Warsaw and the first metres of Lithuania

In the morning we squeezed in a little more of Warsaw in daylight, then pushed on north.

The drive was fine — until a few kilometres before the Lithuanian border, where the road surface dropped off a cliff. It turned seamlessly into what felt like a tank training course, and stayed that way for the next twenty kilometres. But the border did eventually appear.

Once checked in at the hotel in Druskininkai, we headed to two open-air parks. Our plan to escape to a cooler climate isn’t quite working — it’s still around thirty degrees. But under the trees it was bearable.

First was the Wooden Sculpture Park. Some pieces were motion-triggered, playing a snippet of local folklore or launching a small fountain. The second was Grūto Parkas — an open-air museum of communism. To us a bleak place; to the kids, an attraction. Seven kilometres from the Belarusian border in today’s geopolitical climate, it’s a genuinely odd experience.

Dinner at the hotel, and bed. We’ve gained an hour — we’re moving east.