TOUR TO PALANGA (4 HOURS)

Lithuania's prime sea resort is 25 km away from Klaipeda. The tour offers a visit to the Amber Museum, a walk in the Botanical Park of Palanga with Birute's Hill - a 22 – metre - high dune, the central street full of souvenir shops, open-air cafes, and leading to the beach and the pier.

Palanga name may be derived from the legend about fisherman houses and the wind which was covering them with sands up to windowsill (lith. palangė). More likely is that it is derived from hydroid Alanga - this is how Rąžė river used to be called in past and Palanga means "On the Alanga".

The first mention of Palanga's name reminiscent the legendary story about landing to Palanga in 1161 of army of Danish king Valdemaras I. Only in 1253 Palanga was mentioned in chronicle of German Order. In the development of history here were a lot of conquerors. Vikings of Normans coveted these lands, and in 13^th - 14^th centuries a lot of time crusaders devastated it. Only after the Battle of Grunwald (in 1410) the peace contract of Meln, concluded in 1422, stopped an invasion of the Order to Lithuania and in accordance with the peace contract of Brest (in 1435-12-31) Palanga felt to Lithuania.

• Amber Museum. About 4,500 exhibit pieces are found in the 15 rooms of the museum. Visitors are acquainted with the formation, processing, practical application, and morphological variations of amber. The museum has a wealth of amber pieces with trapped insects or plants, a collection of unique pieces of amber, and examples of fossilized tree resin brought from all over the world.