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Baltics trip
Day 5 - 20th May - Soviet Missile Base, Lithuania (Part 2)
Our destination for a good part of the afternoon was an abandoned Soviet Missile Base near Klaipeda. The driver was late due to some engine issues, so we barrelled down small roads at up to 155 km/hr.
Gate to missile base
The information panel was a hoot:
"Plokstine exploration path (3,2km) invites You to admire hilly relief, varied by marshy hollows from glacier waters. You can see the Pilelis spring (it's a nature monument) and common forests for this place. If You will go silently get interested in, find out the variety of plants, mushrooms and animals. Let's taste the berries, edible mushrooms, do not touch and kick the unknown ones, the forest needs them for survival... If one comes back after the years, one will find the same places changed, because the forest is a live substance mostly effected by humans.
The beginning and the end of the path is in the former military base (1960-1978). You will see the remains of security lines and enforcements. You feel once again how the most beautiful of places of nature were invaded for the military reasons, and the nature served just like a green shield, hiding the death-breathing and huge money swallowing monster."
Mushrooms? This is a recipe for disaster
Info panel and map
Through the wire (the pictures are different)
"Cognitive Path ,,Travel of the Acorn and the Chestnut in the park of Plateliai manor''
Plokstine Cognitive Path
The Which's Ash-tree in the park of Plateliai manor
Mikytai Cognitive Path"
Very intriguing nearby places
"No entry"
There was a toilet outside.
Toilet
You don't want to look
Missile ranges, silo diagram
Information sheet in English. We were the only people who got our information in English (delivered separately after the Lithuanian spiel). We got an abbreviated version of the Lithuanian tour, but that was alright since it was still plenty of information.
Silo, cover
Ventilation shafts
Entrance to complex
Posters in control room. The posters were originally used to teach schoolboys and schoolgirls useful and important lifeskills such as using Kalashnikovs (ie they weren't from the base, but were brought in to decorate it for tourists).
The Soviets brought the rockets out in 1978, and the locals ran in to loot the place, which explains the state it's in.
More Soviet memorabilia
Room for officers
Long Live the Communist Party
If you zoom in you will see words in 15 languages. They all say "Unity of the Proletariat" - each in one of the 15 languages of the USSR.
Posters on small arms
IIRC these were racks for computers
Turbine from a submarine used in the diesel power station that powered the place. The looters didn't touch it because it was too big to fit through the door (they built the room around it - not very long term thinking, I must say, but fortunate in this case)
Behind the engine
Heating room
Stairs
The holes were meant to accommodate thick wires. When the place was in operation there was very little space for soldiers to move around; the tunnels were small to withstand attacks.
Corridor to silo
More holes
Door to chamber with Missile Silo