The drive from Vilnius to Gdansk was probably one of the most interesting of the entire tour. The total distance of little more than 300 miles seemed like an easy enough trip on the map. However, the reality was a little more severe. Narrow roads became narrower, rough roads became rougher, but the scenery went from so-so to very nice.

After nearly 14 hours on the road we finally arrived in Sopot, a resort town on the Baltic just northwest of Gdansk. The transportation infrastructure throughout northeast Poland is badly in need of modernization. Very narrow 1 1/2 lane roads tightly bordered by tall trees were designed by Hitler to conceal troup movements through the countryside. Passenger trains were not traveling much faster than we were, and some of the tracks we crossed were obviously narrow gauge.

The border crossing was uneventful, but lengthy. There was no obvious line, so the hour was dedicated mostly to processing our individual passports. The armed border officer boarded the bus and collected all our passports. Then we sat on the bus for an hour. It wasn't too big a deal in the bigger scheme of things.

Our bus drivers were both Russians. They had to deliver us to Gdansk and immediately return to Vilnius for another tour later the next day. That must have been a wild drive through the night.

I took a lot of pictures of the countryside from the bus window. None of them are archive quality photographs, but simply low resolution, out of focus out the window of a bumpy bus snapshots. They do give an impression of the day, however, so, if you're interested, click here.