This required a detour, first back to the village of Peenemünde proper, then south on Route 109 to Route 104 before entering Poland at the village of Lubieszyn. The roads are rural, not Autobahns, so the pace of the drive is leisurely, giving one the opportunity to soak in the countryside much as it was in the days of the DDR.

After crossing into Poland, what hit me first--almost literally--were the cars. Polish-made Fiats are everywhere, the tiny 600-c.c.-powered contraptions driven by people who have seemingly never passed a driver's test. They don't stop for stop signs or use turn signals and think nothing of driving three abreast on tight, two-lane roads. All my memories of rusty Fiats (and the Yugo derivatives that followed) are encapsulated in a driving experience best compared to a road-going demolition derby.

Never was I so happy to get on an interstate-style freeway as when I drove A6 south of Szczecin to continue east towards the seaport city of Gdańsk. Unfortunately, the A6 turned into Route 6, and I was again faced with the terrifying prospect of sharing the road with what appeared to be suicidal Fiat drivers, traveling four abreast in many spots.

I had not been to Russia before, so I planned to cross the border northeast of Branierwo and spend the night in the old city of Kaliningrad before heading to Vilnius, Lithuania. On the Polish side of the border, however, my plan was thwarted by the border guards, who noticed I lacked a Russian visa. Accustomed to the ease of crossing borders now that countries like Poland belong to the European Union, I was caught unaware that travel to this isolated Russian enclave, landlocked by Poland and Lithuania, would require a visa.

Given the late hour, the guards suggested I double back along the coast to Frombrok. I found what looked like a Sixties-era Holiday Inn, the Hotel Kopernik. (As Nicolaus Copernicus once lived in the region, the hotel and its parent company were apparently named after the father of modern astronomy.) I secured a clean, comfortable room, with breakfast, all for less than $50. Should you ever get lost on the Polish-Russian Baltic frontier, I give this hotel four stars out of four, especially considering the price. (Rates are a bit higher these days, but a peek at TripAdvisor shows recent guests rate the place 3.5 stars out of 5.)

The next morning over tasty local meats and fresh pastries, I consulted my trusty road map to plan my drive into Lithuania. Thankfully, no visa was required. I plotted the shortest possible route: deep into the Polish hinterlands to the monastic town of Suwalki, where I would pick up Route 8 to the Lithuanian border crossing just north of Podwojponie. The woman at the border was friendly, although perplexed that I carried a U.S. passport while driving a car titled to Saab. I started to explain in English that I am a journalist and, as usually happens, all barriers lifted.

The road is marked A5 once in Lithuania and co-designated as the E67, according to the pan-European numbering system. Its condition was excellent, much more like a German