Tuesday 3rd July to 8th July

Slovakia & Poland

After seeing Astrid off to the Airport, we had our breakfast, did some more washing and slowly got ready to leave the campsite. Leaving about 9.30 we headed north into Slovakia, and found a nice campsite in the middle of the country. A small campsite, run by a Dutch family on a small farm. Surrounded by hills and farmland it was a lovely quiet spot to stay for the night. While sitting viewing the countryside we saw movement across a nearby paddock and with my camera zoomed in it looked like a Lynx, which we found out are found in the local area. The campsite was well set up and even had a fire pit which was used for the entertainment of the camper’s and an opportunity to sit and socialize.

The next day we took off again and crossed the border into Poland, we stopped for the night in a campsite of Sandomierz and the next day drove a shorter distance to a resort town on the banks of the river Vistual.

Kazimierz Dolny has been known as a summer resort and artists’ destination. Delightful landscapes together with numerous remains from the past attract visitors to this town which gets especially busy in summer when the visitors from Warsaw come down to holiday.

The market Square has its old wooden well and is dominated by a 14th century church and several hills, where stand the ruins of a castle. They also make a bread in the shape of a chicken and sell it all over the place, we decided we had better buy some and see what it was like. Well.. bread.. a bit sweeter than normal but nothing to crow about.

After a night spent in the grounds of an old granary, (used for a campsite) we then drove on to Warsaw. We weren’t going to go there at first, but an Aussie lady from Perth in the campsite highly recommended it, and as it was on the way thought why not.

Now just a quick word on the roads in Poland.. if you are on the major roads, they are quite good. There has been a lot of upgrading of the roads in recent years and especially for the European cup that was held there this year. If you go on some of the smaller roads, then be prepared for a lot of rough spots and grooves from the trucks. It can be quite exhausting driving on the rough roads for a few hours, and it certainly can slow you down when driving in an old rattly motor home. I certainly felt “all shook up” by the end of each day and was glad to get to stop and sit quietly.

We arrived at the Camping ground 123, in Warsaw and found it to be quiet, but very run down. The advantage that this site had for us was that it was only 4 kms into the city and we had decided to get the bikes off the back of the van and use them for our touring. So after a quiet evening and early to bed we were ready to do the tourist thing.

Getting into the city was not at first an easy task, bike ways would suddenly end, tramways would bar the way with only long steps to negotiate them, road works and building works blocked other ways. Still we made it into the old part of town and found a great coffee place that finally had an ice cold coffee frappe that we have been looking for all our trip. Replenished and refreshed we rode our bikes through town, stopping to see the sights as we made our way through the winding streets and then back along the river path. We then worked our way back to the campsite through many of the parks stopping to enjoy the views, having a beer in a cafe (or 2) and finally getting back late in the afternoon.

The weather was quite warm and humid, but we found the bikes to be such an easy way to get around and it saved us a lot of time and effort with the advantage of the breeze as you go.

Sunday morning we decided to get an early start and left the campsite about 7.30am. We wanted to get a good way today as Ewout was keen to see the Wolf’s lair or Wolfsschanze, Adolf Hitler‘s first World War II Eastern Front military headquarters near the town of Ketrzyn. Luckily for us the roads were pretty quiet and we arrived there in the early afternoon. After having some lunch we bought an English language guide book and took a walk through the quiet forest which has such a infamous past.

The complex was blown up and abandoned on 25 January 1945, but many of the bunkers were so thick that their damaged walls and ceilings remain and are covered in lichen and moss. We found it an interesting place to visit even though it’s purpose was evil.