Poland - The Wolf's Lair

We forgot to mention on the last blog about an experience getting our truck WiFi router sorted in Lithuania. Getting physical sim cards for our truck router had been the bane of our lives in Scandinavia, so this year we managed to buy a new router which takes multiple e-sims which should make life much easier as we go across borders. One thing we learned while setting it up in the UK was that we need WiFi to install a new e-sim which bothered us a little, but Colin had a conversation with the support desk of the router system, ironically based in Lithuania, who told us it shouldn't be a problem in countries like his where there is public WiFi available everywhere and we can just pull up outside a petrol station or cafe and use their system. As we were using an e-sim that covered us for all European countries we thought as long as we top it up before it expires/runs out of data we shouldn't need to go onto the the system to reactivate it. Simples.

Anyway, as they say ' you snooze you lose' and we did manage to run out of data before renewing it. We found a petrol station but the WiFi signal we were getting outside was too weak. We then tried hot-spotting our phones, but we still couldn't get it to work. While I was cursing the system, Colin was on the phone to what I assumed was the router company's help desk. I heard him say 'if we come round now can you have a look at it?' So we drove to a building tucked away on a back street of the small town to a computer repair business - nothing to do with our router. A very bemused guy (called Simon) came out to meet us and he looked even more wide-eyed as Colin bundled him into Lo11y and tried to explain our issue. He then started doing that IT person sort of thing where they go onto background screens and tap in codes that you have no understanding about. I was getting a bit jittery now wondering why we were letting a total stranger reconfigure our laptop. He eventually logged us onto his WiFi, but again the signal was too weak, so he then had Colin driving around to the back of his building while Simon and I clung on in the back of Lo11y - still no success. He was concluding the router was faulty, but we were still sure it must be a WiFi issue. We had one last try using Colin's phone as a hot-spot, and he did help us get the router to recognise it this time, then hey presto the new e-sim downloaded. We asked Simon how much we owed, but he wouldn't take anything, so Colin asked if he drunk wine, which he said he didn't, but his wife likes red wine, so payment in kind was made and he was on his way still looking a bit shell shocked. As I pointed out to Colin, the poor guy was having a quiet afternoon in his office, so to have a mad Englishman call, then turning up on his doorstep must have been pretty traumatic.

Anyway, having left Lithuania it was now the start of our long journey home. We wanted to visit the Lake District area in the north east of Poland and had been recommended Augustow as a good place to visit. The small town sits on the river Netta and it is surrounded by canals, lakes and pine forests. We stopped by the town which was getting busy with family groups. We noticed there was a ceremony going on at the church. A quick Google told us it was a Polish holiday on this day to celebrate Corpus Christi.

We drove on a short distance and found a nice camping spot by a lake. The place was already busy with Polish families set up to camp the weekend. We got the bikes out for a short route around the lake. It wasn’t the most enjoyable ride with the gravel tracks being very sandy and hard to ride even on our gravel bikes.

Back at Lo11y we managed to sit out for a while but very suddenly the wind picked up so we retreated inside. Then the wind got even stronger coming straight off the lake and we could see our camping neighbours were hanging onto awnings and other camping gear that was in danger of blowing away. The large family group next to us bundled their kids into a car and moved it away. Then with no warning a tree fell clipping their caravan. Thank goodness they’d moved the kids to safety. Colin ran over to check they were alright which they said they were.

All this made us feel a bit jittery about the trees hanging over our parking spot. Having our solar panels damaged would be an expensive disaster. The wind had died down a little but we couldn’t relax so we made the decision to move Lo11y to a more sheltered car park away from the lake. We were the only camper there but we then had a stream of cars turn up which we realised they were going to the church service taking place over the road.

The light over the lake was beautiful now with big black threatening clouds looming.

We had a peaceful night and in the morning headed further West to another area of lakes. The drive was very scenic.

We based ourselves in the main tourist hub of Gizycko. We were surprised how big the town is. We parked in a marina campsite on the grounds of a fancy central hotel. Although we were just across the water from the main part of town , the swing bridge connecting it was closed for maintenance which meant a longer walk up to the next bridge. Our first impressions of the town were a bit mixed. It was very disjointed and looked a bit tacky tourist (Colin described as Blackpool on a lake!). As the weather was nice and sunny, although still pretty windy, we set off on a 40 mile cycle route of the nearby lakes. Colin assured me there should just be a couple of short gravel sections. The first 10 miles were pleasant although the wind off the water was fierce, especially when hitting us side on. But then we turned on to a gravel road which again had some sandy sections and with the hot wind battering us was not fun. We weren’t even getting any nice views if the lakes. When we got off the gravel the road became cobbled - by this time I was having a sense of humour bypass! To make matters worse the traffic was pretty constant (guessing for the holiday weekend) and the Polish drivers weren’t giving us much room as they whooshed past.

We finally found a cafe/pub for a quick refreshment stop, and Colin worked out a slightly different route back avoiding more gravel. The last stretch into town we finally had the wind in our favour, but I don’t think we’ve ever been so glad to end a ride.

We had a meal out in town that night - it was in a nice spot on the waterfront but we didn’t choose well on the food.

It was still breezy the next day but better than we’d had it the last few days. We had a relaxing morning then booked a boat trip around the lakes to see if we could see them better than we’d managed on land. It was pleasant but not terribly exciting - I think we’ve got lakes out of our system.

While Colin was looking at our onward route through Poland he was shocked to find that we were just a short distance from Hitlers Eastern European bunker complex known as the Wolf’s Lair. As this part of history is involved with so many sites we’ve visited on this trip we felt it was a must to visit.

The secret complex system of around 200 buildings was built in 1940. It included 50 huge bunkers, shelters, barracks, two airports (although we learned that Hitler was actually scared of flying), an electric power station, a railway station and a waterworks. Most of the complex was destroyed by the German army towards the end of the war once they knew they were defeated but they were so sturdily built with multiple layers of reinforced concrete that they could not be fully destroyed and have been preserved in recent years to remind us how Hitler had operated. He was last here in November 1944, and famously had survived an assignation attempt that year by Col. Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, one of Hitlers trusted inner circle. Sadly it was unsuccessful with Hitler only suffering a burst eardrum and Stauffenberg was executed.

An audioguide led us around the site - another fascinating place.

From here we had a few hours drive across Poland to the UNESCO World Heritage medieval city of Torun. We parked up at a campsite across the river from the old town. We’d never actually heard of the place before but we were very taken with the medieval old town filled with beautiful buildings which had been spared the fate of many Polish cities in WW2.

We had a day mooching around the old town known as the Krakow of the north. It is the birth place of the astronomer Copernicus, with his statue in the main square being the main meeting point. It is also famous for gingerbread. Colin was obviously disappointed the gingerbread museum was closed on a Monday.

When we came back into the city in the evening we discovered it was midsummer's night in Poland and the young ladies were making floral head pieces and later there was a parade through the old town. We had our final plate of Polish dumplings to celebrate.

It had been wonderfully hot and sunny all day but as we were finishing our meal there were menacing black clouds coming our way. We had a very fast cycle back across the bridge to our campsite and got everything put away just as the heavens opened and lightening flashed around.

The following day we had a long drive to the German border. The queues of lorries towards the border stretched for miles but we peeled off to a small border town that took us over a bridge into the German town of Frankfurt (Oder). Colin treated Lo11y to a shampoo and rinse with our remaining Zlotys before we crossed the border. As with all border towns it had a strange feel to it but we parked for the night on a small Marina. The owner was very friendly even though he spoke very little English and we speak even less German.

We had another long drive across Germany the next day to get us within striking distance of the Netherlands. We parked up in a riverside campsite near the town of Vlotho. Again the owner was very welcoming and we were introduced to their English resident, a guy from Preston who’d been based in Germany while serving in the army and had never gone back to the UK. We were pleased to see he had an England flag flying above his caravan.

It was teeming with rain on our journey the following day, but we made it into the Netherlands by early afternoon.