Category: Poland

The day finally dawned when the truck was ready for collection and by midday we had said goodbye to everyone at Camperspol and we drove the truck out of Poznań, heading south east.

We stopped for two nights at a family camp site by the lake. There was a slipway leading down to a sandy beach and a small harbour with a little tourist boat offering trips round the lake. The afternoon temperature was over 30° and we had planned to have a cooling swim in the lake but, when we passed the tavern at the top of the slipway, we chose to cool down with a pint of chilled lager whilst watching our fellow campers enjoying their water sports.

It was hot and thundery and we found welcome shade for the truck under some tall willow trees. That night there was a huge thunderstorm. We heard several ominous bangs during the night but we were still surprised in the morning to see we were surrounded by a thick carpet of leaves, twigs and branches. Fortunately there was no major damage although one large branch had missed our truck by inches. Another sizeable branch had snapped off but had been caught up in the branches and was hanging precariously over a small tent where a couple of canoeists had been sleeping. They hurriedly moved their tent to another area before an army of workers appeared with rakes and a chain saw to start clearing.

We heard there had been severe weather in central Europe causing flooding and loss of life. As we left the lake area a day or so later it was apparent that the road through the forest had been blocked by dozens of fallen trees, branches had been dragged to the roadside and tree trunks had been chain sawed and cleared to the edge of the road.

We spent three long weeks in Poznań waiting for Camperspol to complete the remedial work on our habitation box. They had to remove the windows and door and re-attach the corner sections of the box where the original adhesive had failed. We were impatient to be on the road again and it was sheer torture being stuck in the city, especially when the temperature soared to above 35° dropping by only a few degrees at night.

We stayed at the same Airbnb we had used previously – it was spacious, comfortable and situated in the historic centre of town. At the end of our street was a small open air market where we bought fruit and vegetables and every street had a corner shop selling groceries, bread, fresh milk. Our street also had a pretty little park, two hairdressers, a cake shop and a butcher. The area was full of bars, cafés and restaurants and each day we wandered along the narrow cobbled streets to find something to eat. Most restaurants opened at midday and stayed open until late at night so there was plenty of capacity to grab a meal whenever the mood took us – usually we had a late lunch or early supper. Poznań was a prosperous university city and the restaurants were of excellent quality and good value by UK standards. As it was so hot we preferred to eat inside and discovered, if you booked on line, you would be allocated a table inside where it was marginally cooler. If you blew in off the street you sat outside with the hoy polloi and the pigeons.

It was frustrating having to wait in Poland for remedial work to be carried out on the truck to ensure the habitation box and the hydraulic tail lift were properly attached. Two companies in Poznań were responsible for this work, Camperspol and Plandex. Their premises were 30 minutes apart and we had to drive the truck from one to the other. Apart from this all we could do was sit and wait.

We had a comfortable apartment on the third floor of a five storey block in Dluga, the old part of the city. The block looked dingy at the front door but our apartment was light and airy and furnished in an IKEA style and was equipped with everything we needed for a comfortable stay. Our street had a butcher, a baker, two hairdressers and a corner shop. There was a small park opposite our entrance and an open air market at the end of our road.

The city was served by an electric tram system which was very popular, although we always chose to walk as we needed the exercise. Within ten minutes walk of our apartment there were several shopping malls – essential in a harsh Polish winter – although, whilst we were there in February the weather was quite mild.

The folk in Poznań were friendly and helpful. English was the common language for non-Polish speaking visitors and so we were easily understood in shops and restaurants. The older people were harder to communicate with. A taxi driver (mid 40s) told us he had worked as a bus driver in Birmingham for five years although he could barely speak English. He said his generation were taught Russian at school.

Two other things struck us – there was far more cigarette smoking than we were used to, although smoking was not allowed in public buildings. We regularly found ourselves downwind of groups of young smokers huddling in the doorway. We also noticed that Polish drivers were extremely law abiding and would always stop their cars if you were waiting at a pedestrian crossing. Even if you were crossing in a place you shouldn’t, drivers would still stop and politely wait until you reached the pavement. On crossings controlled by traffic lights pedestrians would wait for the green man before they put a foot on the road, even if the carriageway was empty. I think the traffic police must have been heavily armed!

We left Gdansk and followed the coast west heading towards the German border.  The weather was exceptional for late October and the bright trees around us were resplendent with golden colours, their leaves undisturbed in the quiet autumn air.  

We stopped for lunch at a small roadside restaurant and, for less than £10 each, we had excellent home made soup with bread followed by pierogi and salad – and a beer.

Our final stop in Poland was a marina at Szczecin (pronounced something like Sshh-ch-shin but, try as I might, I failed miserably to reproduce the correct Polish pronunciation).

There were a lot of people around on that sunny Saturday.  The sailing club was busy with families with their sailing dinghies as well as a dozen or so vans staying on the site so we were disappointed that the site café / restaurant was closed for the season, nor were there any shops or cafés within walking distance – so we had to fall back on self catering mode.

We continued driving north, stopping at the port of Gdansk on the Baltic coast.  For hundreds of years the city had been a wealthy trading centre and merchants from England, Europe and Scandinavia lived behind the fortified city walls in tall houses set around the cobbled main square.

In 1945 Gdansk was completely destroyed by the Soviet Army at the end of World War II – beginning forty years of Communist domination.

In 1980 the shipyard workers went on strike in protest against the raising of food prices by the Communist government.  Lech Walęsa was a political activist and worked as an electrician at the Lenin Shipyard.  He became the leader of the strikers and later helped create Poland’s first independent trade union, Solidarity.  For his efforts he was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1990 Lech Walęsa was elected President of Poland.  His presidency was not a complete success and he failed to be re-elected in 1995 and again in 2000, perhaps indicating how much easier it was to criticise those in charge than to be in charge yourself!

Since the end of the Communist rule the ruined city had been carefully restored to its former beauty.  Today the city was full of visitors, mainly Germans, Scandinavians and folk off the cruise ships.

The weather was warm and sunny and we parked our camper for two nights in a large car park adjacent to the Academy of Music, ten minutes walk from the centre with its busy waterside cafés, restaurants and high end hotels.

The medieval city of Toruń lay north of Poznań on the road to Gdansk.  The town was a tourist destination because many of its ancient buildings had survived German bombing during World War II.

Our campsite was a twenty minute walk from the city centre, crossing the River Vistula via a huge iron bridge. The weather was good with warm sunny days – warm enough to sit outside enjoying the sunshine.  At night the temperature dropped to 5°.

We walked into town in the late afternoons and ate at restaurants on the main square.  The first night we ate soup and savoury pancakes with a beer which cost £12 for the two of us. The next night we went to a fish restaurant and had lovely fresh fish and a bottle of wine – two courses each, total cost £40 (£20 for the imported wine).