Polish Adventure

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From Rhineland to Saxony – March 5th to April 5th

It’s been a month since the last update, and that was done from a Mid West Germany. Now we’re in Mid East Germany but the route from A to B has not been as simple as it sounds.

From Trier we were heading up to the low counties. Firstly a quick trip through Belgium and then to spend around a week in Holland. I did want to stop in Brussels but that wasn’t really realistic given that there is nowhere specifically designed to park the van and I had unsurprisingly done no research of a suitable place (shock horror). So the first and only stop in Belgium was in Antwerp. Now I know I’ve said this before, but would you ever go to Antwerp for a weekend away or even as a tourist? I wouldn’t have. Again I’d have been wrong though. It has a lively and picturesque market square, and plenty of sights and bars to keep you entertained for a good few days. I spent about an hour in a cathedral Not because it was amazing, but because the heavens opened and I wasn’t the only one taking cover. Maybe it was god’s way of getting people to go to church??

From Antwerp the idea was to go to Amsterdam via a few towns, Breda, Kinderdijk, and Gouda. Gouda is a cheese lovers heaven. The size and number of the shops selling the wheels of cheese is impressive, whilst you kind of expect it it is still quite a site. The windmills in Kinderdijk are quite something too. What amazes me is the age of them, built around 300 years ago to drain the lowlands so they could be used to farm. Very clever stuff for the Neanderthals back then.

It was then on to Amsterdam which doesn’t really need much introduction. Had a great few days there touring all the different areas. Was quite disappointed to find many of the ‘shop windows’ empty, it seems that political correctness is affecting everybody not just us in the UK.

From Amsterdam it was a quick tour up and across the north of Holland. Not really much to report on those areas to be honest. I don’t imagine they get many tourists. The next stop was Bremen which was a fantastic city. From a picturesque market place with plenty of bars and café’s serving good German beer to riverside restaurants with large outdoor seating areas which would be perfect in the summer. There was even a few nice old buildings to stop and stare at and even an odd ‘Roland’ statue which is world renowned, as it was 600 years old it was quite a sight?!

From Bremen we stopped at Stade, a small town on the river Elbe. At first impression it was not too inspiring as we wandered around what we thought was the town with a few old buildings but nothing too inspiring, then we found the area by the Elbe which was beautiful, and it always helps when the sun comes out. Sitting having a beer watching some kids dive bombing into the river on a sunny afternoon was lovely, until PC Plod (yes, he even works in Germany) came along to move them along. A pleasant little town that is definitely worth a few hours if you were passing.

Next stop was Lubeck, one of the most interesting things about this city is that all the old buildings were brick built, so massive church’s and the huge town hall which you would normally see built in stone were built in brick, which just looks odd. I think it made the cathedral look even more grand. The town gate was an impressive sight too, not just because part of it seemed like it would collapse as it was leaning at an obscure angle, but again as it was brick built and over 500 years old.

From here we headed down to Schwerin, a quieter part of the world, but a very rich one, both now and in the past. The ‘Schloss Schwerin’ was the 15th century castle that was the Royal Residence of the Mecklenburg dukes in its day and is now part museum and part parliament building. A very impressive sight from a distance, with a wonderful setting.

We then spent a day wandering around the Meklenburg National Park. Some of the views over the massive Lake Muritz were amazing. The Crane and Stalks we saw were quite a sight too. Massive birds, not something we ever see at home. I couldn’t really tell them apart to be honest but still…

From Muritz it was a few hours up to Straslund and then the Island of Ruggen. Straslund is full of Burgher houses, built up to 500 years ago. Really pretty town where the once massive port seems to do very little and now relies on tourism for an economy.

The Island of Rugen is the largest in Germany, and quite a tourist trap. We stayed in a town called Sellin, are as you walk along the main road towards the coast you can see the amount of money that the town must be worth. It’s one of the main places that the Germans go on holiday in their own country and the investment is massive. It’s a similar case all over the island, and much or Germany’s north coast.

And then it was on to Poland. Whilst there is virtually no border crossing anymore, it’s so obvious when you do cross it. Within 100’s of metres things change. Advertising signs are everywhere. Shady characters are on the side of the road trying to flog stolen chainsaws. Road conditions deteriorate immediately. The one good thing is fuel prices drop by about 20%! We were aiming for a place to stop on the north coast so we had to pass the city of Szczecin. It would have been nice to bypass the city to save a bit of time but we literally had to drive straight through and that was a bit of an eye opener. It was certainly a quick welcome to Poland. Some of the roads we drove on were laughable. The buildings showed how little money there was, it is amazing that so close to Germany the struggle that still goes on in eastern Europe. We didn’t really have time to stop, and not sure we really wanted to either. We headed for the north coast and took the appropriate motorway. Now I say motorway as that’s what it was But at home, we would laugh at someone if they called it a motorway. At times I had to drive at 30kms, less than 20mph, that’s how bad the road got. The good news was when you could see a blue EU sign up ahead you knew the road was going to improve in a while as the sign was indicating that the EU had funded the new road. Tarmac under the wheels didn’t half feel like a treat.

The satnav had the appropriate coordinates for the first nights stopover so after entering the town and it wanting to instruct us to drive down some muddy tracks we eventually managed to redirect ourselves to the campsite only to find it closed. So it was onto choice number two. Now this was in a town called Darlowo. Or a suburb of the town I’m not sure. It was off the main roads, sSo it meant driving down side roads. Side roads with potholes that were more numerous than the road itself. At times I felt like turning round but you plod on, and on, and on. Eventually we found the site, and it was open. All was not lost!

This continued for another day, as we headed towards Gdansk. Every town we passed through we were shocked at how poor it looked. Occasionally you’d see a nice house being built, and I use the present tense as nearly all seemed in some stage of construction. Rare was it that you saw a new house complete.

Eventually we got to Gdansk, found the planned overnight stop shut and being built upon so managed to find a carpark to leave the van for the next few hours so we could visit the town itself. And that was a surprise, it was as if we’d entered another country. The Old Town had been reconstructed afer being 95% destroyed during WWII. And we were shocked by how nice it was. The rich town houses were there in abundance. It was mainly done for tourists I’d assume as many of the buildings were bars, restaurants and shops. But it was nice to see after the last few days. Outside the old town Gdansk didn’t look much different to the other cities we’d seen. I shan’t go into too much detail as to how we got to the campsite that night. Needless to say the estimated 40 minute trip took 2 hours. More bad roads. Houses built where roads were supposed to be and more mudtracks. I bet you get the idea….

From Gdansk it was a long drive back to Germany, with Berlin as the destination. 7 hours behind the wheel was fine as the carrot at the end was decent roads, and it’s amazing what a good carrot that was!

As you can imagine there isn’t too many old historic buildings in Berlin. The Brandenburg gate is obviously world famous, and even that wasn’t overly impressive. Checkpoint Charlie was interesting, especially the exhibition and attached museum. You see what a struggle it was for those left in the old East Germany when the Russians were in charge. The holocaust memorial was a sobering sight. I nearly didn’t go into the underground information centre, as time was running out, but it was definitely worth the visit. It’s incredible to think what can happen in the so-called civilised world even as recently as the 40’s. Another incredible fact is that something like 2.8 million, of the c. 6 million murdered Jews, have not been identified. I guess when you wipe out whole families and communities you wipe out all those that remember them. It was the only place I’ve visited in the whole of Germany when you read the information that it didn’t have a slightly bitter slant on it. I guess there is no blaming the allied armies for that one.

From Berlin it was a day spent in Potsdam, once the royal palace before the monarchy was done away with in the early 1900’s. Unfortunately being a Monday, all the palaces and other buildings were closed, so the external view is all I got, though that was quite impressive in most circumstances. The New Palace was amazing, nowhere near as grand as Buckingham Palace of course, but what is?

Off to Bremen, Prague, Vienna and maybe Budapest over the next month or so if things go to plan……which they rarely do!
Auf Wiedersehen!

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Comments

[madge]

roads
Not sure if you really explained how bad the roads were! Mx