RUSSIA: ARRIVAL IN KALININGRAD

June 28, 2019

My husband Bob's grandfather Edwin Q. Cannon served an LDS mission in Prussia in the first decade of the 20th century. In April of 1908, he was assigned to work in Konigsberg, the capital of the Prussian Province of East Prussia. One day when EQC was out of town on an assignment, one of the other missionaries drowned in a lake in Konigsberg. The body had been recovered by the time EQC returned, and EQC, who apparently had some leadership position in the mission, was given the task of dealing with the body. In doing so it was revealed to authorities that EQC and his companion were LDS missionaries, which was not permitted, and they were summarily banished from the Kingdom of Prussia.

Because of this story and others from his grandfather's mission, Bob has always wanted to visit Konigsberg, which was annexed by the Soviet Union after World War II and renamed Kaliningrad. He decided that since we were so close in Poland, it made sense to tack on a visit to what had already been a long, intense trip through Iceland, Greenland, and Poland. 

It's not an easy visit--it requires a Russian visa, there aren't many flights in and out, and it is VERY Russian, unlike it's European neighbors where signs are written in English and many people speak English. 

As you can see in the map below, Kaliningrad (the name of the state and also of the capital city) is about 500 miles from any other part of Russia--like Alaska or Hawaii for the US. You can see why Russia would want this port on the lower end of the Baltic Sea. It's a very strategic location for them.

Map from here

West of Kaliningrad is a 60 mile long spit that has one end in Lithuania and one in Kaliningrad. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the spit is shared by the two countries.

Map from here

We had a bit of a scramble leaving Poland. We got to Warsaw's Frederik Chopin International Airport about two hours before our flight. The airport was packed and chaotic, and there was standing room only at our gate. About an hour before the flight, we noticed there had been a gate change, so we moved to the new gate. Fifteen minutes later, there was another gate change, and we moved again, but the new gate showed the wrong destination on the board.

Nevertheless, we eventually funneled down the ramp and boarded a bus. The bus didn't move. Ten or fifteen minutes later we were "recalled" back up the ramp to the waiting area. Ten minutes later we were sent back down the ramp, but the exit door was locked, so we stood for another ten or fifteen minutes. FINALLY, we boarded the bus, drove to the plane, boarded the plane, and took off.  Warsaw and Kaliningrad are less than 200 miles apart, and the flight was just an hour long, but we were an hour late.

We had a good view from the air of the Strait of Baltiysk, an opening in the aforementioned spit caused by a storm surge in the 15th century and widened by another storm 13 years later. In 1960 it was manually widened to 1300 feet and a depth of 39 feet to allow for larger ships to pass through.

When we finally arrived at the Kaliningrad Airport, we got in line in immigration, but then we changed lines because our line said "Russian citizens," but then we got cussed out and sent back to the Russian citizens line. We were the last ones from our plane to get through, and Irina, our poor guide who was there to pick up us, was starting to get worried.  (So were we!)

The first thing we saw as we exited the airport in Kaliningrad was this huge KFC billboard placed strategically in front of the airport's main exit. Our guide told us that KFC is very popular in Kaliningrad . . .

. . . in part because Colonel Sanders looks so much like General Kalinin, a Bolshevik revolutionary for whom the city is named.

Just for fun, here is a photo from Wikipedia of Stalin, Lenin, and Kalinin in 1919:

Our driver dropped us off for dinner at a Russian-Italian restaurant called Papa Beppe's.

I ordered black pasta with shrimp and mussels. It was okay, but could have been better with a little more sauce.

Bob had a mixed platter of raw salmon, fried squid rings, and seared tuna. He said it was mediocre.

In my journal, I rated this restaurant B/B-.

Our guide then took us to our hotel, the Hotel Kaiserhof.

Our room was nice . . .

. . . and the view from our window was wonderful. That's another fancy hotel across the way with a nice courtyard in between us.

The River Pregolya is right next to the hotels:

We dropped off our luggage and headed out for an evening stroll on the boardwalk.  It was 9:00 PM but bright as midday when we started.

Seven bridges lead to two islands in the river. The bridges are famous as the basis for the "Seven Bridges of Konigsberg" math problem in which the challenge was to devise a walk through the city by crossing all seven bridges only once. Euler, the great 18th century mathematician, proved that it is impossible. His solution of the problem is considered to be the foundation of graph theory.

Apparently it is just as impossible to prevent "locks of love" from defacing bridges all over the world as it is to solve the Seven Bridges problem.

Sigh.

Looking back at our hotel and the buildings behind it, we thought they looked very European and not very Russian.

It was a very romantic place for a walk--except it was mating season for the local species of frogs, and their croaking was, shall we say, overpowering.

Back in our hotel room, we flipped through the channels and discovered the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--in Russian.

We had a good night's sleep, and the following morning we got a look at the bridge we had crossed in the dusk . . .

. . . and got a better look at those annoying locks:

I much prefer this fence adorned with swimming fish instead of rusty locks.

We had seen this mural in the dusk, but it was much better in the daylight! It is dated 2007 and shows some historical event I haven't been able to identify.

We had a full day ahead, beginning with a city tour.