Pretty Poland until it pissed down

Even though we haven’t had long in Poland it is a very beautiful and diverse country.  Although loads of depressing concrete block run-down apartment buildings, beside new build modern houses.

Our second night was along the Baltic Sea coastline at a wee place called Uniescie, it was Poland’s Queenstown in the summer, but more like a giant carnival.  Side shows and all.  A lovely camp though and an interesting experience but the beach was so crowded you’d need to elbow your way onto it.  We were in a traffic jam for the last 3 km getting to the camp, and obtained the last free non-booked site.

Then we cruised off to Gdansk to a place, again on the coastline called Stogi.   This camp is in the forest and we had to traverse a sand goat track up into the tenting area for our camp spot.

About 40km from our destination we happened upon this wee sign saying VW Museum 1 km to the right, so why not?    

It was fantastic it put Wolfsburg to shame with the seer volume and quality of  classic Volkswagens.  We spent quite a while there and all the vehicles were owned by the guy, his sister and brother-in-law.  Amazing!  When he seen Mildred he wanted to swap our cabinetry  for the replica cabinets in his Champagne Bay – not a chance.  His most prized VW was the Swimwagen valued at Euro $100,000.

Today we took the tram into the city and wandered the old town, browsing the stalls before catching the tram back.  The tram ride was so rough and fast I thought  we were going to de-rail several times.

Now that we have had our lunch we are planning on a swim in the Baltic Sea, it’s colder today so there may be a chance we can make it to the water.  We walked down the beach last night about 9pm and it was still very crowded with people in their bikinis and speedos.

Later today we will leave camp and travel an hour to the Port Gdynia to catch an overnight ferry to Karlskrona in Sweden, the trip takes 10 ½ hours and all night crossings must also book a cabin.  So tonight will be the first night since we collected Mildred in London that we won’t be sleeping in her.  Instead we have a double bed with ensuite – luxury.  Our first cruise ship journey.

Tomorrow 9 am we arrive in Sweden.   It’s also time for the next 5,000 km service.

UPDATED 30 July

Well our swim in the Baltic was very nice and refreshing once you got in, however on our walk back to base the heavens opened, so we rushed back to put our outdoor chairs underneath Mildred and shut the lid so she was dry for her cruise.  After a shower we sat in Mildred to read and relax before it was time to head for the ship.   About 30 minutes later Daryl glanced out the window to view the rain and found we were in flood.  Our seats were afloat under Mildred, our sandels and mats washed thru to the other side and the water was nearly coming up her exhaust.  We moved fairly quickly to ensure we didn't get stuck.

So it was a very fast and wet pack up, and an early check in for our crossing.

Today after a lovely night on the boat enjoying the huge space available to us in the cabin (and separate wide beds) we arrived in Sweden and decided to head to the first camp (8km) where we have spent the day cleaning up, drying out, changing oil and other such 5,000km service things - bliss to be dry, clean and tidy again - it took us all day.

NB We used to hide what we did in the camp when doing maintenance, now we proudly do it in the wide open camps.

Again most of the camp are local Swedes, with a few German's and Polish thrown in.  They all seem to love Mildred and lined up at one stage for photos.

Tomorrow we go and explore Sweden.  

Dzien dobry Poland

Since our last update we haven’t had access to internet, which is amazing we thought Germany would be well up with the play.

We visited the amazing Black Forest with it's narrow windy hilly roads.

Germany was amazing and we covered all the German essentials especially for being away in a Volkswagen.

Firstly we went to Annafest for 2 days, this is a German beer festival in Forchheim.  It was an excellent cultural experience, and even though I’m not that into beer I managed to sink 3 steins (of wine).  Great bands, people, etc.  Daryl managed to get his Bratwurst in, with his steins!

From there we went to Kassel for the VW factory photo.

Then to Wolfsburg for a tour of the Autostadt.

Now it's time to explore Poland.

Guten Tag Germany

After Prague we travelled north to Hradek nad Nisou, where we biked from the camp along the river to the tri-border of Germany, Poland and Czech Republic.  As the actual border was in the middle of the river, there was a marker the same distance from the border in each of the countries.  The cycleway was great and we ended up continuing on into Germany and Poland for a bit.

We were the only non Czech at the camp and near the camp was something that I never wanted to see in my life (and since then I’ve seen 3) a nuclear power plant.  Needless to say we didn’t drink any water or swim in the lake and we didn’t see any locals with 3 arms or anything.

The next day we travelled to Germany to a wee place called Jena.   We chose this place because of our daughter’s name, Jenna.  It was a university town and again a great cycle track along a river into town, where we looked about before having dinner and wobbling back to camp on our bikes.

It was again a lovely camp with mainly Dutch holidaymakers.  The lady who ran the café/bar had just imported a beautiful Airstream caravan from USA.  I wanted it!

Then we were off to Rothenburg ob der Tauber a quaint walled town near the start of the Romanic Road.  Again we biked into the town (6km) which was up hill all the way (going home with our night’s supplies was nice though) and we strolled the village.  Their speciality was Schneeballe’s which were shortbread like dough rolled into lengths, smothered in whatever the option was then rolled into a ball about the size of a softball.  We got two for supper one traditional one which had sugar on it and one it nougat.

Today we took the romantic strasse (road) and ended up in a wee place called Lechbruck Am See, 

which is on the side of a manmade lake.  The road was very scenic and we loved not being on the Germany motorways. 

As the weather is now cooler we are back to cooking, tonight I’m trying to cook a German meal of Schnitzel, Sauerkraut and potatoes – not much colour to tonight’s dinner plate.

Pretty Prague

We are currently on our third day in Prague and it’s rained a little every day.  We have even had to add two blankets to our sheets on the bed as its cold at night.

After leaving our first Czech camp we headed for Rasna, to a small camp that was very much a local Czech campsite far off the beaten tourist trails.  It was lovely and relaxing walking in the forest along the pools.

Whilst there Daryl did a repair (#2) to his favourite jandals as they keep falling apart on him.

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Prague also meant the replacement mirror ordered about 10 days earlier was awaiting us and was promptly fitted into its rightful place.  Our temporary mirror had done us proud though and is packed away (just in case)

(Our 1000 mile an hour tape is fantastic for all these jobs)

We caught the tram to Prague central on Thursday and wandered the streets of both new and old towns, before heading over the bridge to look at the castle, and walked over famous Charles Bridge.  We also stopped at the Prague’s historic clock in the central part of old town.  Prague is a truly beautiful city that impressed us both immensely.

Our camp is also very lovely, well groomed lawns, gardens and clean, tidy bathrooms.  It’s a tiny camp, and is full to capacity each night we us all squeeze closely together.  We have had a large range of nationalities at this camp, ranging from Belgium, Dutch, Swedish, German, French, Asian, English, Czech, Irish, Latvian, Russian and Polish.  As a result we now have contact details for both Sweden and Ireland – I hope they know what they were doing!

Today after a late start due to having visitors for breakfast and light drizzle we biked along the Vltava River to Bohnice.  We had no destination in mind, just took the right turn instead of the recommended left (that would have taken us into Prague) and biked along the river bank’s cycle track about 3.5km before heading inland and upwards  (a constant, but slight incline for 2 km) to the district.  It was an eye opener seeing all the huge concrete block apartment buildings, side by side, one after the other.  We felt so lucky to live in beautiful New Zealand.

Once there we lunched with the locals at this crowded pub, they couldn’t speak English and of course the menu was in Czech so we just went eneg meeng miney mo to pick and ended up with two lunches that were most enjoyable, although my arteries are glad I didn’t get Daryl’s meal of a fried Camembert cheese wheel, with tartare sauce and potatoes.  I got chicken steak with hot chillies on top.  (sorry no photos didn't want to look too much like a bloody tourist)

Tomorrow we are on the road again.

Ahoj Slovakia and Dobry den Czech Republic

After leaving Budapest we came to this lovely village right on the Hungary/Slovakia border (Hungarian side) that had lovely thermal pools.  The first day we only found the indoor hot ones, but the second day we discovered the cool (25 deg) outside pool – bliss.  It was a great camp and we got some biking in, in-between our swims.

Then we crossed the border into Slovakia and went to a manmade lake in Zlate Piesky, close to Bratislava.   We stayed two nights and caught the tram into Bratislava for a look around.  

We were given a detailed pamphlet on crime and security at the camp and the police patrolled regularly.  On our departure we stopped at the Tesco superstore and when Daryl went out to the car park a guy tried to distract him with selling fake watches whilst his mate had the side cutters out trying to cut our lock off the bikes to steel my bike!  Daryl seen the cutters and asked him what the hell he was doing.  

The guy then went all chatty and friendly asking if the bike was for sale.  A lucky save for us, especially as Daryl was by himself as I was posting Agnes’ birthday postcard at the Posta.  The plastic surround from the bike lock was cut.

And that was our last impression of Slovakia.  Daryl has been commonly walking away form Mildred with the keys still in the ignition and is now thinking he needs to be more cautious - finally!

We arrived in Czech Republic today and so far have been most impressed.  We are currently camped by a dammed lake in a huge camp ground that I reckon has about 15 restaurants onsite plus various other shops.  We biked around the lakeside to the nearest village for a look.

Jo napot kivanok Hungary

We left Romania and headed for Hungary, getting stopped at the border for quite a while whilst they argued amongst themselves on whether our Mildred was allowed in, finally they seen since and we were off.

We saw a lot of Hungary countryside on our trip to Budapest and arrived at our chosen campsite hot and sticky after being stuck in a traffic jam in the city due to an accident.  Zugligeti “Niche” Camping, which uses an old tramline station as its restaurant/office and the campsite plots are up the old railway reserve.

We have had 2 nights here already and will depart tomorrow to destinations unknown.  Whilst here in Budapest we took advantage of the Hop on Hop Off bus and toured the city taking in the amazing architecture and the Danube River. 

It hasn’t got any colder for us we have had 41 deg plus heats the past few days and I have invested in a spray bottle for pot plants and squirt ourselves as we drive along.  Daryl thought it stupid to start with, but soon took a liking to it.

Our Hungarian meal, Hungarian Stew with Dumplings.