Sopot and Gdańsk

Sixth stop

After a very, very wet journey and a little excitement* finding the site, we're here in Sopot, looking forward to exploring the area, despite the weather.

*Well, we missed the site entrance (hardly visible, faded sign etc etc) and turned down the next road which turned out to be a dead end to the beach with a 90 degree bend. Given that our outfit is over 12m long with nowhere to reverse-turn, we had to un-hitch and turn the van round using the motor mover (it's 1.7 tonnes), thus providing a group of local guys with a phone video opportunity. Just hitched up and a very helpful woman in a BMW X5 reverses up and offers to lead us to the site entrance, which we overshoot slightly. I begin to reverse with the hazards on, then realise that a police van is pulling up behind.... so we follow the BMW lady around the next island with the police van in tow then promptly turn into the site (which really doesn't look like a site), waving thanks to all, including the police. Phew! Helpful Polish people, yet again - probably thinking mad English caravanners.. not quite our usual slick effort, by some considerable margin.

When the rain stops and turns into a light fog, we walk into Sopot and head along the longest wooden pier in Europe apparently. Nice beer in a cool bar, too. Nice place.

Along the pier - making the most of our European citizenship....

The mist falls on the square

Should stick to Costa Coffee - not the local beer...

A day in Gdańsk

We use the local train to take a day in Gdansk and, as we might have expected, it's a mighty impressive place; the old town is dominated by five story stately buildings but there is still a sense of space, especially in the main Long Market and it's here that we take a leisurely lunch, helped down by a glass of Żywiec.
Much of the centre was reconstructed after the destruction in WW2 and it's been fastidiously maintained since then.

The tall houses

 

 Long Market

The view from the top of the largest brick-built church in the world (St. Mary's); of course we climbed it! 405 steps.

This is where the fall of the communist state arguably began with the creation of the workers' union, Solidarity, in September 1980 in the Lenin Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. Until this time, all unions in Warsaw pact countries were controlled by the communist state.

A monument to the fallen shipyard workers of 1970.
MORE

There's so much more but you've read enough.

Into Hel

After a visit to a ViaToll customer service centre to register on their app so we can top up our ViaToll account online (super helpful again) we continue on to Hel, a small town at the tip of a narrow peninsula reaching into the Baltic sea.

Sat Nav looks interesting...

Hel  has seen more than its fair share of conflict from the 17th century through to WW2 and the peninsula is dotted with relics of war (and the cold war). Although it has its fair share of 'seaside' trivia shops, it's clearly a favourite with young families and we can see why. A fascinating time here (and another nice lunch...)

Hel Harbour

At the very tip of the peninsula

Relics of WW2

On the way back from Hel, we're stopped by the border police for 20 minutes to check our docs and that the car's not stolen, I guess. Unfortunately their computer crashes so we chat to the officer while it's sorted, bridging our language problems with Google Translate. All good in the end though.

On the road again and heading for 'home', we visit Gdynia, where a WW2 battleship and a three masted schooner are docked.

Great day, worn out, time to plan the journey tomorrow. We're heading for Elblag.... See you there, all being well.

Torun: UNESCO World Heritage

Fifth Stop

It was a great decision to stop at Torun for a night before we head for Sopot, near Gdansk.

Camping Tramp is easy to reach and a 1km walk over the nearby river bridge takes us into the walled UNESCO old town. While reading about the brick-built churches sounds impressive, the reality of the scale of the architecture is breathtaking as we wander  to the wonderful town square.

Torun claims to be the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus  and his presence is felt all over the town. Surprisingly, given my fascination with things astronomical, we give his museum a miss as our arrival coincides with a visit by what looks like a zillion small schoolchildren. Still, we saw a display of his instruments in Krakow last year.

We climb to the top of the Cathedral tower (of course) and finish up with a wonderful cup of chocolate from a specialist chocolate shop near the square. Highly recommended.

Into the walled city..

Up to the bell tower..

Views from the top

Copernicus himself

This guy saved the town from a plague of frogs by playing the fiddle. Or so they say...

Beautiful, even in the rain

We have to walk back to camp over that bridge.

Sopot tomorrow is the plan.

Meanwhile the mist starts to rise as the sun sets in Torun

Poznan in Poland

Poznan: fourth stop (3 days?)

We're snuggled down in the 'van in Camping Malta on the edge of  Poznan.

Into town tomorrow; let's try the tram.

So, it's tomorrow now, er, if you see what I mean. A great day in a attractive, interesting city full of history. We travel in and out by tram and bus, have a great lunch and absorb the culture. Nice people.

The old market square: Stary Rynek

Crowds wait for the 12 o' clock spectacular as two metal goats emerge from the clock tower and lock horns. Really!!

Try this if you dare:

Crazy? Made by my Huawei phone. What else is it up to?


Church of St Stanislaus (mid 17th Century)

 Again

Monument to the victims of the crushing of the 1956 workers strike by force, including tanks.

The Poznan Citadel Museum in the park which was once the last stand of 200,000 German troops in February 1945.

The Cathedral to the east of the town.

A day in Gneizno
Around 45minutes NE of Poznan, historic Gniezno makes a fascinating day trip, despite the drizzle. Poland's Duke Mieszko was baptised here, starting the nation's Catholic journey. We take in the historic buildings, eat in the square and take an audio tour of the cathedral and museum complex. We finish it off (and us) by climbing the 240 steps the top of the cathedral's right hand tower.

See that right hand tower?

Well, here's the view from it

These little chaps are all over the place; perhaps they come alive after dark...

We've decided to head for Torun next. See you there?

Under Way

That moment of excitement and slight apprehension has, at last, arrived. As we haven't shaken down the 'van since its winter lay up and service, we take a short hop to just across the border into Belgium where we stop at a small ACSI-listed site, Camping Kindervreugde. We've stopped here before as it's close to the motorway but quiet: an ideal 'over nighter'.
The point of shaking down the 'van is to make sure everything works and we haven't forgotten anything.... So if we had I wouldn't now have a satellite receiver with the wrong power supply, now, would I?

Second Stop
Venlo  in the Netherlands - and a very nice little Riverside town it is, too. Can't believe how busy it is on Sunday afternoon.

Coffee Stop
Breaking up a long day crossing Germany

Third Stop
We decide to do a long day so here we are, nine hours after setting off, just south of Berlin at Campingplatz Krossinsee on the Krossinsee lake.... well, not on the lake, obviously; we're under the trees, as you see.

...and here's the lake:

Ok, that's it for this post as we head for our first objective, Poznan, in Poland. There's just one hurdle in the way and that's obtaining a ViaBox to automatically pay motorway tolls as our outfit exceeds 3.5 tonnes.... and we don't have the Euro 6 certification document for our Touareg because VW's system had a meltdown and there's a backlog.  Could be fun.

Post Script

Obtaining our all important ViaBox (see last post) is no problem once we locate the Via Customer Service Centre - which turns out to be a small office at the back of a large building full of small offices. No signs. Lots paperwork and signing but we breathe a sigh of relief as we attach it to the windscreen having paid our deposit and loaded it with 120 Zloty. Despite the process, everyone helpful though.
All this underlines the importance of planning because we saw no indication of a box being required or where to get one as we rolled into the country. We understand the fine for not having one is around £800....