Poland 28th August
We left Brasov early on Monday morning and headed east.Our first Stop was at Sighisoara around 11.00. Parking at the supermarket near the center of town we first shopped and then went for a walk to the old part of the city. It is famous for many reasons but lately because of the popularity of vampires, it is the town where Vlad Tepes [who they though Dracula was based on] was born. The town was quite interesting and after a couple of hours tramping up and down the hill it is situated on we continued our travels. We stopped that night after a long drive and stayed in a campsite near Gillau , this was also run by dutch people and although by the very busy roadway was a pleasant place to stay. It was very quiet with only a few people around and we had decided that because of the long drives the previous days we decided to have a rest day and stayed there two nights.
Four countries in four days!!!!!
Our aim was to get to Poland to visit some of the historic and world heritage sites that are on our must do wish list, so we basically drove for the next few days until mid afternoon, found a campsite for the night and repeated this for a few days.
Wednesday: Romania to Hungary
Thursday: Hungary to Slovakia
Friday: Slovakia to Poland
Although we only passed through the countryside of Hungary & Slovakia we enjoyed the scenery and will have to make sure that we spend more time there on another trip.
One thing that happened that was quite unexpected happened as we had just passed over the border from Hungary into Slovakia. We had stopped to purchase a vignette at the service station when a car with British plates stopped to say hello. .Their names are Philip & Gwen and they were very friendly and after a bit of a chat we had an invite to come and stay with them at their home in Hungary (were they now live).. we had to decline as we are now on a schedule but we have a invite for the future when we return so that is something to look forward to.
Our first destination in Poland was Wieliczka which is just south-east of Krakow, and being our wedding anniversary I though that I would take Jenny somewhere romantic, so we went to the local salt mine for a visit. We joined the English speaking tour group which only had 11 people in it.So we headed down the stair case that had 360 stairs and found ourselves in the underground chambers that have been mined since the middle ages. There were displays of mining techniques, tools and tableau’s set up to show how life was for the miners and horses that worked there in the past. In other areas the chambers have been carved into chapels, conference rooms, statues of Polish famous figures and even the chandeliers were made with the salt crystals. The most impressive room was the Chapel of St Kinga where the floor tiles are polished salt, the walls carved with religious scenes and massive chandeliers give the room a surreal glow.
We spent a very pleasant couple of hours being led through the underground chambers and marveling at the sculptures made of salt.
We returned back to the camping ground which was a 20min walk from the mine and decide to have a romantic afternoon drink with a $6 bottle of bubbly from Hungary and some cracker with caviar that we splurged on from the Auchen Supermarket in Hungary. (@ $4 for a jar)Very classy!
Dinner out that night at the local restaurant adjoining the campsite, …service poor, food not impressive. But hey, I didn’t have to cook and do the dishes.Very romantic.
Footnote:this blog is half written by Ewout and the other well written part by Jenny.
Lol!
Another footnote; Ewout wants to tell everyone how much he spoils me… and he did a belated birthday/anniversary present. A new watch which cost a whopping 3790 Hungarian florints.. work that one out for yourself… a hint. Check out www.oanda.com.
