The Last Days of Summer

Our entry into Poland wasn’t quite as straight forward as expected. Following google (often a mistake) we headed towards the border, down a minor road that became unpaved as we approached the border itself.

We suddenly passed a sign saying “Poland” and we were in but then we came across a military roadblock and got pulled over. So much for the EU’s open borders ! Fortunately after a quick passport check and look inside we were waved through and were on our way again.

Our first port of call was a campsite in the Northern lake district of Poland. Nestled on a lakeside, we arrived on a holiday weekend to an absolutely packed campsite. After a good walk around we managed to find a quiet corner and enjoyed visiting the onsite bar for a couple of sundowner beers.

However we did have a small hiccup on the narrow road leading to the campsite when we clipped wing mirrors with a passing van. There was damage to both vehicles but thankfully the cover on our mirror seemed to take the brunt of the impact and as a result the damage was minimal. There were a tense few minutes while we were trying to work out what to do, they didn’t speak English and our Polish is non-existent, but eventually we agreed to meet them at the campsite just 100 metres further up the road as we were both blocking the road. However they didn’t turn up so I guess that was the end of that.

I managed to patch up our wingmirror, gluing the protector back together and all it needed was a new bulb in the indicator to be roadworthy which we managed to source easily enough from an autoparts store.

After a day relaxing in the campsite we headed off to the nearby Wolf’s Lair. Wolf’s Lair was Hitler’s main HQ during WWII and the location of the failed assassination attempt on 20 July 1944.

During the war this was one location where Hitler spent most of his time, around 800 days. At the end of the war the Wolf’s Lair was captured by the Red Army who used huge amounts of explosives to destroy the bunkers. The bunkers were such massive constructions however, that despite being cracked open, they are still standing today.

Wandering through the forest from bunker to bunker was a fascinating insight into the operation of the Nazi leaders during the war and the audio guide was very good. The only downside… having to fend off dense clouds of mosquitos. If you plan to visit in a motorhome, get there as early as possible as the car park was full by 10am.

Knowing we had limited time left, we were on something of a schedule and we drove south from the lake district to the city of Lodz. Not normally on the tourist trail we were visiting our friends Adrian and Magda who we had last seen in Cape Town earlier in the year.

We had a great day catching up and eating an absolute feast at a fantastic Polish restaurant near the Manufaktura shopping an entertainment complex.

Unfortunately it was just a flying visit and the next day we set out for Krakow. After finding parking near the centre we set out to explore Krakow on our bikes. We soon learnt that Krakow in the summer is a massive tourist destination and the centre of the city was absolutely rammed.

It is a lovely city though and despite not being able to get tickets for any of the attractions that we wanted to see (because they were all sold out so book in advance if you are visiting in the summer months) we still had a nice day wandering around.

After lunch, where we indulged in a few local beers, we headed back to sightseeing.

We did manage to visit part of the big central Wawel Royal Castle with tickets near the end of the day.

And, we found a great parking spot for the night overlooking the Zamek Tencyzn Castle.

Our next stop in Poland was at Wroclaw. This is a beautiful medieval city, very similar to Krakow, but nowhere near as busy and consequently it had a much more relaxed vibe.

Wroclaw is famous for its tiny Gnome figures dotted around the city, which began as a peaceful resistance movement against the communist regime in the 1980’s. Reports on the number of gnomes in the city vary but there may be as many as 800 scattered throughout.

Our last stop in Poland was in the town of Klodzko where there is a huge fortress. We didn’t visit the fortress itself but we walked around the medieval town which is interesting with some really old buildings.

We drove from here into the Czech Republic as we wanted to visit Prague – another really busy tourist city. Unfortunately we arrived in Prague under cloudy skies but we managed to find parking fairly centrally – at a football stadium.

It was an easy cycle into the central old town – although downhill all the way so the journey back was a lot harder work !

We arrived at the old town via the Charles Bridge which was the only bridge across the Vltava river until 1814 and it was built in the 1300’s. Once across the bridge you are into the medieval centre of the city and it is only a short distance to the Old Town Square which houses the famous Prague Astronomical Clock (or Prazsky orloj). The clock is famous for its hourly show where the twelve apostles appear in small doors a the top of the clock.

We managed to see the hourly show very early and the crowds were not too big but later in the day its was difficult to get anywhere near it.

After exploring the old town we made our way back across the river and headed up the hill to Prague Castle which is a sprawling complex looking out over the city. The castle was built in the 9^th century and is considered the largest ancient castle in the world.

Despite the crowds we enjoyed our day out in Prague, it’s an incredibly beautiful city but next time we visit it will definitely be out of season.

Prague was our last major destination of the trip but we did stop off at Pilzen as we headed towards Germany. Pilzen is famous as the birthplace of the Pilsener beer and of course we made sure that we tasted some while we were there.

We learnt that under Pilzen there is a network of tunnels which link most of the buildings in the city. They ae up to 3 stories deep and provide access to wells which were used to provide water for brewing of the famous beer. We managed to book on a tour of the tunnels and accessed 800m of them which was really interesting and the best bit was that it included a voucher for a beer afterwards !

It was almost time for our ferry back to the UK but we had to hot foot it across Germany first, which we did in a couple of days before arriving back in France. We spent the night before our ferry at the lovely town of Esquelbecq.

The ferry home was the end of our whirlwind trip to Scandinavia and the Baltics but we weren’t resting on our laurels because we were heading straight up to Scotland for the autumn.