The long, long bus ride takes over 6 hours, but at least it is a pretty drive, on back roads, through little villages, forests on 2 lane roads lined by pine trees then into open areas with green farmland and views as far as the eye can see. Because of the seat rotation, we are right up front today so we joke with our bus driver – who is hysterical – and talk to Ieva most of the ride.

But then it starts to rain, and because we are up front, we also get to watch all the scary incidents occurring on the wet roads, like the big tractor trailer truck right in front of us that slid and almost jack knifed when he slammed on his brakes to miss a turning truck.  Oh, and the car that did a 180 on the side of the forest road and was stuck in the ditch, his front tire totally dug into the side berm along the road. Totally scary – and we are ever so grateful we have an excellent bus driver.

We hit the Polish border around 11, then continue pressing on along our back roads to the lunch spot – Lomza – where we eat at the Hotel Gromada, an old communist hotel. Food was good – two types of soup (I had vegetable noodle, Ed had the meat version) and Pork Schnitzel along with some sort of apple tart and ice cream for dessert. Stretching our legs after lunch, we have a few minutes to take some pretty scenic photos across the city skyline, and then, well, it is back on the bus for more hours of driving.

The rest of the drive went fairly quickly, blogging and reading passed the time away. We arrived around 4:30 with plenty of down town before our included dinner at 7. Checking into our room, it is one of those crazy European set ups with the shower all in glass right in the middle of the room. At least there is a curtain that can separate the bed – which is right there next to the shower wall – from the shower when in use. A tough set up for the friends traveling together!

Arriving at dinner, we find that Ieva has decided that we were settling into cliques so she has assigned seating and separated us all for dinner. It actually turned out to be quite fun, and we did get to know some of the group who were previously just hanging together on their own. Food was good – tomato soup, a pork chop, thankfully with vegetables, and a good chocolate topped cheese type cake.

All in all, a good day and evening. And tomorrow – we tour (ok, like we do everyday, no surprise here!).