Children playing in the evening sunshine at Magdeburg
By June 2021 we were legally allowed to leave the country. The continuation of Covid restrictions, in spite of everyone over 50 having been double vaccinated, moved the UK into pandemic limbo. We wanted to return the truck to the manufacturers, Camperspol in Poland so they could remedy a few problems we were having with the habitation box. French travel restrictions meant we had to take a lateral flow test en route to Eurotunnel and we also had to download a UK to France control exit check list and sign “on our honour” that we would comply with the Covid rules for entering France. As we were double vaccinated it turned out that we were not subject to any restrictions driving through Europe – apart from the wearing of face masks in shops and on public transport. We travelled through France, Belgium and Germany to Poland without any further Covid checks. The weather was extremely hot, well over 30° but the air conditioning in the cab kept us comfortable whilst driving.
We had two overnight stops before we reached Magdeburg in east Germany. There we parked alongside the River Elbe and walked into town to our favourite Asian fusion restaurant. It was extremely hot, even after the sun went down so we spent a happy half hour watching the children play in one Magdeburg’s lovely squares, enjoying the intoxicating scent from the linden trees lining the square.
The following evening we reached Poland where we parked overnight by lake Niepruszewo. We were warmly greeted by the proprietor of a chicken and burger stall. Our new friend and his mate wanted to look around the truck, he then returned with two more friends and, some time later, brought his daughters for a viewing. The adults could speak little English but the girls’ language skills were excellent. We dined magnificently on a whole rotisserie chicken with a selection of home pickled dill cucumbers at a cost of less than £4 and later we walked down to the water’s edge to dabble our hot feet in the lake, enjoying the splashy antics of the youngsters playing in the evening sunshine.
