Day 56: Kaliningrad

Number of tie wraps: 49 (holding steady)

Countdown: 7426 miles down, 1159 to go

To start the day, we had a photo op this morning at the request of the Moscow (Moskva) Hotel where we are staying.

 

Photo op at the Moskva Hotel

Photo op at the Moskva Hotel (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

After the photos, we took a tour of Kaliningrad where we saw many beautiful restored houses such as this row house in the old working section of the city,

 

Restored row house in the old working section of Kaliningrad

Restored row house in the old working section of Kaliningrad (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

a kitten that wanted to come home with us,

 

Kaliningrad kitten

Kaliningrad kitten (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

and an old Russian car called a Chaika that was being used at part of a cowboys-and-Indians-themed wedding (don’t ask me why — I’m just reporting what I saw).

 

Russian car

Russian car (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Kaliningrad, known as Koenigsberg until 1946 because it was part of Germany, is surrounded by water and had seven bridges in the 18th century. Some people wondered if it would be possible to make a complete route through the city without crossing a bridge more than once. It turns out that the answer is “nyet,” or “no” and the mathematician Leonhard Euler proved this in 1736, giving birth to a new branch of mathematics called graph theory. Who knew?

 

Depiction of the seven bridges of Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad)

Depiction of the seven bridges of Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad) (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Down by the river, we also saw a research ship named for cosmonaut Viktor Patsayev, who was one of three cosmonauts killed during the re-entry of the Soyuz 11 mission on June 30, 1971. Click here for more information about the tragic mission.

 

Ship named for Cosmonaut Viktor Patsayev

Research ship named for Cosmonaut Viktor Patsayev (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We also checked out the restoration-in-progress of the Kaliningrad Cathedral that included stained glass, a gargantuan organ, and an interesting process for making souvenir coins. The structure of this cathedral survived bombings of Koenigsberg by the Royal Air Force during World War II, but the interior was obliterated by fires that spread from nearby buildings destroyed by bombs.

 

The outside of the restored cathedral

The outside of the restored cathedral (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Stained glass window restoration

Stained glass window restoration (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

 

Organ in the balcony of the cathedral

Organ in the balcony of the cathedral (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

The old-fashioned way of making souvenir coins

The old-fashioned way of making souvenir coins (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Our last stop on the tour was the Amber Museum, which is housed in one of the defensive towers of the old fortress that used to surround Kaliningrad.

 

Exterior of the Amber Museum

Exterior of the Amber Museum (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Insects in amber

Insects in amber (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Amber tiger portrait

Amber tiger portrait (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

After the tour, Cathy, Karen and I did some shopping, including picking up some snacks and fish at the open-air market for lunch during our border crossing tomorrow.

 

Farmer's market about 1km from our hotel

Farmer’s market about 1km from our hotel (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Getting smoked fish for lunch at the border tomorrow

Getting smoked fish for lunch at the border tomorrow (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Tomorrow we drive about 30 km to the border with Poland and then proceed to Gdansk. Total driving distance is about 163 km. This is the last border crossing for the first leg of the World Auto Tour!

Day 55: Kaunus, Lithuania to Kaliningrad, Russia

Number of tie wraps: 49 (holding steady)

Countdown: 7426 miles down, 1159 to go

I’m happy to report that we had an easy border crossing today. No drama. No angst over paperwork. No customs officials tracking down obscure regulations that we had no chance of complying with.

We reached the border about 10 a.m. and finished crossing into Russia about 2 p.m. for a record-setting (for us anyway) four hours. Four hours may seem like a long time to clear customs, but a long line of cars in front of us caused most of the delay, not the customs process itself.

We really didn’t want to leave Lithuania after all the fun we had there, but we are happy to be back in Russia. I’m starting to actually feel a little Russian and it’s nice to see Cyrillic signs again. The bumpy Russian roads gave John and Luke a chance to try out the new rear shock absorbers on the Roadster, and Luke told me at a fuel stop that the shocks are working “very well.”

The roadside scenery changed to mostly small villages, large fields of corn, and riotous displays of wildflowers from every color in the rainbow.

Wildflowers by the roadside on the trip to Kaliningrad

Roadside wildflowers on the trip to Kaliningrad (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We arrived in Kaliningrad about 5 p.m. and, as we drove to our hotel we saw a statue commemorating the four cosmonauts that hail from Kaliningrad. The statue made a nice preview for what we’ll see on our city tour tomorrow morning.

Statue commemorating cosmonauts from Kaliningrad

Statue commemorating cosmonauts from Kaliningrad (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Friday we drive back across the Russian border into Poland, our last Russian border crossing for this trip. Just when we are finally getting good at this!

Day 54: Vilnius to Kaunus, Lithuania

Number of tie wraps: 49 (holding steady)

Countdown: 7240 miles down, 1345 to go

Quote of the day: “We got some real shocks now!”

After dinner last night, Karen and I walked a few blocks to check out an unusual statue in Vilnius — a bust of the Lithuanian-American musician Frank Zappa.

 

Bust of Frank Zappa in Vilnius

Bust of Frank Zappa in Vilnius (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

From there we found a beer store and pub named “Beer Heaven,” but they were closing at 10 p.m. so we only had time to try one of their 80 beers. We think that, with at least 70 breweries and 3,000,000 citizens, Lithuania must have one of the highest brewery to million citizens ratios in the world, certainly a good measure of happiness.

 

Beer Heaven

Beer Heaven (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

This morning, we stopped by the local office of our sponsor, Sotheby’s International Realty, for some photos before renewing the shock absorber hunt (the shop from yesterday evening didn’t pan out).

 

John with Vilija at Sotheby's

John with Vilija at Sotheby’s (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We first went to another garage, and they pointed us to a large auto parts store, which had some shocks in stock that were the right size, but the mounting hole was too small. However, the salesman helping Luke gave us the name of a garage with a machine shop that could resize the hole, so John decided to buy the shocks. By about 2:45, the modified shocks were ready, so we drove to Kaunus, which was only a little more than an hour away over an excellent four-lane highway.

Old shock on top, new shock on bottom

Old shock on top, new shock on bottom (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Luke's got shocks!

Luke’s got shocks! (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Augustus Jansonns, the salesman who helped us, signs the car

Augustus Jansonns, the salesman who helped us, signs the car (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Once we were at the hotel in Kaunus, Luke and John put on the new shocks, which took about an hour. The left rear shock had failed internally — Luke was able to pull it apart as shown in one of the photos below. He said he has never seen a shock fail like that; however, he has also never seen a shock that drove for 5,000 miles on Siberian roads! We hope that the shock saga has finally come to a close.

 

Cathedral? What cathedral? We've got a car to fix!

Cathedral? What cathedral? We’ve got a car to fix! (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Shocks are not supposed to do this!

Shocks are not supposed to do this! (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

New shocks; still using the springs from Novosibirsk

New shocks; still using the springs from Novosibirsk (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

After dinner Cathy, Karen and I walked around Kaunus for about two hours since we won’t have time to see the city before we leave for Kaliningrad tomorrow. I saw a nice Lithuanian calico kitty,

Lithuanian calico

Lithuanian calico (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

and we walked across a pedestrian bridge over the Nemunas River.

 

Pedestrian bridge across the Nemunas River in Kaunus

Pedestrian bridge across the Nemunas River in Kaunus (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

There is a plaque on the bridge that describes how a famous Lithuanian aerobatic pilot, Lakunas Jurgis Kairys, flew under the bridge (which is only 20 feet high) in his airplane  on September 2, 2000.

 

Plaque the flight under the bridge by aerobatic pilot Lakunas Jurgis Kairys

Plaque that marks the flight under the bridge by aerobatic pilot Lakunas Jurgis Kairys (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We also saw several nice cathedrals and the town hall that sits in a city square where hundreds of people were watching the World Cup in outdoor cafes.

 

Town hall in Kaunus

Town hall in Kaunus (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Last, we walked by a model of the Lituanica, which was piloted by Lithuanian-American pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas on an attempted transatlantic crossing from New York to Kaunus in 1933. Unfortunately, the airplane crashed in Poland and both pilots were killed. I recognized the model because the airplane, which was a Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker, is on the back of the 10 lita bill; the pilots are on the front.

 

Model of the Lituanica

Model of the Lituanica (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Back of 10 lita bill

Back of 10 lita bill (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Front of 10 lita bill

Front of 10 lita bill (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Tomorrow we drive to Kaliningrad, which is back in Russia. We’ll be crossing the border at the same location as the 1908 racers, except the 1908 racers crossed from Russia into Germany instead of from Lithuania into Russia. Our total drive tomorrow is about 300 km, with about 100 of that before the border and 200 after.