a (too short) visit to Kaliningrad

I'd arranged to go to Belarus for a week with a tour group, and after booking it I saw that I could add on a pre-tour extension of a few days in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad at a pretty good price, so I did so.  I'm glad I did, as it was an interesting place to visit, although the trip was too short which was frustrating, as I'm sure I won't have the time or money to re-visit to see the forts, cathedrals, museums, etc that we missed.

To be fair, we missed the first scheduled half-day, as we waited six hours at the Lithuania-Kaliningrad border crossing for some of our group to get through.  We had been warned that it could be a difficult crossing, and some (male) members of our group were held for many hours whilst the Russian border guards searched their phones and their social media accounts for anything incriminating, and in a few cases asked them to remove their tops and roll up their trousers so that their tattoos could be examined.  One (Portuguese) tour group member was refused entry, as they found a Ukrainian flag he'd posted on social media.

A planned visit on day two to the Russian Baltic fleet was cancelled (by the Russians - too many earlier tourists had sneaked - and then shared - photos) so we gained back some time, but the place is full of things to see, and really deserves more than 2.5 days.  However, we did get to go inside an old submarine, to visit the Bunker Museum (a monument to what they call "The Great Patriotic War" against the Nazis), a fort and several monuments and memorials, and to see the stunning (but difficult to photograph interior of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.  Here is a shot of the ceiling.

Then on the final day we travelled up to the Russian end of the Curonian Spit, going some 30km along a 98km long stretch of sand which starts in Kaliningrad and ends in Lithuania, only 4km wide at its widest point.  People primarily go to see the scenery - the high dunes, with the Baltic sea on one side and a lagoon on the other - but we hit awful weather, with thick fog, light rain at times, and a biting cold wind, so even when we could bear the weather to get out of our vehicle, we didn't really get to appreciate the scenery there (perhaps I'll get a better shot at it from the other end, when I get to Lithuania?).

I tried to add a couple of things to the itinerary, but without any luck.  Firstly I persuaded the tour leader to stop the bus for a visit to the Museum of Russian Superstitions, but it turned out to be closed as the owner was attending a funeral.  Then in the city of Zelenogradsk on the way back, I saw a sign pointing to a Museum of Skulls and Skeletons, but unfortunately we were too late and it had already closed for the day.

I did, however, get to hold a Eurasian Eagle Owl on my arm...


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