Kaliningrad was once Königsberg, the capital of East Prussia, and what happened to it explains most of what you see. The city was heavily bombed in 1944 and fought over in 1945, then passed to the Soviet Union, its German population was expelled, and it was resettled and renamed in 1946. Today it is an exclave of Russia, cut off from the rest of the country by Lithuania and Poland, with its own character and a population of about four hundred thousand.
The great philosopher Immanuel Kant lived and died here and is buried against the wall of the cathedral on Kneiphof island, in the middle of the Pregel river. The cathedral was a ruin for decades and has been rebuilt as a museum and concert hall. Fragments of old Prussian gates and towers survive, and there are Soviet housing blocks beside them. The region is the world's largest source of amber, and the stone, fossilised tree resin about forty million years old, is sold in shops and displayed in a museum.
For riders the main attraction is the coast to the north and west. The Curonian Spit, a long, narrow sand peninsula, and the resort towns of Zelenogradsk and Svetlogorsk are reached by roads through forest and fields, and the Baltic is cold, grey and wide. Travel to and within Russia is subject to rules and sanctions that change, and anyone who might ride here needs to check entry requirements, border conditions and insurance carefully, since they may differ greatly from past years.
On the ground, the city has fuel stations and plenty of cafes. Local specialities include marzipan, which Königsberg was famous for, and fish from the Baltic. Summers are mild, winters cold and snowy. The roads are generally decent, though traffic into the city can jam. A walk around the island and the cathedral gives a sense of the layers of history in a place that has had many names.