Day 260 Mon 2 Jul 2007 Warsaw, Poland to Kaunas, Lithuania

Eschewing the hotel breakfast we walk into the old town where we breakfast at a cafe on the main square. Largely destroyed by the Germans at the end of WW2, much of the centre has been rebuilt and restored, so although not as extensive as Krakow it has a pleasant atmosphere with cobbled streets and alleyways, quiet squares and colourful buildings. We spend a couple of hours wandering around including inspecting the monument to the Warsaw uprising and the thinnest house in the world before heading north to Lithuania. The road is full of trucks so progress is relatively slow through forests and rolling farmland.

At the border we cross with no delays although on the Lithuanian side there’s a line of trucks stretching almost to the arctic circle, well at least 10kms anyway. It’s getting late by the time we reach Kaunas, Lithuania’s second city, so although the sun hasn’t yet set, we decide to stop for the night. Finding a hotel proves more difficult than expected but we are eventually referred to one 5km north which turns out to be fine. However, we discover there’s an hour time difference and its actually 11.30 by the time we check in and too late to go in search of dinner so for the second night in succession dinner consists of a packet of nuts and a chocolate bar. (The hotel describes itself as ‘Motelis-Restoranas’, which we think could equally look good as a plant label or a dinosaur.)