I’m updating any posts that appeared earlier to keep the information current.

The former East Prussia is a rather unique corner of Europe, with some very picturesque castles, waterways and architecture [...]]]> Here you’ll find a collection of impressions of travelling around Kaliningrad and the North East of Poland.

I’m updating any posts that appeared earlier to keep the information current.

The former East Prussia is a rather unique corner of Europe, with some very picturesque castles, waterways and architecture dating back to the various Kaisers, Napoleon and the Teutonic Knights.

The exclave of Kaliningrad is not so easily accessible since the expansion of EU borders, but it rewards a crossing with a rich history and a Baltic coast unspoiled by armies of tourists or bland Eurostyle fare.

The excellent ‘In Your Pocket’ guide wrote of Svetlogorsk: ‘The whole experience is still decidedly Russian. Savour it before it becomes another generic seaside resort.’

This was written before the Schengen curtain went up around Kaliningrad. These days, Svetlogorsk is in scant danger of euro-isation. The main visitors are Moscow property developers and day trippers from [...]]]>

The excellent ‘In Your Pocket’ guide wrote of Svetlogorsk: ‘The whole experience is still decidedly Russian. Savour it before it becomes another generic seaside resort.’

This was written before the Schengen curtain went up around Kaliningrad. These days, Svetlogorsk is in scant danger of euro-isation. The main visitors are Moscow property developers and day trippers from Kaliningrad. So you’ll still get dill with everything and a strong whiff of barbecues in the Baltic breeze.

A sunny Sunday is normally the cue for Kaliningraders to head for the coast.

Svetlogorsk is actually two places, imaginatively called Svetlogorsk 1 and 2, which roughly equate to ‘ville’ and ‘plage’. Svetlogorsk 1 is the old spa centre, with lakeside sanatoria. The old wooden station (1900) here is the real deal, but in Svetlogorsk 2 you’ll set down from the elektrische at the new, repro-Prussian terminal.

First stop on the promenade is the sundial. It’s said to be the largest in Europe and a Soviet miracle from the 1970s. Originally it was Friedrich-Wilhelm IV who ordered the resort to be prettified, though it’s unlikely he had this in mind. It’s also a least a quarter of an hour out.

There are many stalls in Svetlogorsk but only really two kinds of souvenirs. The majority are trinkets from the local amber mines. Other stalls sell pottery with both German and Russian motifs: Konigsberg and Kaliningrad, or Rauschen and Svetlogorsk. They appear as if self-twinning towns.

In its heyday, Rauschen had 3,000 closed beach cabins for changing. In Svetlogorsk you just take your underpants and some vodka.

After the beach, it’s a wander around the cafes to Russian romances.

Svetlogorsk has its luxe hotels of course but to enjoy it Russian style you can’t do better than rent a cabin in the old Pioneer camp. (Old Pioneers welcome.) For more about Svetlogorsk, click the ‘Svetlogorsk’ tag.

And where there aren’t pines, silver birch fill any leaf space left. Svetlogorsk – Kaliningrad’s Baltic beach – is a heavily wooded resort where only shafts of light make it through. Chances of a deep tan are slim and the only really bronzed resident I’ve come across is Pavlov. In sculpted form, of course.

Odd meeting [...]]]>

And where there aren’t pines, silver birch fill any leaf space left. Svetlogorsk – Kaliningrad’s Baltic beach – is a heavily wooded resort where only shafts of light make it through. Chances of a deep tan are slim and the only really bronzed resident I’ve come across is Pavlov. In sculpted form, of course.

Odd meeting Pavlov here since he died in 1936, a decade before Kaliningrad was annexed by Russia. Perhaps he may have had some dialogue with the famous Kant university in Konigsberg days. Who knows. But probably not important. Kalinin himself never once visited Kaliningrad, the town that bears his name. The Pavlov sculpture was part of the Sovietisation of Svetlogorsk, something that never really worked. The tall pines and steeply gabled Prussian villas somehow rise above it. Changing the names of these quiet cobbled pathways to Lenin Street and October Way hasn’t changed the character of Svetlogorsk, which escaped the wartime destruction of Konigsberg, 30 kilometers away.

In the grand old days, Svetlogorsk – formerly Rauschen – was more about sanatoria than swimsuits. Which is just as well, because the beach is a fast-diminishing strip of sand and the promenade, like everywhere else, passes much of the day in shadow. The sun disappears early behind the steep cliff above.

Only on the diminutive beach is it possible grab some full-bat, Baltic ultra violet. Maybe this is why Svetlogorsk was never as popular as Sochi with old Soviet leaders. Yeltsin preferred the Karelian lakes. Only now are Muscovites discovering the time-warp charm of this old Prussian resort.

A while back, when the news leaked out about Putin’s new retirement home in Pionerski, Kaliningrad Oblast, The Moscow Times duly reported:

“We have no information on this matter,” Kremlin press secretary Viktor Khrekov said. “I would not exclude the possibility that this [...]]]> When officials issue an official denial, you know for sure the opposite is true.

A while back, when the news leaked out about Putin’s new retirement home in Pionerski, Kaliningrad Oblast, The Moscow Times duly reported:

“We have no information on this matter,” Kremlin press secretary Viktor Khrekov said. “I would not exclude the possibility that this has all been dreamed up by some regional official.”

Yeah right. But everyone in Pionerski – population 10,000 – knows different. They also know exactly where the dreamed up dream home will be built. And it stands to reason that, once Vlad is on a pension, he won’t be able to afford Sochi.

Needless to say, when I got to Pionerski last week, the local bus station was thronging with foreign journalists disguised as babushkas.

By Russian standards, Pionerski passes for picturesque. There are only a few Soviet pre-fab apartments on the outskirts. Most Pionerskis live in old German houses in mint pre-war condition. That would be the first war.

The whole village is just a few minutes walk from the beach. It’s here you see the first signs that Pionerski is being readied for Executive R&R. The town with no real pavements or street lighting has spawned a promenade with lamposts. Russia is all about priorities.

Pionerski is an obvious choice for the Putin residence since the Russian military own all the land for miles around. At one time it was a Luftwaffe airbase and flying school. Then the Russian navy commandeered it immediately after the war. Some parts are still a Red Army barracks.

Below is the part of the old complex is destined to become Villa Vladimir. It should be big enough for his two daughters and Connie Putin, the black labrador.

In recent years, this former Officer’s Mess has provided spare roof tiles for all the other houses in the village. It will be sorely missed.

Finally, here’s the view over the Baltic from Putin’s garden, looking towards Zelenogradsk. I’m standing where Vlad will be in a couple of years time, in his shorts, with a gin and tonic, throwing stones at the peasants below, while Putina reads Cosmopolitan in her sundress. Nice.

To absolutely, positively, ensure recovery, I checked-in to all three of the former East Prussian sanatoria above Kaliningrad: Svetlogorsk (formerly Rauschen), Zelenogradsk, (formerly Crantz) and [...]]]> A freak cooking accident – probably too much red wine in the bourguinon – resulted in a few cracked ribs. But what better place to recuperate than on the Soviet Riviera!

To absolutely, positively, ensure recovery, I checked-in to all three of the former East Prussian sanatoria above Kaliningrad: Svetlogorsk (formerly Rauschen), Zelenogradsk, (formerly Crantz) and Pionerski – formerly Neukuhren, a fishing village and – newly – the site of Putin’s proposed retirement home.

You could call these Baltic resorts ‘unspoiled’ – that’s because Stalin did absolutely nothing with them since annexation in 1945. Today the towns are an odd mixture of faded Prussian glory and Soviet decay as well as burgeoning real estate interest. The vandalism of the Soviet era has given way to vulgarisation. All three towns are fast becoming Repro Prussian resorts, sort of Moscow Malibu beaches.

The Sanatorium In Svetlogorsk (Rauschen) is still open for a healing glass of spa water. Unlike many of the original buildings, this has so far escaped a movie-set makeover.

Below you can see an original Prussian villa in Svetlogorsk and one of the new Repro Prussian villas next door.

Zelenogradsk (Crantz) is probably best remembered the way it was, before the Red Army passed this way. The beach is said to contain more corpses than ice cream cones. The old hotels and pavillions are long gone.

For the time being, developers are working around Lenin. Zelenogradsk probably has the smallest Red Square in the Federation. This is an unusually cartoonish Lenin statue – maybe designed to portray Lenin in holiday mood? Most of Zelenogradsk is a scrap heap and Lenin’s tenure looks limited.

Pionerski has a promenade and a run-down army barracks. But it’s still a pretty village by an empty beach and ripe for development.

Park your car and walk to the beach. No pushing, rushing, crushing or even parking meters. With great foresight, the Moscow ‘Vika’ chain has opened a small cafe in this street.

Yes, the sky really is that blue in April. I’ll update the skies in following posts.