Suwalki Gap

Sun, Jul 28, 2024

Vilkaviskis, Lithuania to Wizajny, Poland

miles today 24.4

miles so far 1651.8

feet climbed today 1,427.0

feet climbed so far 45,841.0

Relive video  

Strava link

We knew it was going to rain today.  So we planned accordingly.  We ate protein bars and drank some juice.  We left around 730am and headed southwest towards the rain. 

The first store at mile 6 was off route and it wasn't raining, so we kept going. A few miles before the next store at mile 15, it started raining.  The young lady in the store wasn't very welcoming, so we hung out at the bus shelter for about 30 minutes (until the rain nearly stopped).

We entered the Suwalki Gap around 11am. There was no sign, but we found it on Google maps.

This was the most boring border crossing so far... not even a flag of Poland! 

The was a police car ahead of us. A car had passed us and it had to stop for the police to look in the trunk. We thought we might need to at least show id... but,  he waved us on, smiled and said something nice. 

Immediately the road narrowed and the hills got steeper.

We got to Wizajny Poland just as church was letting out around 11am (we crossed a time zone somewhere and gained an hour).

We waited for all the cars to leave.  Each one stopped next to the priest who was sprinkling them with water and giving them a blessing. He did the same for us and handed us a key ring.

We were hungry so we went to the store.  The hours indicated that it was open.  The locked door and lack of people indicated that it was closed. We followed our noses and found a door open with some good smells coming out.  Lynn peaked in, it was a kitchen.  We recognized the word catering on the sign. Our last hope was the restaurant next to our lodge.  We got to Agroturystyka Kalinka around 1130am. We had arranged checkin at 1pm. There appeared to be a wedding party going on. We managed to find someone to see if we could get into our room.  This room was $85. 

After showering and putting bikes in the garage (and waiting until 1pm when Google says the restaurant opens), we walked to the restaurant.  It is on this property and looked like it was set up for the wedding event.  A nice man from the wedding party thought we could go into the front section of the restaurant to eat. He said he would go find out. It turns out the food was ready in a buffet style and we could just go help ourselves.  So we did. Lynn talked to the young lady working and she offered to cook a special vegetarian meal for her. The food was very good. There was salad, some pork with something on it, some meat in mushroom sauce, plain dumplings, dumplings with meat and soup with meat. 

We sat and ate for a couple of hours (well, I ate while Lynn waited for her food). My meal wasc$10. We went for a walk to see if the store opened... it had not.

Now there is a storm going on with some very strong wind. We were watching the Olympics when the electricity went out at 545pm. And, it's back on at 557pm. Impressive.