One thing that struck me as we wandered around was how peaceful it all was. It was a beautiful day, clear skies and no wind. Inside and out there was no noise, no traffic, just distant birdsong.

From the relics around it was obviously the scene of a long and bloody battle, resulting in many deaths on both sides. Despite this, seventy years on it had become a tranquil space and museum.

It really brings home the futility of war.

I had a great day today in Kaliningrad, thanks to Inga and the Goldwing club. In the morning Inga collected me for an excursion around Kaliningrad. First stop was the 5th fortress, a very interesting WWII fortress where the Russian forces overwhelmed the German occupants.

The fortress was interesting in its own right, with a moat and lots of tunnels. Access to the Baltic sea, specifically the only part of the Baltic sea that doesn’t freeze in winter, made Kaliningrad a strategically important port for maintaining supply chains.

In German hands the city was known as Königsberg, which some people still refer to it as today. There were a lot of German tourists around, but fortunately no queues for them to jump! Some guys dressed up as soldiers were due to do a reenactment of the battle in the next 5 minutes, bonus!

We got fed up of waiting, so we wandered off into some tunnels. As we came back out there were 5 Russian soldiers running towards us firing automatic weapons. They were madly gesticulating for us to get out of the way. It was quite bizarre, but it made the German tourists laugh.

Afterwards they let me have a crack with their weapons to make amends. Awesome!

I pulled into the Ibis hotel yesterday to call Inga. I figured it was a big enough landmark to make it easy for her to find me. I’d just killed the engine when a guy smoking outside said ‘hello, where are you from?’.

I got taking to Oli, a German guy from Hamburg. Inga was going to be an hour, so we sat in the hotel bar to wait. (coffee for me, the limit for alcohol whilst driving in Russia is 0).

Oli is working away in the tobacco industry, but will be home in 3 weeks time. My planned route takes me through Germany petty close to Hamburg.

Another guy came into the bar, also working away from home. Jan is from Denmark, also very close to my intended route and only 3 hrs drive from Oli.

Nice to meet you guys, I’ll be sure to let you know when I’m passing through!

It took a while to cross the border, so even though I only did 200 kms today I rolled into town around half 6.

Kaliningrad is a little piece of the Russian federation between Poland and Lithuania. I have a contact here Inga, who is taking me on a tour tomorrow. I met her briefly tonight and she seems a nice lady. She showed me a photo of her Goldwing and it’s bright pink!!

Inga doesn’t speak and English and I’m a little disappointed that I needed to get Dima to translate for me, maybe I have a Moscow accent?? Anyway, it’s all arranged and I’m looking forward to seeing the real Kaliningrad.

In the morning I followed Chip and Ken out of Kaunas and south towards Poland. Seeing their yellow Klim jackets again was a pleasantly familiar sight. When we got to the turn off for Kaliningrad we pulled over to say our goodbyes. As I recalled first meeting them in Seoul, I realised how far we’d travelled together.

My original plan was to give it a day or so and see how we got on. Three is a strange number and I didn’t expect we’d get all that far together. As it turned out we got on really well, making a good team by playing on each other’s strengths.

I’m sure they’ll have a ball blasting through Europe, Octoberfest, seeing Ken’s wife in Milan before shipping the bikes bike from England. I doubt I’ll be home in time to catch them again, so take care guys!

It’s been a privilege.

Getting closer to home the scenery has been gradually getting more familiar. The flora and fauna are more like what I’m used to, weeping willow trees, larches and silver birches etc., rather than the evergreens in the far East. The autumn colours are just starting to come out too.

This morning I saw a couple of conkers. I haven’t seen those for a few years and I got a real pang of nostalgia! They’re such petty things when they’re shiny and new.

The sky is looking more familiar too. The vapour trails of passenger jets have returned, they’ve been absent for a long time. I didn’t necessarily miss them, but it’s nice to have them back!

I’d arranged to meet up with Chip and Ken again, and we agreed that Kaunas in Lithuania was a handy spot for us all. It was great to see them again, we had some catching up to do! We stayed at the Lux hostel, which was excellent and right in the centre.

Kaunas has the longest pedestrian street in Europe, along which there are shops and bars for over 2km. Our hostel was on that strip, between the old church and the fountain. Very cool! The old town is at the other end of the strip, full of old buildings.

Kaunas also had the longest bridge in the world at one time! The other side of the river used to be soviet owned, when at one time a different calendar was used. The two sides of the bridge were 2 weeks apart, meaning it took two weeks to walk over the bridge. Therefore (according to Lithuanian logic) it was the longest bridge in the world!

Next to the hostel I stayed at is the green cafe. The owner of the hostel told me the coffee there is excellent, so this morning Chip, Ken and I went to see. The brew bar is where you can choose from 21 different types of coffee. Once you’ve selected your beans, there are then 9 different ways to have them brewed to choose from.

The guy was a superb barista and knew his stuff about coffee. He took some of the pain of decision making away by asking what we liked in a coffee, then making recommendations. Excellent!

My drink was a very good cure for a hangover, which is a good thing this morning!

There were lots of road works on the run down to Kaunas in Lithuania. The signage is quite misleading in a number of ways.

Firstly, the road doesn’t work. It’s broken and being repaired, so “road works” should maybe have no space in it?

Secondly, I didn’t actually see anyone doing any work. Much like the miles of coned off lanes in the UK with nothing going on.

Finally, non of the road ‘workers’ i saw looked anything remotely like the woman holding the sign.

I waited at the first set of lights for 10 minutes, after which I could see a line of cars coming the other way. My light went green before they arrived, then turned to red before they passed. The lights aren’t synchronised!

At every other set of roadworks there was a traffic jam, as two cars had met head on in a one car wide stretch. No accidents, but animated drivers all claiming the other had run a red light. Luckily my motorcycle is narrow and I could leave them to it!