KONIGSBERG PART II

On Friday June 21 we visited Konigsberg. This is the second part of the blog started yesterday.

After visiting the Friedland Torr Museum we took off for The Dom which is a huge church where our mother got married. It was mostly destroyed during the war but in recent years has been restored to its previous glory. We spent a good hour wandering around the grounds of the church, along with several brides and their wedding parties. Friday is the day to get married in Russia and apparently the Dom is the place to get pictures taken. It was also graduation day for military schools so there were lots of "cadets" and their dates driving around in stretch limos.

We had dinner reservations at 5:30 at the Rossgarten Torr Restaurant and had to catch a 7:10 train and time was running out. We quickly went through the amber museum and bought some beautiful amber jewelry. Then dashed to the restaurant next door and wolfed down Konisberger klops and Lithuania soup in record time. We had to catch the last train to Crantz and our tour guide drove crazily through rush hour traffic to get us to the train station on time. We literally ran through the station, throwing rubles at Alex so he could buy our tickets. Then dashing onto the platform and into the waiting train which was just about to pull out of the station. We caught our breaths on the 30 minute ride back into Crantz. This is a train ride mom and her family would have taken many times to spend the day on the beach.

Some more observations on life in Russia. First off, nothing is on time in Russia except for the train. Secondly, in Kaliningrad they have very few traffic lights. We came to one intersection where it seemed like four or five major streets were colliding. Alex demonstrated extreme confidence and promised us that Russians navigate these intersections by making eye contact with the other drivers. We found it to be a little like playing russian roulette. After several agonizing minutes we were through the intersection and on our way.