On the Road to Warsaw .Stop Over in Bialystok...19th June


I left Vilnius this morning to start the long drive to Warsaw but with a stop in Bialystok in the north-east of Poland. I think another visit sometime in the future would be good. 

Speaking to the receptionists when checking out they mentioned that Vilnius has an Open House event normally held each year in April early May (taking its reference from London's Open House weekend) when architects and owners open their buildings and explain the architectural design philosophy and how well they function.  
https://www.openhousevilnius.lt/en/buildings/

Maybe this would be good target. I could also try and see a few of the buildings I didn't have time for during this visit...

The drive was fine... roads that bend, undulate (for the right reasons) are always more pleasurable to drive along.. and it was beautifully sunny and hot.. 30 C.. At various points all road markings disappeared, which was slightly disconcerting.. they came back in time.
The number of lorries must have been a third of numbers on the roads from Tallinn to Riga, to Vilnius. So much calmer..

A surprise for me was the extent of woods either side of the road; quite often for miles on end. I had assumed that the landscape would all be an open rolling landscape. Most of the drive up to the boarder with Belarus was wooded. Every couple of miles there would be a bus stop but there were no visible houses or villages.. Maybe just woodlanders...

I did stop to take this photo.. there were no cars on this stretch of the road. .

In the south of Lithuania the forests sometimes open out to reveal lakes and river courses. It was good to have a break from trees...

And the photos below were taken at Veisiejai...

One oddity of some roundabouts on the route in Lithuania... a number had pieces of sculpture in the middle.. I couldn't photo the first few but did stop to photo this one.. at Druskininkai.... The great thing about this one is that the centre piece slowly revolves.. and the roundabout is immaculately tendered. Civic pride at work.. It beats sponsors' advertising signs on roundabouts of local accountants in the UK.

Druskininkai (population approx. 23,000) has an even greater surprise... on the way out I drove past an enormous indoor skiing centre and indoor slope (460m long).. it appears to be one of the biggest in Europe.. checking Wikipedia Druskininkai also has a water park.... 

Belarus...

On the road map, driving through the top north-west of Belarus cuts out a reasonable chunk of drive.. If you put this route, Vilnius to Bialystok, into viamichelin, the routes takes you through Belarus.. My satnav also could be made to do this. Yet... I did check the internet last night to see if it was possible and found a respectable, vaguely official website saying yes for certain countries (including the UK) a visa wasn't required if staying for less than 30 days. Well.. . I got this all wrong; I should have realised...

Arriving at the Lithuanian boarder crossing.. a lot of surly looking guards looking sceptical.. but let me carry on having check my documents and car.. Slowly crossing no-mans land and arriving at the Belarus checkpoint the young guards were very polite and faintly amused with the notion that someone was just going to drive into their country.. They acknowledged that the passport was fine, so was the car 'certificate' (DVLA V5 document) as well as the car insurance.. but no visa.. We smiled at each other and they smiled as they said no.. I turned round and had to go back through the Lithuanian boarder crossing to the surly guards and wait in turn to go through customs. They were well aware that I had only travelled between boarders but no matter, they were looking for contraband cigarettes and alcohol.. I must have missed the cash and carry warehouse in the 500 metres between boarders.. I was tempted to say how stupid this was but.. no point.. Ultimately my stupid mistake in the first place.

Finally detoured back through Lithuanian countryside and arrived in Poland 3 hours later.

I stopped at a memorial to missing people from 1945 soon after crossing the boarder line.. I will blog this separately..

Roads in Poland good but very busy.. Arrived in Bialystok at 19.00...