Eydtkuhnen to Langenweddingen by Bicycle.

Eydtkuhnen to Langenweddingen by Bicycle by William S. Yorke Shuttleworth (1876).

“This little book contains an account of an attempt to ride from the Russian frontier to Calais, the depth of snow compelling the traveller to stop after he had covered a distance of about six hundred miles.

The tour occupied twenty-six days, including twelve days spent at various towns ; and although undertaken in the winter months, the rider appears to have derived considerable gratification from it.

As an unambitious record of a pleasant trip, we can commend this little work to bicyclists.”

~ The Field – (22 March 1879).

Cycling in Kaliningrad, Lithuania, Poland and Germany.

Kaliningrad to Braunschweig (1876).

Published in 1879 by John Snow & Co., London, this incredibly rare book is a 24 page account of “an attempt to ride from the Russian frontier to Calais” in winter 1876, by Bristol-born tea broker turned author William Sewell Yorke-Shuttleworth, of the now demolished mansion, Plaistow Hall in Bromley, Kent.

Born into a wealthy Lincolnshire family, his father, the philanthropist William Sewell Shuttleworth, had established W.S. Shuttleworth & Co. tea merchants on Fenchurch Street, London, becoming the “Sole Contractor for Tea to Her Majesty’s Navy” at the ideal time teetotalers within the Government were controversially pushing for the drink to replace the time-honored “Grog“.

Fifteen years after his father’s death, the 32 year old heir set off on his bicycle from Eydtkuhnen – the village on the East Prussian (German Empire) side of the border (today Chernyshevskoe in Kaliningrad, on the border with Kybartai, Lithuania) on the 14th October 1876 – with the aim to reach Calais, France “in order to disprove the opinion that a religious zealot must be a muff.”

After cycling through what is now Kaliningrad (a Russian exclave) and Poland, but what was then East and West Prussia (both having joined the “Second Reich” German Empire in 1871), the author abandoned his journey due to thick snow in the small Saxon village of Langenweddingen – today part of Sülzetal, “seven kilometres West of Magdeburg,” “near Brunswick” (Braunschweig), – over 600 miles (877 km) into his journey.

The book contained “a miniature map and views photographed by the Woodbury Company, from pen and ink sketches by the traveller,” which he made over his “14 days 3 hours” journey, “nearly all the way against the wind, perhaps a third of the distance after sunset,” plus a further twelve days spent at various towns along the route to recover from injury and weather.

“As an unambitious record of a pleasant trip,” The Field commended “this little work to bicyclists,” adding that “passing over the prefatory remarks, in which the writer unduly obtrudes his religious views, and gives particulars of some equally irrelevant walking tours, we find some eighteen pages of interesting reading relating to the ride In question. Although discursive, he is never dull, his descriptions of roads and scenery being useful and instructive ; and although undertaken in the winter months, the rider appears to have derived considerable gratification from it.”

Shuttleworth later made a book reading at the Drill Hall, Bromley, on January 25th 1879, however it was a lecture he made in 1908, at the Co-operative Hall, Bromley, “announced by large placards to give an account of some of the extraordinary events of his life,” which perhaps gives a better insight into his “religious views”.

The Bromley Chronicle reported that he told the “less than a score of people assembled” about how, on New Year’s Eve 1864, “he was so dangerously ill that it was expected he should die, and whilst his body slept, his soul apparently visited Paradise. While sleeping again his soul descended into hell, where he suffered more excruciating agonies than it was possible to imagine.” He claimed to have experienced other apparitions in his lifetime, including one while distributing Gospels in France during the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, and “after resolving that he would endeavour to work for his Master more than any human being had ever done, whilst asleep his soul apparently revisited Paradise.”

At this point, a member of the audience stood up and complained: “At this early stage I cannot help expressing my opinion of the lecture. I am thoroughly disappointed.”

Yorke-Shuttleworth replied, “Don’t interrupt… please. You can say what you like afterwards,” before proceeding to claim he had escaped from drowning on three occasions, at which point he was again interrupted with a member of the audience saying to him. “I cannot believe that you have ever been to Paradise or hell,” and an other voice adding, “I ask for my money back.”

The author refused: “No. I don’t think I will. You have chosen to pay your sixpence, and I don’t cover my expenses.” The meeting then broke up early before he could even talk about his cycle ride from the Russian Frontier. Not that, by this stage, the audience would have believed his claims anyway.

Slightly less skeptical that he made the journey, we have mapped out the route using the most cycle friendly lanes alongside the original Prussian roads he travelled.

Eydtkuhnen, the eastern terminus and border station of the Prussian Eastern Railway in 1878, is now Chernyshevskoye, which lies inside the heavily militarised and industrial Russian exclave of Kaliningrad – the Russian border having switched from East to West following the independence of Lithuania and Poland in 1991.

While we have also provided the route taken by William Shuttleworth, we would advise that, given the current political situation in Russia (which also likely invalidates your travel insurance and makes withdrawing cash or paying by Visa and Mastercard impossible), as well as the fact you would need to obtain a Russian visa (not available to residents of many pro-Ukrainian countries), the ride should instead be started on the Lithuanian side of the border (which, rather confusingly, was the Russian side of the border in 1876) and cycle along the Kaliningrad boundaries, through Lithuania and Poland, along the designated East of Poland Green Velo Cycling Trail, the longest consistently marked cycle path in the country, rejoining Shuttleworth’s route further along at Bartoszyce.

A warning of straying into Russian territory unannounced lies just three years before Vladimir Putin was born, with the story of Norman John Green, a 24 year old British student who went missing on a bicycle ride with friends along the Finnish-Soviet frontier in July 1949, never to be seen again.

His bicycle was found by Finnish soldiers, with footprints visible on the Russian side of the border. Beside his bicycle were two words written in the sand which indicated that he had crossed the frontier “to have a look at the other side.”

Eydtkuhnen to Insterburg.

Day 1 (Russian Route).

0 km ~ 🇱🇹 Kybartai train station, Lithuania (at the time Russia and named after the nearby town of Verzhbolovo / Вержболово, known in German as Wirballen, and now Virbalis, Lithuania).
1 km ~ 🇷🇺 Border crossing at Eydtkuhnen (now Chernyshevskoye / Чернышковский, Kaliningrad, Russia), then part of East Prussia and part of the German Empire, following its foundation in 1871.
2 km ~ Bahnhof Eydtkuhnen (now Chernyshevskoye station)
2 km ~ “Hotel de Russie” was on the main street in Chernyshevskoye.
15 km ~ 🍴Nesterov / Не́стеров (was Stallupönen, East Prussia).
49 km ~🍺 Gusev / Гу́сев (was Gumbinnen).
60 km ~ 🏰 House of philosopher Immanuel Kant.
92 km ~ Chernyakhovsk / Черняхо́вск (was Insterburg).
93 km ~ Hotel Deutsches Haus, Insterburg (now the Monument to Barclay de Tolly).
94 km ~ 🛏️ Kochar Hotel, Chernyakhovsk.