South through Latvia. Lithuania, Poland and Germany

 Riga by night was an enchanting place and as a huge new moon rose over the city a waterside barrage of fireworks added to the imagery.

 

I had cycled round the new development on the bank across from the old city with the modern National Library being the most substantial and eye catching building.

The following day I explored the city more fully and enjoyed the military guarding the war memorial with precision marching, the beautiful churches and parks, another dramatic police convoy, apparently for the Prime Minister and the remarkable Central Market with 4 huge arched buildings devoted separately to fish, meat, vegetables and then anything else.

The coast was followed up to Cape Kolka where I spent a warm peaceful night in a large empty car park and walked along the modest cliff edge with a shallow sea below. The last section of road had been unusually wide and was in fact a secret former Soviet runway.

The pine clad Baltic coast was sublime and the beaches even more so but I came to grief trying to reach one of the wild camping spots as the van became well and truly bogged in a particularly deep section of soft sand. Fortunately my weight saving efforts before leaving had not extended to removing my folding shovel, rescue mats and 12v winch so once these had been retrieved from the bottom of various cupboards and a suitable length of rope selected I tied off to a convenient tree.

Having then dug out all four wheels and placed two mats behind each front (driving wheel) I was able , thanks to the long length of control switch wire gently ease the van out of trouble with the engine assisting the winch. Of course sand got everywhere and it was hot and sticky but I was out soon enough and started reversing perhaps half a mile back to a junction where I then spotted the caution sign hidden by foliage. A different track soon had me on a mile or so of permitted wild camping under the trees but right alongside the beach so I pitched up and took off for the rest of the afternoon on the silvery sands.

A little further south I went to visit the radio telescope at Irbene that had been left by the retreating Soviets who had used three 32m diameter parabolic antennae to eavesdrop on western communication satellites but the complex is being redeveloped albeit rather slowly and all I saw were the numerous and brutally stark accommodation flats in typical Soviet style (or lack thereof) that now lie empty.

Industrial buildings and machinery could spoil the busy and affluent city of Ventspils but their brightly painted forms actually enhance the dock side area and the centre has some delightful old streets and squares plus some quirky pieces of art and sculpture. 

Moving inland to stay at Lake Usma I arrived at a small site where, when the woman in charge did eventually turn up, she turned out to be quite the most miserable of souls, however it was cheap and nice enough to be worth staying and I was soon off on the bike for a circuit of the Lake following a number of gravel tracks which had become badly corrugated as per the outback roads of Australia a decade or more ago. It was lovely scenery though and I arrived back to find the place filling up - mostly guests in the chalets including one family gathering with a guy on a large Harley with a massive sound system whose mission in life was to entertain one and all - fortunately his choice of music was very acceptable - mostly Mozart and Handel : not.

Returning to the Latvian Coast for a final time I called at Liepaja or more accurately Karosta to the north where huge Soviet Naval Defences lined the coast as part of the protection for a massive naval base - again on withdrawal they had been mined but ineffectively with most just lurching alarmingly in to the sea. The area of the base was enormous (several square miles) and the numerous bunkers and accommodation blocks lie in various stages of decline but rising amongst them are the gilded cupolas of St Nicholas Maritime Church which sits in remarkable contrast to the dinginess of the local housing stock.

 

Nearby is a former military prison, originally built as an infirmary but soon repurposed to deal with soldiers' misdemeanours from initially Soviet and subsequently Latvian forces. The guided tour was excellent with the guide dressed and acting as a warder and putting the fear of God in to us with unnerving ease. It is possible to spend a night in a cell and indeed a stag do were about to do so - heaven knows what they had lined up for the groom to be, already dressed in a lurid canary yellow outfit.

Some of the rooms have been brightened up by local artists but still felt claustrophobic.

Across in to Lithuania and again I was inland to visit the Zemaitija National Park - busy as it was a sunny weekend but I found a good spot in a car park by one of the many Lakes and set off for a circuit of two other Lakes to obtain some respite from the 30 plus temperatures.

I also checked out the location of the next day's destination which was a now abandoned Soviet Nuclear Base. Seen from Google Earth the four concrete caps are now easily visible but during the Cold War the existence of this base was a well guarded secret. The caps would roll away on rails to leave the four warheads able to launch from their 30m deep silos each connected deep underground by a network of bombproof tunnels with the communications room, command and control centre, generator room, fuel and propellant storage and living quarters all spread out over six levels. The warheads had been pointed at Norway, Germany, Turkey and the UK and were part of the arsenal dismantled following the SALT negotiations between Reagan and Gorbachev - a very chilling prospect. Having been abandoned for many years most of the metal and other usable equipment and machinery had been repurposed by locals but the whole experience was both fascinating and thought provoking, again with due respect to the situation in Ukraine.

 

Down at Klaipeda and in need of a service night I pulled in at a shaded camp site five miles out of town which was just seeing the last of its weekend crowds leaving - people flock to the area as it is a short walk across to miles of beaches which were still as full as Bournemouth on a Bank Holiday as I cycled round and on in to town to check out the ferry across to the Curonian Spit. Klaipeda centre split by the River Dane was lively and lovely with a full masted schooner moored up and a busy port including the large ferry that crosses the ten minutes or so to the spit every 15 minutes - a return for adult and bike is around £3 although at the other ferry you can take a vehicle which seems pointless and incurs a significant toll for non residents.

Picking my way back through the centre I was tempted by a shady canopy beside a Chinese restaurant and was soon tucking in to prawns and rice washed down with a cold beer. Back at the site it was much quieter and I took advantage of their showers for a longer soak than normal.

In the cool of the morning and ahead of the crowd I was soon back at the ferry terminal and swiftly aboard for a day riding the 30km or so south to Nida beyond which the Spit sits within the Russian oblast of Kaliningrad and the road is blocked. The ride passed through pine woodland with the huge dunes rising from a sublime beach - very much unspoilt and well worth the visit.

 

On my return I stopped for an ice cream and cider in the shade as it was still very warm and was eventually back across the water for the short ride home.

My route deviated east now to get round Kaliningrad and finally leave the Baltic States behind as I re-entered Poland on a small back road that cut through to a lakeside free camping spot. Here for the first time I met border guards, presumably as it was right on the intersection of Poland, Russia and Lithuania but they were friendly enough and after looking at my driving licence sent me on my way - I doubt they could decipher my Welsh address anyway. One looked at my rear tyre which is in need of replacement but still legal - the front ones are fine but the rears seem to wear more quickly, probably due to the weight carried so I may try a slightly higher pressure on the new set once sourced back home. The old van wore the front tyres more quickly but I think that was down to less grip having a lighter engine and narrower profile but these have done 20,000 miles which seems OK.

Anyway the camping spot was perfect on yet another warm evening with two other vans parked away on the grass and I enjoyed watching a combine harvester at work in the adjacent field. One of the many changes over the last two months has been seeing crops go from growth to harvest and the storks from parenting gawky youngsters to gradually heading away on their long journeys south to Spain and North Africa.

Heading across Poland my first destination in a largely empty and unpopulated area was at Gierlotz where the Wilczy Szaniec or Wolf's Lair - Hitler's Bunker - occupies 27 acres of woodland and was camouflaged by planting the flat roofs with trees and shrubs and covering the walkways with camouflage netting that was changed according to the season. A number of enormous bunkers were built for Hitler, Goring, Bormann and Himmler although apparently Bormann disliked the damp, dark airless structures and insisted on living in a fortified house. The bunkers were comprised of rooms encased within 3m of reinforced steel with a 500mm gap full of impact absorbing gravel and then another 3m thick reinforced outer shell. Everywhere was mined in case the place needed to be abandoned and indeed these were detonated on departure doing little more than creating large cracks and toppling the odd roof on its side. Hitler spent some 800 days holed up here which some think may have led to his increasing isolation and mania. It was also the site of the failed assassination attempt by Count Stauffenberg who had left a briefcase bomb in a briefing room that although detonated had been moved by another and the stout wooden table it then stood behind had taken most of the impact. He had fled to Berlin assuming success but was arrested and shot along with about 5000 others though to have been involved or sympathetic to the aim of capitulating to the Allies before Germany suffered further loss and damage.

 

It was a remarkable experience with the awesome size and strength of the structures still hard to pick out amongst the surrounding vegetation. A display in another building gave credit to the heroic Warsaw uprising that yet again has similarities to the bravery of today's Ukrainian forces in a different conflict.

Swieta Lipka's remarkable church contained a stunningly ornate Baroque organ decorated in blues and golds whilst outside a square of cloisters housed 44 stone statues. Back in the car park a lovely old red German coach caught my eye before I moved on to Lidsbark Warminski with its Teutonic riverside castle and turrets reflected in the surrounding waters.

 

That night was spent on an empty aire at Dobre Miasto where power and water were available FOC and strangely no one else was staying. I walked in to town to admire the huge Gothic red brick church and on my return the coloured fountains by a town wall tower. The leccy was appreciated as although I am confident my gas will last it gave me plenty of hot water for a long hot shower. I brought 3 907 Camping Gaz cylinders and two Calor 3.9s on this 8 week trip so about 14kg or 30 litres and will have perhaps 4/5 litres left. I haven't cooked a lot as it has been warm but equally the fridge has been on each night and I have showered daily so I think that bodes well for future trips when refills are tricky to source.

Heading west again I stopped at Marzewo to watch the remarkable boat lift on the Ostrodzko- Eblaski Canal where two carriages on rails raise or lower boats some 25m on a cable system powered by a large waterwheel. It was fascinating and forms part of a total of five similar lifts on this Prussian built waterway.

 

Up on the north coast near the Wislana Lagoon and Spit I visited another Nazi Concentration Camp at Stutthof. Initially incarcerating local Poles it expanded in 1942 to take 'undesirables' from across Nazi ruled Europe and in 1944 became part of 'The Final Solution' when gas chambers and extra crematoria were installed - some 85,000 people perishing there with many of their photos and stories hauntingly displayed. A narrow gauge railway carried carriages that were filled with people promised a journey to Palestine only to roll back after a return trip two stations down by which time Zyklon B had imposed its final solution.

It is so important that we remember these atrocities but also learn the lessons which around the world we seem unable to do.

 

 

The Wislana lagoon stretches some 60km up to Kaliningrad separated from the sea by the eponymous Spit where I found a place to stay in the back garden of an old house. There was no one else staying which surprised me but as I cycled a few miles north to Krynica Morska I soon found out why.

Here in somewhere resembling Blackpool Beach was a stretch of hotels, packed campsites, cafes, restaurants, gift shops and a fun fair all absolutely heaving. As ever though a couple of miles out and I had the pine woods largely to myself as I cycled to yet another Russian frontier with fencing straddling the beach and ominously no footprints in the nomansland on the Russian side. A distant observation tower was flanked by video surveillance cameras and as I cycled back a 4x4 with Polish border guards passed me presumably heading off duty. I stopped briefly to enjoy buskers on the waterfront before returning to the peaceful camping where a large murmuration of starlings descended in a clatter on the fruit trees around me.

 

After visiting the mighty fortress at Malbork my aim next day was to go to Hel, another peninsular, but a terrific storm had flooded the access road and traffic was snarled up for miles - interestingly I had received a warning text on my phone, in English, something I believe is soon to be introduced in the UK. Presumably all the locals had also received it but ignored it so there was traffic chaos and I decided to head inland away from the coast which had been getting busier all the way south from Estonia.

The day ran away with me a bit as my golden rule to be pitched up no later than 6 was thwarted by non existent or unappealing camping options. Down one long track an old lady in a tumbledown farm had clearly offered camping once but this was no longer available and with the language gap I turned away unsure what to do as dusk fell. I spotted a camp fire in a field with a couple of tents and a caravan so drove in to find that it was a simple bivouac site with no facilities. The Polish group staying there said I was welcome to stay, rang the owner who soon arrived for his 50 zloty (£10) and then left us to it. I was invited to join them around the fire which was lovely and they insisted on sharing their grilled sausages with me. Thus an unexpectedly pleasant end to a tiring day left me relaxed and ready for a good night's kip.

With only a few days left of this trip and a fair way to go for my ferry I decided to crack on to Germany stopping on the outskirts of Szczecin to use my final zlotys on a tank full of cheapish diesel (£1.30/l) and a pizza to leave the waitress all my change.

A few miles across in to Germany I stopped for the night near the Oder that I had cycled along a couple of months ago and again set off by bike up the river to the small town of Schwedt where I couldn't resist  the aromas coming from a Greek restaurant - the lamb cutlets were sublime.

My next hop was to a small free camping spot by a lake, part of the Muritz National Park with a good ride in the early evening to Waren at the centre of the Park on its largest lake. It reminded me of Bowness on Windermere in Cumbria with lake cruisers and private yachts, sparkling waters and a lively cafe scene. Back at my lake a couple of other vans had parked up including one lass in a Caddy who seemed to be roughing it a bit, sleeping with the tailgate open and a large mossie net for comfort/curtains and limited privacy. She was up and about first thing to do some rather pretentious yoga whilst her gas stove boiled away. Anyway each to their own and before long I was away to Schwerin whose magical castle seems to almost hover above the lake. I walked the gardens and admired the views before finally moving on to an aire at the Luneberg boatlift on the Eiblag Canal.

 

The aire had all utilities and at 8 euros was good value and stood almost beneath the towering boat lift buildings. They looked like the new ones under construction back at Niederfinhow but the waterway was carrying more traffic and I was able to watch several huge barges rise and fall suspended in the huge steel trough. The larger push tugs move two barges of 24 shipping containers each but the lift can only deal with one tug/barge combination so the crew have to see one barge safely through, moor it up, drop back for the second and then hook everything up again to proceed. It is a remarkably speedy process with other stand alone barges also passing through carrying everything from grain to coal, aggregates, scrap metal or more specialist tankers carrying gas and oil.

After a quiet night there with a utilities service stop I am now back at Tecklenberg after a day on the autobahns with less than 200 miles to the Hook of Holland. I am a day ahead of schedule so tried to amend my booking but to no avail - as it is the Bank Holiday weekend and the end of school holidays I guess each sailing will be pretty full.

Anyway I was last here 8 weeks ago and whilst I rarely return to old haunts I knew this place was quiet and shaded with a pleasant village just up the road so may well stay two nights. I walked in this afternoon for kaffee und kuchen and have brought the blog up to date for the final time on this trip.

It has been a great success covering some 5000 miles over the last 8 weeks and discovering cultures, history, politics, languages and customs that I was previously unaware of. I would recommend the Baltics to everyone but suggest you get off the beaten track to see the real sides of life and how they relate to recent global history and indeed more current events. From Tallin at the top of Estonia back here to the heart of modern Germany the gradual transition from a post Soviet occupation of rural backwaters through resurging economies in Latvia and Lithuania and the modernising of Poland I have seen gradual but noticeable changes in the quality of housing stock, agricultural production methods, the age and quality of transport and the presence of ever more stuff as affluence grows as witnessed by the stock in shops, possessions in people's gardens and the accoutrements of increased leisure be it boats, bicycles or motorhomes.

The final batch of piccies lie here 

and I now look forward to an Autumn of house sitting for some friends, catching up with others and a return to the mountains of Central Wales as I've not seen a hill in two months!