May 10 - return trip through Poland.

Started our drive back to Czech Republic through Lithuania and Poland this morning, leaving at 8am.

Leaving Lithuania

          Now entering into Poland:

Originally we were going to drive to Gdansk, Poland, but the trip started to slow down and instead we changed our minds and half way there we changed course and aimed towards Warsaw. Our path led us through wonderful farmland and well maintained farms. We noticed that the cows were all tethered to the ground instead of being able to roam free.

Most of the tilled fields appeared to be worked by hand, not by machinery.

We tried many times to aim our car towards Warsaw, but our GPS had a mind of its own and took control of our navigation, steering us down weird little roads across the autobahn and towards small villages where people stopped working the fields or gossiping to stare at us, instead of going in a direct and fast way like we wanted. It didn't help that Poland was investing all its revenue into building a new autobahn that was still in stages with roads, onramps and off ramps closed or not even built yet. Every time J-Me programmed the GPS to go somewhere it sent us there in a strange round about way. We finally had to ignore the instructions and follow street signs. It felt like the sentient computer Hal on Space Odyssey 2001 (what are you doing J-Me - don't touch that button).

Since we kept getting lost so much, we decided to stop to have a little bite to eat.

Along our trip we keep seeing these very large birds in nests. These birds are called Ciconia Cisonia (in layman's her,; White Stork). They fly to Lithuania and Poland in Spring and return back to Africa when it starts to get colder.

Anyway, we finally made it through Warsaw and close to a favored hotel we wanted to stay at for the night, except when we arrived it was full. The receptionist sent us towards another hotel in their chain, but when we got there we could not figure out how to get into their parking lot. All the roads leading to it were fenced off. We could see cars and trucks and people, but no way in. It was so bizarre.
We finally gave up and went to a hotel across the autobahn. It was late and after driving all day we were exhausted. A quick dinner and straight to bed.