May 4 - Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Woke up at the crack of dawn and were the first to hit the breakfast buffet. It was amazing!! Worth the long drive just to experience it. Coffee, juice, two kinds of sausage, eggs any way you wanted with a cook ready to make it for you, many different types of side items such as hard boiled eggs with a whipped creamy stuffing, fish, all the fixing for a sandwich like cucumber, meat, cheeses, tomato, butter…the list just goes on and on. We tried our best to eat it all.

And they even had another painting right on the wall.

Then we hit the road and drove through Warsaw and on towards Lithuania. We kept seeing these very large bird nests perched high up on poles. These poles could be made of wood or metal. They were made especially for these birds to nest in. The bird kind of looked like a pelican, black & white with a very long orangish red beak. We found out later that they are called Ciconia ciconia) or in layman's term White Stork.

 While we were driving thru Poland, when we got pulled over for my (Guy) reckless high speed driving. Apparently, when you enter a town limit you MUST slow down to 50 kilometers an hour before you speed up to leave outside the town on the other side. According to the nice policeman I was dangerously driving 33 k over the speed limit and was going to write me a ticket for 200 zlotys. Coincidently, for them there was a ATM next to their speed trap for easy withdrawal of money. Luckily for me, I didn't have an ATM card on me, nor zlotys, so the only alternative was Euros of which I had some in my wallet. But it was Sunday, so I couldn't exchange them into zlotys. Fortunately for the nice policeman, the gas station attendant was willing to do the exchange illegally to help the police out. Also it is possible to haggle, and I was able to reduce my fine down to 100 zlotys, but no lower, nor get off with a warning and no fine. Maybe Jamie could have.

So we drove off and into Lithuania and at much reduced speed, where it started to rain, getting colder and colder. The rest stops along the road were primitive with outhouses and a hole in the ground. No water or toilet paper. The gas stations required cash in coin, of which we had none; to use their facilities. One euro per deposit! I didn't know my poop was worth so much.
The countryside going thru Lithuania was a lot of farmland, basically flat lands. We noticed that most of the forests were gone (unlike like Poland, which still has many forests).

By 6:30pm we were finally in Jurmala, Latvia and lost. The car rental guy said our GPS was good for all of Europe, but then maybe he didn't know about Lithuania and Latvia being a part of Europe. He was very young. We could not find the cottage we rented to stay in. Our maps were inadequate, our GPS stopped working at the Polish border,  and so in desperation Jamie approached some traffic cops for directions. Besides not speaking English, (unless when negotiating a cash fine) they all claimed to be from Riga and didn't know the area and ran off when Jamie asked for help. We drove further down the road and found a police station where Jamie went inside and asked for help. Two policeman actually got into their car and drove us to our house which turned out to be on the very next street. Go figure. Anyway, their actions redeemed my faith in the human race. Would an American cop do that? For a citizen, or a tourist? Maybe Latvian police are better/nicer than Polish police. I did notice that the Polish roads were in better condition. Coincidence you say?

We checked in with the landlord, took possession of the keys, and unloaded the car. We then walked to the beach and didn't find any amber. I really wasn't expecting to; besides it being about 25 degrees freezing it was almost night and the wind was frisky. My heart wasn't into it.

We returned to our cozy little cottage and settled in for the night.