Day 9 Kaliningrad and into Poland
Breakfast is a chaotic affair. Tables lie uncleared, there are insufficient plates and no fruit juice. There are no waiters either. Andy opens a cupboard to try and find a bowl and a woman comes over and slams it shut on his fingers. Who is she?
Andy has had a hard time with Russian women. On the Moscow Metro, he rested his bag on the handrail of the escalator. A loud voice boomed over the public address system to remove it. 200 Russians turn to look at the culprit. He crossed his legs while resting in a Russian Orthodox church. A woman comes over and gives him a lecture - apparently it is bad luck to do this but she is no church official - merely a visiting worshipper. He gets another row on a train after apparently bumping into a woman with luggage on the tricky train journey from Riga - more rows follow.
We sit outside for breakfast, having scavenged what we can. Our fellow diners are now young men dressed in vests, shorts and beach sandals. They are mostly overweight, and have a menacing air. One comes out side to stand by our table for a smoke - do we say anything? We decide not to.
The previous evening we had discussed what to do about cycling in Kaliningrad and decided not to continue any further. Instead, we asked the hotel to organise a taxi to take us and our bikes the remaining 50km to the Polish border, with a short tour of Kaliningrad city.
Our taxi arrives but is not nearly big enough for us and 3 bikes and luggage. It turns out the hotel has said that our bikes would fold - bizarre. Andy spots a woman with a van and we negotiate with him to take us instead. He is a great help - Vladimir is his name. He packs our gear and takes us on a very enjoyable tour of Kaliningrad City.
The guidebook gives the impression that this is a rather grim place, caught in a Soviet time warp. This is nonsense. The city is impressive, modern, much cleaner than Moscow and with elegant streets and squares. The old German quarter is lovely. Most of the city was destroyed in a four day series of British air raids in August 1944. (sorry - no time for photos).
Kaliningrad was part of Germany until 1945. Kaliningrad was formerly Koningsberg, capital of East Prussia and one of Europe's most beautiful cities. The air raids and subsequent Soviet brutalist architecture destroyed all of that. After WWII, the territory was awarded to the Soviet Union which in turn made it part of the Russian republic. Thus, Kaliningrad today remains part of the Russian Federation surrounded and isolated by the newly independent former Soviet republics to the north and east and Poland to the south.
In 1946, the city was named Kaliningrad but funnily enough, there's been little enthusiasm to rename the city (in contrast to Leningrad - St Petersburg). So who was Kalinin?
Mikhael Kalinin was a colleague of Lenin and had just died as a new name was needed. He was a rather unsavoury character. Among other things, he authorised the massacre of thousands of Polish officers in Katyn Forest - the Katyn massacre (and subject of an excellent Polish film in 2007) - which for a long time the Soviets blamed on the Nazis.
After our quick tour of Kaliningrad, we head for the Polish border and Vladimir drops us 2km from the border at a petrol station - we tip him well - he's been a great help - as have all Russians here that we have met.
The border has caused us some trepidation. Apparently, this border crossing is not open to bikes, only to vehicles. Even although a bike is a vehicle, apparently there is no lane for bikes, only for cars, buses and lorries (so there's plenty room for us!). Since 2006, though, most cyclists have had no problem. We experience none either and are soon back in the EU - in Poland!
We are heading for Gdansk and stop for the night at a lovely farm campsite in the seaside village of Tolmicko.
Cycled 39.61 km
Busking earnings - 0
no punctures
Andy has had a hard time with Russian women. On the Moscow Metro, he rested his bag on the handrail of the escalator. A loud voice boomed over the public address system to remove it. 200 Russians turn to look at the culprit. He crossed his legs while resting in a Russian Orthodox church. A woman comes over and gives him a lecture - apparently it is bad luck to do this but she is no church official - merely a visiting worshipper. He gets another row on a train after apparently bumping into a woman with luggage on the tricky train journey from Riga - more rows follow.
We sit outside for breakfast, having scavenged what we can. Our fellow diners are now young men dressed in vests, shorts and beach sandals. They are mostly overweight, and have a menacing air. One comes out side to stand by our table for a smoke - do we say anything? We decide not to.
The previous evening we had discussed what to do about cycling in Kaliningrad and decided not to continue any further. Instead, we asked the hotel to organise a taxi to take us and our bikes the remaining 50km to the Polish border, with a short tour of Kaliningrad city.
Our taxi arrives but is not nearly big enough for us and 3 bikes and luggage. It turns out the hotel has said that our bikes would fold - bizarre. Andy spots a woman with a van and we negotiate with him to take us instead. He is a great help - Vladimir is his name. He packs our gear and takes us on a very enjoyable tour of Kaliningrad City.
The guidebook gives the impression that this is a rather grim place, caught in a Soviet time warp. This is nonsense. The city is impressive, modern, much cleaner than Moscow and with elegant streets and squares. The old German quarter is lovely. Most of the city was destroyed in a four day series of British air raids in August 1944. (sorry - no time for photos).
Kaliningrad was part of Germany until 1945. Kaliningrad was formerly Koningsberg, capital of East Prussia and one of Europe's most beautiful cities. The air raids and subsequent Soviet brutalist architecture destroyed all of that. After WWII, the territory was awarded to the Soviet Union which in turn made it part of the Russian republic. Thus, Kaliningrad today remains part of the Russian Federation surrounded and isolated by the newly independent former Soviet republics to the north and east and Poland to the south.
In 1946, the city was named Kaliningrad but funnily enough, there's been little enthusiasm to rename the city (in contrast to Leningrad - St Petersburg). So who was Kalinin?
Mikhael Kalinin was a colleague of Lenin and had just died as a new name was needed. He was a rather unsavoury character. Among other things, he authorised the massacre of thousands of Polish officers in Katyn Forest - the Katyn massacre (and subject of an excellent Polish film in 2007) - which for a long time the Soviets blamed on the Nazis.
After our quick tour of Kaliningrad, we head for the Polish border and Vladimir drops us 2km from the border at a petrol station - we tip him well - he's been a great help - as have all Russians here that we have met.
The border has caused us some trepidation. Apparently, this border crossing is not open to bikes, only to vehicles. Even although a bike is a vehicle, apparently there is no lane for bikes, only for cars, buses and lorries (so there's plenty room for us!). Since 2006, though, most cyclists have had no problem. We experience none either and are soon back in the EU - in Poland!
We are heading for Gdansk and stop for the night at a lovely farm campsite in the seaside village of Tolmicko.
Cycled 39.61 km
Busking earnings - 0
no punctures
posted by Andy Wightman at 3:12 PM
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