All About Amber

Monday, August 10, 2026

To be honest, I am not that interested in amber, but that’s all they want to talk about here in Lithuania. Maybe we just took the wrong tour, or maybe it’s what they are most proud of. (They do have a lot of other things to be proud of.) I always thought amber was kind of ugly, and I find it hard to appreciate the dead insects sometimes encapsulated in pieces of amber. Now that I have seen all sorts of special Lithuanian amber, my opinion has been reinforced. It is not for me. Photos will appear farther along in this post.

Lithuania is a modern, affluent country with an advanced economy and a population that ranks high on measures of happiness. In 1990, Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to leave the USSR.

We arrived in the port of Klaipeda, the third largest city in Lithuania, where we met our guide, Saulé. She was friendly and professional. (Her name means “Sun.”) 

As we approached the port, some charming old homes could be seen on one side of the canal. On the other side of the canal, facing the beautiful homes, there were only industrial buildings.

At the dock, local musicians played for us.

Saulé told us that Lithuania is “flat and green.” It is 1/3 forest. It is the largest of the three Baltic countries, and its capital is Vilnius. The population is around 3 million. The main language is Lithuanian, which classified as a Baltic language. It is believed to be the oldest Indo-European language, meaning that it is closest to the original Proto-Indo-European language and has changed the least. This provides valuable data for linguists.

Despite strong economic performance, Lithuania has problems. Emigration, especially between 2004 and 2016, has contributed to a shortage in the labor market, The birthrate here is very low and is expected to cause economic problems as today’s children become adults. A very generous maternity leave policy does not seem to have stanched the decline in the birthrate. Mothers can choose between one year at 100% of salary, two years at 60% for the first year and 40% for the second year, or three years with no salary payment. In all three cases, they are guaranteed that their job will be kept for them.

Our bus drove to a place called Palanga, to see an Amber Museum and a Botanical Park. Palanga is a popular summer resort or vacation area.  We saw a restored palace, once owned by a noble family. The family fled to Canada during World War II and they lost the palace. It is now the location of the Amber Museum, where 28,000 pieces of amber form the museum’s collection.

The palace grounds are now a botanical park. Robot lawnmowers keep the grounds perfectly manicured.

The former palace, now the Amber Museum

In the botanical park

Before World War II, about half the population of Palanga was Jewish. They worked as jewelers in the amber business, and provided services to the summer vacationers. When the Nazis came, they rounded up all the Jews and took the men to a site outside of town where they were forced to dig a pit. The men were then shot into the pit. The women and children were locked up in the synagogue for a month and then executed. 

Sorry for such an unpleasant story, but it must not be forgotten. Our guide did not talk about this. I found out about it in the Wikipedia entry on Palanga when I was doing research for this blog post.

Amber from the Baltic Sea

Raw amber

Amber with inclusions, displayed behind a magnifying glass

 

A member of the museum staff gave us a short talk on amber.Amber is the fossilized resin (or sap) of a pine tree. Sometimes insects or plant material are trapped in a pocket of resin and preserved for millenia. Apparently there is a lot of counterfeit amber for sale, so we were told several times to buy amber only in certain places. We didn’t buy any, so we are safe from amber fraud. 

Tools used for polishing amber

To tell real amber from plastic, check its weight and temperature. Real amber should feel light and warm. Real amber will float in high salinity water, like seawater. Plastic amber will melt, real amber will burn and turn into tar. The last method, of course, will ruin your amber. However you can try testing it with a hot needle to see if it smells like pine instead of chemicals.

The Baltic is not salty enough for amber to float, but a lot of amber washes up after storms and people find it on the beach. Amber is also mined commercially in Russia, but I don’t really know the details of how or where.

After the amber museum, we walked to the pedestrianized main street of Palanga. It had a lot of shops and restaurants, and we were given about 30 minutes of free time here. Unfortunately, it was still quite early and most businesses were not yet open.

Bicycle art?

Steam punk bicycle?

The main street where everything was closed

After our free time in Palanga was up, our bus took us back to Klaipeda to see visit the Old Town and an amber shop where we told it was safe to buy. I imagine the tour company either owned the shop or got a kickback from it. Conveniently, our walking tour ended at the shop and there was someone there waiting to demonstrate amber polishing for us.

A lot of the old town was destroyed during the war. Part of it was restored, but its character wasn’t. The new Old Town is laid out in a small straight-line grid pattern between the river and the market square.

Some highlights of the Old Town:

In front of the theater stands a statue of Ännchen von Tharau. A famous poet saw her on the day she married his best friend and immediately fell in love with her and wrote a famous poem about her. The poem was later set to music and became a popular song that everyone in Lithuania knows. Ännchen has her back to the theater because when the Germans invaded Lithuania in 1939, Hitler came and made speech from the balcony outside of the theater, saying he was annexing Klaipeda.

This is a magic mouse that will make your wish come true

This is a magic cat with a mustache like a British gentleman. He will also make your wish come true.

Saulé recommended the “pink soup” at a nearby restaurant. It was served cold, with sour cream, hard-boiled egg, scallions, and fried potatoes. It was a lot like borscht, and very refreshing on a warm day.

Pink soup

Potato pancakes with a chicken and mushroom sauce. A lot like latkes, but not as crispy.

The restaurant - we ate outside

Today’s fabric is a traditional Lithuanian pattern from the Vilnius area. This type of design was generally woven into the fabric. It would have been used to embellish a regional costume. Most traditional fabric in Lithuania was linen, which was generally produced locally. This photo came from Pinterest, via Google.