Roslyn in the Town square (Wroclaw, Poland) Hi there (‘Sveiki’ in Lithuanian). Vilnius calling. Here are the results of the Lithuanian vote: Deutschland douze points, Poland dix points and Lithuania douze points. We haven’t quite made it to Latvia yet… ;p We are actually calling from Vilnius today, the capital of Lithuania, but sadly the Eurovision is not here. What we have been up to - Week 3: After thoroughly enjoying Saxon Switzerland in Germany over the Easter weekend and the Bastei (see in pictures), we finally said goodbye to Deutschland and crossed the border into Poland on Easter Monday. We were a little bit worried that the cops were going to tell us off for driving (an equivalent HGV on a bank holiday), but luckily we didn’t get stopped. We crossed the Polish border around lunchtime and stopped at some Polish services to eat and get some Zloty. Later in the day we made it to Wroclaw (pronounced Rotswov) and parked up next to a supermarket just out of town. Tuesday we explored Wroclaw to soak up some Polish culture. It was a lot bigger than we had anticipated, but we managed to follow our noses to the main Market Square which is the second biggest in Poland. It was very impressive and it looked like they were preparing for an Easter Concert. I wanted to try some Polish Cuisine, so we sat outside one of the restaurants in the Market Square. This was our first ‘eating out’ of the trip so far, so we splashed out and enjoyed some chicken soup with dumplings and desert. We left Wroclaw Tuesday night to an epic thunder storm. The funny thing was, none of the locals were even bothered about it, but the lightening looked like it was right on top of us! It must happen a lot in Wroclaw! Tuesday eve, we travelled up the E67 towards Warsaw, and again all day Wednesday and Thursday we were on the road soaking up the Polish landscape. The soil is really sandy and the E67 cuts through lots of coniferous woods full of deer (but unfortunately I didn’t spy any). For me, the most exciting thing to see were the white storks! There are lots of them combing through the fields in Poland (we think, looking for frogs or worms to eat), but even more charming, they build nests on huge electric poles, or on trees near people’s houses. As we drove north, it seemed every village had it’s own friendly resident stork sat on eggs! They are awesome, especially when they do a fly-by. Love it! Ed says its good luck in Poland to have a stork on your roof. I want to take one home ;p By Thursday lunchtime we crossed the border into Lithuania (the land of lakes). The weather has remained kind to us since the lightening storm in Wroclaw on Tuesday, and sat in Vilnius right now, its 17 degrees and sunny, when the average temperature in April is only supposed to be 10 degrees apparently. After crossing the border yesterday, we followed the A16 to the capital stopping over night at a village called Trakai, which had beautiful lakes and a restored red brick castle. We had a lovely mooch about there last night and were charmed by the Lithuanian for 'Thank You' which is Aaci (pronounced Achoo, like a sneeze!). We parked up in car park last night in Trakai, and this morning drove the final 30km into Vilnius and have treated ourselves to some food. As I write this, I am in Vilnius Town Hall (which looks like a mini St Pauls Cathedral) and Ed is snoozing outside in the sun. He's a bit tired today because some of the Polish roads enroute to Lithuania were quite bumpy and potholed. Thank god for suspension seats! Annoying though, part of the truck exhaust has shaken loose. Ed managed to fix it this morning, and we're hoping it will be ok. From now on however, we'll be looking for a DAF dealership so we can buy the spare part in case it gets loose again. Apart from the exhaust - the truck is holding up well. Only minor disasters. We had a water leak about one week in, the hooks on the back of the door fell off (it was too hot and they were stuck with Velcro) and Ed had to rewire the lights. Also the diesel heater is being temperamental, but it still works thank god. One night was so cold (in the Thurungia Forest in Germany) that we had to leave it on all night! So now, the plan is drive further north-east through Lithuania today and tomorrow, and cross the border into Latvia. Then on Monday, the adventure finally begins as we reach the Russian border..... Potentially we could be there all day on Monday. The plan next week is to drive south through Russia to the Kazakhstan border in 5 days, otherwise we will have to register ourselves as being present in Russia. When we get to Kazakhstan (hopefully a week tomorrow) we shall break out the bubbly! So there maybe some radio silence from us the next week or so, as we are not sure if our phones will work in Russia. We may have to buy a sim card. Similarly, we're not sure about the Wifi situation there either! Hopefully though - Ed will enjoy himself immensely watching the Russian trucks next week, and if the roads are anything like Poland, I'll be thankful for the suspension seats protecting my derrier! Until next time. Love Ros & Ed
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Happy Easter! It's been harder to find Wifi in Germany than we thought it would be. Today is Good Friday and we are spending Easter in Saxon Switzerland just south-east of Dresden. We are currently about 1.5km from the Czech border and around 100km from the Polish border. Its raining today, and we have managed to procure Wifi in the village of Bad Shandau (see picture attached), which has several cake shops (Konditerei) to keep us both happy. The truck is currently parked in another awesome spot, just by the river. This week, we have had, sun, hail and rain! - so not as hot as last week. We knew it couldn't last forever. Since leaving Konigstein, we drove north-east to Thurungia and spent a couple of days there enjoying the footpaths. The temperature dropped dramatically from a balmy 20 degrees, to about 7 degrees, but we wrapped up warm and enjoyed the scenery around Eisenach and Wurtzburg Castle (Tuesday) before driving through the Saale Valley to our current destination. We have been trying to keep up to date with the news, and Ed's mum (Rosie) has a contact in Eastern Ukraine, so we are waiting to confirm whether or not we should go there at all following the recent skirmishes in the east. We are debating an alternative route, to take us north through Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, as Ed has never visited those countries before (and I definitely haven't!). We will then travel south through Russia and into Kazakhstan as planned. We're hoping to be in Russia within the next 10 days or so. We are hoping to get into Poland in the next few days, so soon we will be saying Auf Wiedersehen to Germany and Dzien Dobry to Poland. Hope your all enjoying the Easter Hols. Lots of Love, Ed & Ros. Ros: Hi there! It's been just over a week since we left the U.K and the weather on the Continent has been superb. We have been really lucky so far, and have found lots of amazing pull-inns and spoken to some really friendly people. After spending two nights by the Rowing lake in Ghent, we headed further south-east through Belgium and stayed overnight in a lovely lay-by, in a stunning limestone valley with some 'Grottes' (caves) nearby. We turned down a lay-by near the Grottes, but decided against it, as there was a dead Wild Boar in the ditch alongside it! Ed said "there's a dead black bear in the ditch", so I looked over his shoulder and it definately looked like a hog! Quite exciting none-the-less! You don't get road kill like that in Blighty. We didn't make it to the Grottes, but we hiked up the mountain and found a Hermitage built in the mid-1800's by one of Napolean's officers after the war. Even more wonderful up there, we stumbled upon a wild daffodil wood with small tete a tete flowers as far as the eye could see. Very pretty and a place to remember for the future. The town was called Han s/Lesse and was our last overnight stop in Belgium on Monday 7th April. By Tuesday we crossed the border into Luxembourg, and about an hour later, we were in Germany and heading for the Mosel Valley which promised wine (Riesling), magnificent views and oldie-worldy villages with hill-top castles. We weren't disappointed, and managed to find a brilliant lay-by in a small village called Bernkastel-Kues, where I finally got to practice my German, procuring Riesling and Apfel Strudel while Ed was snoozing in the truck. My pronunciation of 'Riesling' was corrected by an old German lady, which amused me greatly. I love zee Germans. Lots and lots of snoozing has been occurring this week by the way. Shameful. Neither of us have been up very early, as Germany is an extra hour ahead, and the start of British Summer Time not long before we left the U.K has confused our body clocks..... (this excuse is starting to wear thing, but we're sticking to it). The Mosel Valley is wonderful. The rocks look like north Wales (shale), which are dark brown, bronze, through to pink, but unlike North Wales, the slopes are literally covered in vines. There's not square-inch of free space, and some of the slopes are so steep, that there are chair lifts to aid the custodians of the grape. There are so many stunning villages along the River. Our second night was spent in a small town called Ediger-Eller, and our third in Hatzenport. A highlight so far was on Friday, where we walked 13 miles (round-trip) to an amazing castle (Burg-Eltz) in the Eltz Valley from Hatzenport (see picture attached). It was a beautiful walk and fantastic to finally stretch the old legs. That morning, a German cyclist stopped to speak to Ed. 'Do you need any help?' he enquired (Ed must have looked lost, or the German chap just wanted to chat). Ed asked him how far to the castle, and we were given perfect directions. We thought how nice zee Germans were. Also lots of truck compliments have been showered so far. It was so mild one evening that Ed got out his Ukranian Petrol Stove and he cooked sausages outside. Ed was very pleased with himself (see uploaded photos... coming soon). Now we are in Konigstein, and being wonderfully looked after by Christine and David, Ed's cousins. We have been treated to the first white asparagus of the season, and this morning I enjoyed some wine tasting (after breakfast)! So a sozzled welsh-girl was roaming Deutschland earlier today. All in all, the trip so far has been very pleasant, but we're holding on to these moments, to get us through the tough bits! The only hardship is lack of hot water! Tomorrow morning we head into central Germany enroute to Thurungia (land of the best German sausages) and then on to Dresden. We're hoping to cross the border into Poland for Easter. Also a special thank you to family for helping us to get late truck parts (and forgotten walking boots to Konigstein). Thank you. xxx Love to everyone back home. Ed & Ros xxx Hi there! We finally got the ferry booked and left the U.K at 10am yesterday morning (Saturday 5th April). Thank you to all our friends and family for coming to say goodbye to us and for all your support - especially over the last few weeks! We got to Calais and drove for an hour or so, before pulling in to the last Aire in France, near the Belgian border. Ed had a well deserved kip (and so did I). Later on in the day, we drove a couple of hours more to Ghent (Belgium). We had a couple of hairy moments when we ended up driving down the tram route (over the tram lines), but managed to park up somewhere. As luck would have it, we spotted a chap locking up his shop, and we stopped to ask him if he knew anywhere nice we could park up for the night. He very kindly told us to follow him in his car, and he led us to an amazing spot by a rowing lake, near the canal which runs into Ghent (see picture about for camping spot No. 1). Day 2 - Now we are in Ghent enjoying the sites! |
AuthorRos: Both Ed and I will be updating the diary blog as much as possible! WTS. Archives
September 2014
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