I expected Baltic breeze,
I didn't expect 100k's
In 38 degrees!
Days 1-4 Distance 239km
Gdansk (Poland) - Nida (Lithuania)
For some unknown reason Steve's Russian visa arrived a week after mine, hence we lost our first flight and were in a rush to get in and out of Kaliningrad before it expired.
We landed in Gdansk, Poland, built the bikes and cycled an extremely pleasant 50 km through warm air heavily scented with elderflower, until we found some woods where we camped the first night.
(BTW, Steve had his first puncture on day 1!) We also had our first river crossing out of Gdansk.
The next day Steve's bad luck continued as we had to stop 5 times because his rim was making holes in the inner tube.
We lost a lot of time, and the 101 km to the border was a struggle. It took us 11 hours -quite a shock to our untrained bodies!
We crossed the rather intimidating 5×checkpoint Russian border at Mamonovo at about 9pm, exhausted!
The next day we met up with our Russian friend Sasha - who, being a tour guide, gave us an extensive bike tour of Kaliningrad, an extremely interesting place that deserves it's own post.
We lunched on borscht - a delicious cold soup made from keffir and beetroot, and very refreshing in the searing heat...
And for dinner we learned to make Russian dumplings with Yelena, his girlfriend.
Being my birthday we went to the local beer shop which has over 20 locally brewed beers for sale to take away by the litre. Love that place! Thank you Sasha and Yelena for a great stay!
The next day after a tour of a Russian submarine, we left Kaliningrad and cycled the Russian half of the Curonian Spit and crossed a slightly less imposing border into Lithuania.
We've spent a much needed rest day here on a campsite and heavy thunderstorms forced us to sleep a lot in the tent!
Hopefully that will clear the hot air for the Lithuanian half of the Curonian Spit tomorrow!
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