Lithuanian Transit

Got off to a good early start today, hoping to achieve Vilnius by mid afternoon. Alas, it was not be! Our highly gifted and talented GPS lady got us "lost" again today, this time by trying to enter Belarussia. More to follow.

By midmorning we had arrived in the Polish city of Bialystok, which had a couple of nice churches and some happy colourful apartments. See Pics

After leaving Bialystok, we were making good progress to the border on our way to Vilnius. All went well until we got to the border (no pics). There was a line of trucks banked up for 2.5 km and we sailed passed all of those but it surprised me that there was a very formal, check everyone, old fashioned border crossing to go through. We got the car to the gate and were asked for passports and papers for the car. After sorting that out we were asked where we were heading. I stated Vilnius for 1 night then on to Riga. It was at this point the Guard pointed out that it was the Belarussian border we were at and not the Lithuanian border. Apparently a common occurrence with GPS units that are prone to calculate the shortest and quickest route, which, as it turns out, is via Belorussia but not actually highlight that it is via Belarussia. There was no indication on the GPS, just a few place names on a screen and a line indicating border (but not who with). After a bit of fuffing about, we were sent back from whence we came and it took another 2 hours to get to the right border crossing (inc lunch) but the whole deal cost about 4 hrs in time, hence we did not arrive in Kaunus, Lithuania until about 18.30 local time (lost 1 hr for time zone). Decided to stay here and not go to Vilnius as it is an extra 100 km, making it a 200+ Km roundtrip extra before going onto Riga. Vilnius will have to wait until another time but Kaunus looks nice with a nice basilica at the end of a tree lined street. We also managed to get a nice hotel through Last minute.com

The Lithuanian currency is called the Lits and is worth $0.42 AUD, whereas tomorrow in Latvia, the currency is called Lats and is worth $2.05 AUD. Message "Do not get your Lits and Lats mixed up".

 Churches at Bialystok, Poland

 Happy renters across from Church

 Polish Storks

Polish Tree Line country lane

 Feature street of Kaunus, Lithuania

Below, our Hotel

Our GPS Host voice has been given the name "Wanda", not original, but appropriate.

Till Tomorrow.