Oct 5, 2017 - Warsaw

One day in Warsaw and it’s raining! Started the day visiting the Warsaw Rising Museum. The content of the museum was really good, covering Poland’s involvement in WWII, but the layout was quite confusing. After lunch we went on a quick orientation walk around the Old Town, which was surprisingly small. Warsaw was totally decimated in the war, and the Old Town had been reconstructed exactly has it had been prior to the war. Free time for the rest of the day, so we climbed a tower for the view, walked around the Old Town, drank hot chocolate...

Oct 4, 2017 - Along The Baltic Coast

Day 24 - Wednesday 4th October - Mielno (Koszalin), Poland Up early & on the road North out of Gdansk by 7.30am. Just planning to head around the coast back towards Germany. Stopped for coffee by the Northernmost lighthouse in Poland before turning West. Rained on & off during the day. No dramas but did see a couple of deer crossing the road ahead of us once, otherwise an uneventful day. Stopped late afternoon at a car park by the sea & settled in for the night. Actually joined there by one other motorhome. Mileage Today - 173 Mileage To...

Oct 3, 2017 - Stutthof Concentration Camp & Gdansk

Day 23 - Tuesday 3rd October - Gdansk, Poland It rained a lot during the night, the first rain we've had since leaving Vilnius on 21st September. We were up early & headed back the six miles to the Concentration Camp to get there when they opened at 8am. Another 7 zlotys for the car park but this at least gave us three hours of parking. As it was we didn't use the three hours. We spent just over two hours wandering around what is left of the old camp. It is all very well set up & organised for people to see some of the horrors of what took...

Oct 2, 2017 - Heading To Gdansk

Day 22 - Monday 2nd October - Stegna, Poland Moving on we headed up towards Gdansk on the North coast of Poland. Poland seems to have it's fair share of lakes & we passed quite a few. We also noticed a lot of stork nests on top of telephone & electricity poles along the roads, seems like they are left there all the time as I don't think it is the time of the year for any storks to appear. We did have a bit of fun in the middle of Olsztyn, a rather large city, when we ran into roadworks & a diversion which threw our SatNav into confusion....

Oct 1, 2017 - Back Into Poland

Day 21 - Sunday 1st October - Gizycko, Poland Moved on early again following the border with the Russian territory to the West. Our SatNav, Ethel, did try to take us along the main road into the Russian territory but after going right up to the border crossing point we chickened out & turned South. We got stopped along the way twice today. The first time by a police patrol in one of the towns we passed through. The handsome (Viv's opinion) young policeman pulled us over & asked, in excellent English, for our documents. Then he proceeded to...

Sep 19, 2017 - Our Last Day

Today is our last day and we've been blessed with a bright sunny day. According to the Weather Channel it was supposed to be in the high 50's, low 60's, so we bundled up and headed for the bus stop. There is one across the street but we wanted to go in the opposite direction. Due to major road construction, this street is now a one way street so there is no bus stop on our side of the street. So we head off in the direction we wanted to go and figured the next bus stop shouldn't be too far off. Guess again. About 20 minutes later we find...

Sep 19, 2017 - Northeast Poland

Day 9 - Tuesday 19th September Warsaw a bit of a disappointment & we didn't see anything to tempt us to stay longer so we made an early start & headed North out of the city towards the border with Lithuania. Again long straight roads with plenty of service areas. We did notice lots of small religious monuments along the way at road junctions. We stopped the night at a really nice camp site in a town called Suwalki. A proper motorhome site with great facilities & only 53 Zlotys, about £11. Considering the car park in Warsaw cost us 50 Zlotys...

Sep 18, 2017 - Warsaw

Day 8 - Monday 18th September We pushed on across Poland to Warsaw. Again staying off the motorways to make the driving more interesting. Most of the road we were on was long, straight & flat with wide open fields & few towns or cities along the way. Lots & lots of maize fields although we did go through long stretches of apple orchards as we neared Warsaw. Our stop for the night was right at the back of a large car park. Bit grotty but handy for getting into the old city area. We parked up & hopped on a bus for a thirty minute ride to the...

Sep 18, 2017 - Riding Bus 180

After a late start we decided to ride the 180 bus. At an intersection just South of us is a palm tree (real) that we wanted to see! So (walking) south on Nowy Swiat to see the Palm tree we were also looking for a bus stop so we could ultimately go North! Our walk took us further than we expected but we finally found a bus stop for 180 going the correct direction only to watch 10 to 12 buses (not 180) go by! Finally one came and we hopped on with our goal to go to Multimedia Fountain Park. It was built on an old concrete pond near Old Town...

Sep 17, 2017 - On Into Poland

Day 7 - Sunday 17th September Left the camp & drove on into Poland. No great sign of any difference & almost unaware of the border. Did notice a difference in the language though on the signs. Most names unpronounceable & the alphabet has many extra strange characters. The money is different too & we now need Polish Zlotys, about 4.5 to the pound. The Diesel & LPG are cheaper in Poland so we filled up as soon as we crossed the border. The road across from Germany was good & we noticed both in Poland & in Germany that there were lots of...

Sep 17, 2017 - Rainy Day in Warsaw

Today the weather is going to catch up with us. We've had rain off and on but always at night. Today the forecast is for rain until tomorrow starting at noon, or 11 depending on whose device you are looking at. We both use the Weather Channel but the forecasts are always a little different. We wanted to see the formal ceremony for the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which is only on Sundays at 12. We decided to chance it and we made it through without any rain. After seeing the same at Buckingham Palace, this was...

Sep 16, 2017 - Warsaw

Our first day in Warsaw. Warsaw's darkest days came during the Nazi occupation of World War II. The Jewish residents were forced into a tiny ghetto - they rose up and were slaughtered; then the Polish residents rose up and they were slaughtered! An estimated 800,000 residents were dead! The Poles did not give up, they decided to rebuild and it appears they are still rebuilding! As we had stocked the fridge last evening we had breakfast in and then decided to again follow Rick Steves and his Royal Walk for Warsaw to the Palace Square and Old...