It's what came of Googling "Cheap accommodation Braniewo", I'll show you later!
Leaving Kaliningrad! In the end it was easy!! I got the young lady on reception to ink in the route on my photocopied map and write the names of the towns I'd be passing through in Cyrillic script cos that's what the road signs are written in! Mamonovo where I was heading to cross into Poland looked like MAMAHOBO; at least I could make a reasonable guess at that one.
For Mrs Louise Cardwell-Stiller, this is the young lady you were speaking to when helping sort out my visa.
Very good English and most helpful. On my way through the city I pulled into the kerb to double check my map and a traffic cop walked over, had a look at the map, read where I was heading and confirmed I was on the right route!
Kaliningrad's Brandenburg Gate. The cobbles make hellish riding, the tram rails don't help either!
Really that was it for that wee bit of Russia. The ride to Mamonovo was a real grind after the hundred and odd kilometres the day before, Just over seventy kilometres into a steady head wind, not blowing too hard but enough to feel the extra push needed.
Passport control leaving Russia was fairly swift, the first guard had a cursory glance at the cover of my passport and waved me on to the main checkpoint. The girl at the desk spent a good five minutes flicking through my passport and another couple of minutes checking it under a scanner, glasses off to do a proper look at my mug, passport handed back and waved on. Border Guard three just waved me through, I guess he didn't think I could get much contraband in my panniers.
A couple of hundred metres down the road and I was queuing for over an hour to get into Poland! All the vehicles were being given a thorough going over, door and side panels all being tapped, spare wheels, fuel cans all being checked. When my turn eventually came the guy scanned through my passport and rattled off something in very fast Polish; blank look in return. A bit slower in German this time, another blank look and tried "From Scotland". Eyes sort of rolled; "cigarettes?" "No, don't smoke". "Wodka?" I was going to say "No thanks" but thought better of it. "No" I said. He hands back my passport and I move forward to the vehicle check area.
A big tall guy with glasses a gun and a non smiley face looked at me, looked at the bike and seemed to be thinking "Hmm no bonnet to check under, no side panels to tap" so he poked one of my panniers and I'm guessing he was saying "What's in there?" Right, here we go. "Tent poles, two pair of socks spare trousers, another pair of cycling shorts" I was going to continue but his eyes had gone sort of glazed and he just pointed at the way out. I was officially in Poland.
Another fifteen kilometres took me through Braniewo to Stepien and the "Cheap accommodation"
19 Euros a night plus 5 more if you want breakfast!!
I thought "I can cope with some of this!"
Don't know what the flowers are but I like the colour.
First course yesterday evening, got tore into it and forgot to take a pic of the rest!
Looks a bit grim but it's a three egg sausage omelette followed by cheese, cold meat and gherkins.
Well one has to recoup one's energy!!
Forgot to say, third course of breakfast was some serious looking coffee and a piece of walnut cake.
Just to set me up for this evenings meal, I'd seen off the soup when this arrived! two pieces of lamb shank in a mushroom sauce, boiled potatoes, beetrooty cabbage and a sort of celery/cabbage mix.
Time to get this posted, cup of tea and bed.
Leaving Kaliningrad! In the end it was easy!! I got the young lady on reception to ink in the route on my photocopied map and write the names of the towns I'd be passing through in Cyrillic script cos that's what the road signs are written in! Mamonovo where I was heading to cross into Poland looked like MAMAHOBO; at least I could make a reasonable guess at that one.
For Mrs Louise Cardwell-Stiller, this is the young lady you were speaking to when helping sort out my visa.
Really that was it for that wee bit of Russia. The ride to Mamonovo was a real grind after the hundred and odd kilometres the day before, Just over seventy kilometres into a steady head wind, not blowing too hard but enough to feel the extra push needed.
Passport control leaving Russia was fairly swift, the first guard had a cursory glance at the cover of my passport and waved me on to the main checkpoint. The girl at the desk spent a good five minutes flicking through my passport and another couple of minutes checking it under a scanner, glasses off to do a proper look at my mug, passport handed back and waved on. Border Guard three just waved me through, I guess he didn't think I could get much contraband in my panniers.
A couple of hundred metres down the road and I was queuing for over an hour to get into Poland! All the vehicles were being given a thorough going over, door and side panels all being tapped, spare wheels, fuel cans all being checked. When my turn eventually came the guy scanned through my passport and rattled off something in very fast Polish; blank look in return. A bit slower in German this time, another blank look and tried "From Scotland". Eyes sort of rolled; "cigarettes?" "No, don't smoke". "Wodka?" I was going to say "No thanks" but thought better of it. "No" I said. He hands back my passport and I move forward to the vehicle check area.
A big tall guy with glasses a gun and a non smiley face looked at me, looked at the bike and seemed to be thinking "Hmm no bonnet to check under, no side panels to tap" so he poked one of my panniers and I'm guessing he was saying "What's in there?" Right, here we go. "Tent poles, two pair of socks spare trousers, another pair of cycling shorts" I was going to continue but his eyes had gone sort of glazed and he just pointed at the way out. I was officially in Poland.
Another fifteen kilometres took me through Braniewo to Stepien and the "Cheap accommodation"
Time to get this posted, cup of tea and bed.
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