Day 57

We had breakfast in a great cafe nextdoor to our hotel with good food, good music, comfy chairs and georgeous waitresses - perfect!

We set off from Kaliningrad and within the hour we had reached the coast again - the first time in just over a week and quite a relief to have made it across continental Europe without being stopped by weather on the way. The Baltic sea lived up to its name - it was freezing.

We took a road along the Corunian Spit or Korshkaya Kosa today which is a thin strip of land 100 km or so long but only 1000m or so wide and in places even less. It has some of the biggest sand dunes in Europe and lots of trees which sadly obstructed the view for most of the day!

Halfway along, Russia became Lithuania and the Russian border guards had a good chat with us about the Premiership (Chelsea and Pavulychenko popular) and after looking at the map of our route so far called us champions! We liked them!

The difference was immediate - the road surface was much better, the speed limit higher and the small towns more catering to passing hungry bikers! After a late lunch we took a sand track to the Baltic side for a great view and got slightly bogged down (photos to come) before enjoying the final 10 km or so to the tip of the spit. A short ferry across the 100m or so and we rode North.

Stopped in Liepaja for the night, a town famous for its Latvian rock and making a good impression immediately with a hotel called Liva (pronounced Leaver) and a stunning receptionist. I think 2 months on the road is beginning to take its toll!

161 miles today.