We always intended this trip to be a combination of Poland and the three Baltic States. In Warsaw we had to make a decision whether to head west and finish Poland, or head north to the Baltic States. Once again we are starting to feel a little time pressure. While we don’t regret the extra week we spent in the Krakow area it has put a little strain on our plans. In the end we decided to head north to the Baltic States as we think we can hit the places we want to visit in western Poland on our way back to Amsterdam.
The drive north from Elk was uneventful on a nice brand new freeway in Poland. When we hit the Lithuanian border the freeway ended and the road became rougher. The last 100 kilometers were on back roads in Lithuania. We haven’t been on back roads much this trip, and we realized that you see a much different view of a country from back roads than you do from freeways or autobahns. The villages here looked very quiet, and the roads were very lightly traveled. It became clear that the roads between villages were funded differently than the roads in villages and towns. Between towns the roads were well paved and generally pretty new, once you passed into a town or village the pavement was much older, heavily patched, and a little narrower.
The camping infrastructure in Lithuania is sparse. There are no campgrounds in Vilnius. I picked out a place about 40 kilometers from Vilnius based on the reviews. What a find! When we pulled in we were the only customers on an incredibly well manicured place with a beautiful log cabin. I got out and tracked down the owner who was busy with a grass trimmer. She welcomed us with a mixture of Lithuanian and Dutch with an occasional English word thrown in, but she did a good job of making herself understood. She is probably in her 70’s and recently widowed, she speaks Dutch because her husband was Dutch and founded the campground. She showed us around, opened up the beautiful cabin with a kitchen, dining room and sitting area and told us to make ourselves welcome. She then built a fire in the wood stove to make sure we were comfortable. We were wowed by the welcome and the service. We really wish we had a common language so we could express how incredibly impressed we are with this place and her help. What a great introduction to Lithuania.