It’s been my dream all my life (well…) to cycle along the entire Curonian Spit, which includes crossing into Russia’s Kaliningrad oblast. Today I managed to cycle on the Curonian Spit for a couple of hours. That’s something. It can be reached by a quick (and cheap) ferry ride from Klaipėda.
The Curonian Spit (Kurische Nehrung) is basically a long sand dune, some 5000 years old, and of course overgrown. It’s nearly 100km long and between 400m and 3.8km wide. The northern half belongs to Lithuania, the southern half to Russia.
Other than that, I explored the city and realized that my plan of going to Riga tomorrow won’t work. For some reason all rail lines between Lithuania and Latvia are severed. One line (between Kaunas/Lithuania and Jelgava/Latvia, I think) is currently being renovated to become part of a new Baltic link between Warsaw and St Petersburg. I have no idea when this is going to be finished. All other lines have been demolished years ago or don’t work for some other reason (for example Vilnius – Daugavpils, no clue what’s going on there).
Anyway, since going through Russia or Belarus again is not an option my idea was to take the bus to Riga. Today I learned that this route is served by so-called micro buses, 18-seaters (approx.), with little to no space for luggage, let alone a bike (not even with wheels taken off). I’ll have to think of something else.
