It was only slowing lightly when we had breakfast in our hotel. The navigation system brought us smoothly out of town and everything looked like a brilliant start of our journey homewards. But after about an hour it started snowing more and more severely. Due to the stormy wind from the east the snow was dancing on the streets – in the open areas the snow didn’t cover the streets. But in the woods and in villages it didn’t take long before the snow was piled over 30 centimeters high.


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Clickable map of today’s route

In Lithuania many villages are located off the main roads. Due to the heavy snow we could hardly see through what landscape we were driving. But shortly before the Lithuanian-Polish border we saw what we had hoped to find: a typical wooden church.


The yellow wooden church in Šventežeris (Lithuania)


The main street in Šventežeris

After we had passed the border, which is due to Schengen no longer in use, we drove on route 16 through the Wigry National Park. I missed a road sign warning travelers for wolfs! The road itself was spectacular enough, in this case I was glad we reached Augustow safely.


On route 16 on the way to Augustow

In Augustow we had scrambled eggs for lunch; we briefly discussed what to do, because it was pretty clear that our original plan to visit two Tatar villages near Białystok was due to the weather and hence road condition out of the question. We would try to get as far as we could by daylight towards Warsaw.
Around dusk we arrived in Łomża. We easily found an hotel which has great communist charm (experienced Poland travelers will know what I mean: the interior, the heating system …). After a nap we made a stroll through the city. It became pretty clear why Łomża is not mentioned in the Lonely Planet. There are apart from two churched no things to see or to do. The city doesn’t have more than 2 restaurants, one of them being closed (and the only one open is in hour hotel). In the evening we saw that the roads have been cleaned rather well, so things look good for tomorrow.