memelburg, was built in the 1200s. It was partly covered in snow and there were renovations, but we were still accommodated. First, there was a mini-museum about the World Wars:

Then, there was an exhibition about archeological excavations in Klaipeda:

But the most interesting part and the section I enjoyed exploring the most were the dungeons, although they were short. The entrance to the dungeons was dark and creepy!

It was much darker when we got out of the castle museum:

Funny story, we had a tough time getting out of the parking lot in Klaipeda. The car wouldn’t simply run because the ground was slippery iced! We tried to dig the snow around the wheels, but nothing helped. Finally, two locals came and helped us! They were very kind 🙂

Afterwards, we had the best dinner (Italian, wink!) at the Akropolis shopping mall.

We made it on time and boarded the ship. The last time we took the ship (from Karlshamn to Klaipeda), there was a big storm and I ended up puking several times. It was a very scary experience! So, I was a bit traumatized. But we had to go home. Luckily, the seas were quiet the whole night this time. I felt like it was how ferry crossings should be. We both managed to sleep in our windowless cabin.

Early next morning, we tried the breakfast buffet. It was a relief when the ship finally docked!

My husband decided that we didn’t want to have any more stopovers. I was quite against the idea, but he did manage to drive 7-8 hours straight, with minor toilet, food and stretch breaks. The drive started nicely, clear skies and no traffic. But when we reached the europa roads, a snow storm came and it was raining and hailing. And since it was winter, the sun was no longer visible from around 1-2pm. We did a detour once and took a smaller road. It went fine. We reached home at around 5pm, safe and sound.

The next day, we picked up the kitts from the cathotel – and we’re all home sweet home. ❤

And just like that, that winter roadtrip was added to our memory banks. Until next escapade!

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