We are now going to visit Klaipeda.
Waiting for the ferry, Aiste is telling me a lot of interesting information on this Lithuanian town.

Klaipeda is the third largest city of Lithuania
and it is located at the narrow strait linking the Curonian Lagoon to the Baltic Sea.
Today, has a population of more than 206,000
and is vital to Lithuania economy as the country main seaport.

Archaeological evidence reveals that this area was once densely populated by the Balts,
ancestors of Lithuanians.
From the 9th century, their lands were perpetually raided by the Vikings.
From the 13th century, the site suffered new invasions by German feudal lords and the Teutonic Order.
In a move to consolidate its governance over the territory,
in 1252 the Order erected a castle on the delta of the river Danė,
named it Memelburg and used it to control the strait between the mainland and the Curonian Spit.

After this, Lithuania's main waterway trade route via the Nemunas river to the Curonian Lagoon, Baltic Sea and so to Gotland and Scandinavia was sealed shut.

The site, controled by the Teutonic Order, was a natural harbour
around which a town soon developed (to the east of the castle).
In some years the town of Memel was granted similar rights as had the Hanseatic towns of Dortmund (1254) and Lubeck (1258).
But, it was a foreign encroachment,
a tiny wedge of German territory carved out of Lithuania.
This situation only changed with the Treaty of Versailles after World War I,
which took the territory from Germany and temporarily placed it under French control.
In 1923, the Lithuanian government seized control of the Klaipėda region from the French,
the region was soon recognized a part of Lithuania by the international community.