Caravan in Poland Sunday

Well here I am in Wroclaw legs down all set.

One of the things I find most enjoyable about my travel blog, is some of the photographs I've managed to take, not so much for their informational content, but purely for the juxtaposition of lines and colour, what follows is an example, taken not far from the Wroclaw campsite.

Site seems ok but no camp wide WiFi, but Roman the campsite attendant seemed to saying you could could pick it up next to reception. Will check that out later.  But at least I can get online with my Kindle.
 
Sitting outside reception with my coat on (it's a bit cold here), but at least I am online with my laptop, the Kindle is ok as a web enabled device in some senses, at least I can get access and read or write emails, but it is not close in terms of ease of use as my laptop.

I was warned about Poland's roads, the motorway getting here was no problem, but some of  the roads in Wroclaw are like the Alps.

At least at this campsite there are other people, it felt very weird being the only camper at the Legnicka campsite, all I had for company was an irritating dog that kept trying to bully me, by rushing up to me barking and expecting me to be scared, but seeing that it was shorter than my knees, no problem, there were also lots and lots of slugs. I did not see one bird at the last site whilst there, I've already seen some crow like birds here, one chap reckoned it was a hooded crow.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow as Lisa and Angie are arriving at the airport.

Caravan to Poland Saturday

A great comfort to me over many years has been BBC radio 4. It really started when I became a truck driver, I like music but not as much as I like thinking learning and the spoken word.

Many campsites have WiFi and if I have WiFi I have Radio 4, not always a good reception if the campsite has bandwidth issues like the last site. What kept happening at Arnhem was I kept losing the feed so had to refresh the page to get it back. Here at Kundenbeleg Dresden, the WiFi is as solid as a rock not had one drop-out yet.

I've just heard a very interesting program about travellers in Essex and them being evicted. My question is why don't they just join the caravan club?

Heard a very funny statement by Jeremy Paxman earlier on, which very much applied to me yesterday around Dortmund "You are not stuck in traffic you *are* traffic", lol.

Its raining a lot here at the moment, makes me glad I'm not in a tent and makes me feel justified in going through all the extra cost and hassle of dragging my caravan all this distance.

Really looking forward to meeting up with Lisa and Angie on Monday.

I'm going to leave here around 11:00 for Poland.

Here are some photos of where I am at this moment. 

 

I have decided to write reviews of the campsites I visit, Kundenbeleg in Dresden was very good, helpful staff, great WiFi in terms of bandwidth, very clean toilets and lots of facilities. If I known how the next site was going to turn out, I would have stayed another night. The only thing that let the site down was the weather, but that was not the campsite's fault.

Coming up to the Polish border.

Well I have reached my dream of many years, I read James Michener's novel Poland, more than a few years ago and ever since wanted to visit.

I'm at a campsite in a small village called Legnica but it does not have WiFi so I'm going to the campsite in Wroclaw tomorrow, hoping they have WiFi, ok I can get on the 'Net via my phone, but that allows Walmart (The company that owns Vodafone) to carry out wallet rape on me.

The other reason I'm moving on is I'm the only person here!

When I left Britain I had about £24 prepay in my Vodafone account, now I have only £11.66 left in my  prepay.

 Do the Mafia run Walmart who own Vodafone?

The only usage I have given Vodafone is the small amount of text I have posted to this blog.

Some of this text has been written from my Kindle, even though I find adding internet content via my Kindle a somewhat clumsy process.

Caravan to Poland Friday

Not a lot to report today, spent most of the day driving, left Arnhem 10:00 with lots of help from the other campers, especially a very nice Dutch drainage engineer called Jan.

Massive amounts of traffic around Dortmund, the autobahns are especially complex there. It seems that the area is close to gridlock. Wasted lots of time because I took a wrong turning.

Arrived Dresden just after 8 o'clock in the evening in a fine mist of rain after a very long drive.

One thing sort of puzzled me, I was expecting to see differences in things because I am now in what used to be behind the 'iron curtain'. Before 1992 it was a different country known as Eastern Germany. Western Germany must have  spent a great deal of money making the autobahns look just the same.

Looking forward to tomorrow, all being well, I will make my goal and for the first time visit Poland.

Caravan to Poland Thursday

Up at 6:45 cup of tea, got everything ready, arrived at the ferry terminal 8:00, boarded the Stena Britannia no problem.

Had breakfast and am now in the internet room typing this.

It is quite poignant for me taking this route to the continent, many years ago when I was in the merchant navy, I worked on the British Railway ferries on this route. One of the ships I sailed on was the SS Arnhem, I clearly remember one night during the 1966 world cup, before the final with lots and lots of German supporters and them all singing and hoping for a win.

The next night after the final taking them home they were a lot quieter!

Arrived in the Hook at 3:45 UK time and set off eastward for Arnhem, apart from some pretty heavy rain storms and lots of traffic - uneventful, arrived 7:00 at the Arnhem caravan site.

The name of the campsite, Camping Warnsborn and it's a beautiful site.

Set in the middle of a vast forest, the air is like a fine wine, unlike the air as you come into the Hook of Holland on the ferry, you can smell Rotterdam's petrochemical industries, distinctly insalubrious.

Caravan to Poland

Ever since I read Poland by James Michener, I have wanted to visit Poland.

Nearly all countries are defined by geography Poland is an exception, it has been overrun by many different cultures yet has still retained its cultural identity, the main purpose of this trip is to learn about that culture.

Parked up for the first night of my trip in the Dovercourt caravan site.

I stayed here before on my Easter in Amsterdam trip, but that time did not uncouple because I was too knackered.

This trip is going to be different, I really enjoy my caravan trips, apart from doing them on my own which means I have no one to share the experience with.

This time from next Monday on, I'm going to be joined by my  daughter Lisa and her friend Angie they will fly out to Wroclaw Poland to join me.

So Lisa and Angie could load the caravan up with their holiday luggage, I parked the caravan outside Angie's home and the reason I'm not so tired, is Angie helped me hook up.

Because I have my scooter out of the car, I'm going explore the caravan site.

Not a bad site, plenty of room, electricity works ok, a bit expensive at £24 a night, but cheaper if you are catching the Stena line ferry the next day, at £12, the only thing missing was WiFi.

There were plenty of static caravans, some for sale, some seemed very roomy.

Had a pint in the campsite bar which was full of hyperactive kids. Bought a piece of cod for my tea, rode back to the caravan, stowed the scooter and hitched back up, leaving myself less to do the next day.

Easter in Amsterdam 8

Arose early had breakfast in the site cafe and made to head for the long road home. As I was decamping I noticed these ducks clucking around me, they had it down to a 't'. They really knew how to work human beings for a bread meal, I had noticed them around the camp before and now it was my turn.

They sort of put on a performance, so in the interest of reinforcing what was quite a delightful little ritual, I went and got a couple of slices of bread.

After they had eaten the bread, then they sort of had a kip in formation, I had noticed this somewhat odd symmetry the other day, but with more ducks, I assume they have evolved this routine. A famous psychologist Skinner used to be able to get pigeons to do all sorts of weird and wonderful things by rewarding the behaviour he wanted.

The last shot of the trip, Camp Zeeburg from the motorway, the bridge seen on the right hand side of the photo, is the bridge I had crossed on my scooter to get into the centre of Amsterdam without going through the tunnel.

Easter in Amsterdam 7

Well the penultimate day of Amsterdam trip, forgot to put the scooter on charge the previous night, so had to wait for ages for a full charge.


Set off for Lempicka bar.

The 30th of April is the official birthday of the Dutch Monarch, I used to wonder why the British Queen had two birthdays, now I understand. One special day of the year, is set aside as the Monarch's birthday, as I have no recollection of the Brits celebrating the Monarch's birthday, it did not seem to make sense, that was until I saw thousands of Dutch people many of them wearing something orange, that I understood in Holland, the Monarch's birthday is an excuse to get drunk and have a party.

When I finally arrived at the Lempicka bar, the whole atmosphere was different from the day before, for a start it appeared that most of the staff were drunk! More than one glass got dropped and after a while we were told that we would not get waiter service, but would have to go to the bar instead, not that I'm complaining things are just done differently in England, my only complaint was the music, 'drum and base' I think it is called and it sounds as though someone  has recorded some drums and base and then just looped it over and over again, whereas the day before they played some very nice tracks.

So I went back to the 'van and had another quiet night in.