Gdansk, Polish roadworks and a birthday swim in a Polish lake!
After Sunday in Sopot we caught the train on Monday morning into Gdansk, (a quick and efficient way to get into the city.) After finding our way into an interesting exhibition of coursework from the students at the Academy of Fine Arts, we emerged into the Old Town and into the middle of St Dominic's Fair. It seems he is 750 years old so all the streets are lined with stalls and street entertainers and there are various events taking place for about a month.
There seemed to be food stalls from many different European countries and we bought some Turkish Baclava from one, to eat with our coffee, bought from another. We saw the Old Port Crane which is one of the iconic symbols of the city, a pirate ship and far too many stalls selling amber!
Pirate ship was actually diesel powered and doing river trips!
There were various of these strange cars going up and down the river.
Eventually we escaped for some peace and quiet into the cathedral which houses a fifteenth century astronomical clock which is an amazing piece of engineering.
Tuesday we set off for the Mazurian Lakes area and a site we had stayed on back in 2007. The satnav suggested that the journey would take 3 - 4 hours but that was before the motorway came to an abrupt end, in a pile of sand, and the next 30 kilometres or so consisted of a contraflow on some narrow temporary lanes beside the major construction works on the next section of the motorway. To make matters worse some of the Polish drivers seem to lack two essential qualities for such a situation - patience and common sense. As soon as there was a break in the flow of traffic in the other direction, some idiot would pull out and hare off down the outside of our line just assuming that someone would let him in when the oncoming traffic resumed! We watched some near misses and then we all came to a halt for about an hour, boredom relieved by reading our books and occasionally watching the various emergency vehicles fighting their way through. When we eventually got moving again we passed the scene of a head on collision between what had been a small red saloon car and a large truck. The ambulance had taken someone away but there was very little left of the front half of the car. That delay plus the fact that the satnav had been confused by the presence of two towns in Poland with the same name (or maybe it was I who was confused) and the afternoon temperature reaching over 30 degrees turned it into a long and frustrating journey of more like 7 hours only to find that the site we were heading for was full. Fortunately the owner was very helpful and directed us back to another lakeside site not far away which had room, although it was quite full with young families. It turned out to be quite a nice place to spend a couple of days.
We booked in for two nights because Wednesday was my birthday and I was not prepared to spend it in another hot Polish traffic jam.
After some thundery rain overnight, Wednesday dawned bright and clear and we managed to get a sufficient wifi signal to send and receive messages although it was inadequate for the blog (actually a blessing as I didn't want to spend my birthday typing!)
We actually swam in the lake in the late afternoon and it was not as cold as we both feared it might be. In the evening we had a beer at the campsite bar and then another beer and a very nice meal in a not so promising looking restaurant next door to the campsite, overlooking the lake.
Thursday morning we set off again, after replenishing our stocks of diesel, gas and food, in order to deplete our stocks of Polish zlotis, as we will not be coming back through Poland.
We headed for the Lithuanian border and to another campsite, on the Lithuanian side, that we had stayed on last time. The journey was not so long and hot this time so we arrived in good shape. The site has changed hands and character somewhat but it sits beside a large lake, most of which is in Russia (Kaliningrad), apart from a narrow strip along the Lithuanian shore. It is in a rather isolated corner of Lithuania and so is very quiet, in contrast to the previous Polish site.
Street Theatre
The Crane overlooking the river
Pirate ship was actually diesel powered and doing river trips!
There were various of these strange cars going up and down the river.
Eventually we escaped for some peace and quiet into the cathedral which houses a fifteenth century astronomical clock which is an amazing piece of engineering.
Tuesday we set off for the Mazurian Lakes area and a site we had stayed on back in 2007. The satnav suggested that the journey would take 3 - 4 hours but that was before the motorway came to an abrupt end, in a pile of sand, and the next 30 kilometres or so consisted of a contraflow on some narrow temporary lanes beside the major construction works on the next section of the motorway. To make matters worse some of the Polish drivers seem to lack two essential qualities for such a situation - patience and common sense. As soon as there was a break in the flow of traffic in the other direction, some idiot would pull out and hare off down the outside of our line just assuming that someone would let him in when the oncoming traffic resumed! We watched some near misses and then we all came to a halt for about an hour, boredom relieved by reading our books and occasionally watching the various emergency vehicles fighting their way through. When we eventually got moving again we passed the scene of a head on collision between what had been a small red saloon car and a large truck. The ambulance had taken someone away but there was very little left of the front half of the car. That delay plus the fact that the satnav had been confused by the presence of two towns in Poland with the same name (or maybe it was I who was confused) and the afternoon temperature reaching over 30 degrees turned it into a long and frustrating journey of more like 7 hours only to find that the site we were heading for was full. Fortunately the owner was very helpful and directed us back to another lakeside site not far away which had room, although it was quite full with young families. It turned out to be quite a nice place to spend a couple of days.
We booked in for two nights because Wednesday was my birthday and I was not prepared to spend it in another hot Polish traffic jam.
After some thundery rain overnight, Wednesday dawned bright and clear and we managed to get a sufficient wifi signal to send and receive messages although it was inadequate for the blog (actually a blessing as I didn't want to spend my birthday typing!)
We actually swam in the lake in the late afternoon and it was not as cold as we both feared it might be. In the evening we had a beer at the campsite bar and then another beer and a very nice meal in a not so promising looking restaurant next door to the campsite, overlooking the lake.
Selfie without the aid of a stick, and probably not helped by the beers!
Thursday morning we set off again, after replenishing our stocks of diesel, gas and food, in order to deplete our stocks of Polish zlotis, as we will not be coming back through Poland.
We headed for the Lithuanian border and to another campsite, on the Lithuanian side, that we had stayed on last time. The journey was not so long and hot this time so we arrived in good shape. The site has changed hands and character somewhat but it sits beside a large lake, most of which is in Russia (Kaliningrad), apart from a narrow strip along the Lithuanian shore. It is in a rather isolated corner of Lithuania and so is very quiet, in contrast to the previous Polish site.
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