This is going to be one of my short posts as we spent 10 hours on a bus traveling from Vilnius to Gdańsk. We saw a lot of rural Lithuania and Poland. Poland definitely has better road infrastructure than the Baltics but the drive still consisted of a lot of time on two lane roads through rural areas. There seem to be a number of large lakes in northern Poland that are used for summer recreation (and maybe winter but it would be cold).

We had to show our passport when crossing from Lithuania to Poland which surprised me as both are in the Schengen group. We had the same experience going from Latvia to Lithuania but did not have to do it from Estonia to Latvia. I am guessing it is an issue of heighten sensitivity to immigration based on the war with Ukraine. Russia has been known to bus immigrants up to the borders of these countries in order to stress the countries.

On the whole, the trip while long was good. Lots of beautiful scenery and just get a view of the countries outside the cities.

Gdańsk was a revelation to me. I knew it was supposed to be impressive but the old town is incredible. There are tremendous buildings both in size and beauty. The old town has been greatly restored since the fall of communism in Poland. It was destroyed during the Second World War by both the Germans and Russians but now is really a pleasure to walk through. It is still undergoing restoration in many areas.

There is a river that runs through it which has been built up and is very touristy but beautiful. Lots of restaurants and bars on both sides. There a number of streets that have been restored and has restaurants, bars and cafes along them and are mostly pedestrian walkways or friendly.

Our AirBNB is in the heart of old town in a restored building and is quick modern and lovely. It looks out over one of the nice walking streets.

We had wine at a cafe attached to the AirBNB. As usual, I asked for local wine and got a funny look. The best comment was that they did not have Pomeranian wine. Gdańsk though now part of Poland for a long time was part of Prussia and the province of Pomerania. We finally got some local Polish orange wine and it was better than expected.

We wandered around the old town until the sun set (8:00 pm) which was about an hour and half earlier than in Tallinn. The first picture in the post show the sun setting above old town.

We went to a restaurant recommended by the waitress at the cafe near our AirBNB. It was called Fixx and had a very eclectic menu. Not particularly Polish in nature but definitely interesting. It was a shared plate menu so we chose four dishes. Again, because local wine is not really sold we had an Austrian Pinot Blanc which was fruitier than I normally like but went well with dinner.