Day Twenty Nine - Statistics and Home

Thanks to all those who have been following our trip, staying up to date with our progress and commenting on the blog. This will be the final blog of the trip – day twenty nine, we are home. We left France at about twelve and got home about 4.15pm after having to detour following traffic on the M25, no surprise there then.

So some statistics of the trip;

Countries travelled through, France (twice), Belgium (twice), Holland (twice), Germany (twice), Denmark, Sweden, Aland Island, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland. That's 12 countries and 17 border crossings, and interestingly we only had our documents checked when leaving the UK and returning to the UK.

Fuel used 1018 litres, that's about 224 gallons for those who like it in old money. We travelled 4269 miles door to door this was more than the estimated 3500; by a whopping 769 miles. Over the whole trip we averaged 19 miles per gallon.

The longest days journey was the run up through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, to within 12km of the Putt-garden Ferry on the first day a huge 730 miles. Longest stay in one place the Aland Islands 6 days. Number of photos taken roughly 450, (I've not been able to download them all yet)

Mechanical issues -

Problem one - the transfer case began making some terminal type sounds by the time we reached the top of Sweden. Once on the to the Aland Islands, some STP Gearbox Treatment was added to the transfer case which stopped the horrid noises, but the slack in the box continued to get worse, however it made it home, and will need to be rebuilt pretty soon I think.

Problem two – despite fitting brand new genuine Land Rover fan belts to the truck before we left, by day three it sounded like we had a whole cage of canaries under the bonnet, (those with Land Rover TDI engines will know what I mean). It was solved using the (approved) method of placing a penny behind the belt tensioner, and applying some belt dressing spray, result no noise.

Some general views;

Worst road condition - Lithuania

Most accidents - Germany

Worst traffic - England

Worst drivers - Poland

Cheapest fuel - Estonia

Most expensive fuel - Sweden (Denmark was the most expensive but we didn't fill up there)

Best dining experience - Poland

Worst dining experience - breakfast first day in Poland

Best Camp-sites – Lithuania or Poland

Worst Camp-sites – France, Des Dunes or Latvia, Riga city camping.

Best thing of the trip, too difficult to say, there were so many amazing things and sights, its just too difficult to pick one.

The most amazing thing of the trip, we spent a whole month together in the truck or the tent and didn't fall out!

Our last selfie taken as we were leaving Dunkirk on the ferry

Now to write the book …....................

Day Twenty Eight

1st August - Our last day, spent exploring Dunkirk and Gravelines just outside Petit Fort Philippe, both as it turned out very beautiful. Dunkirk ad everyone is aware was the site of the evacuation of the British and French troops in the second world war. Gravelines dates from much earlier, creating a fort in the 17th century to protect the country from attack. We took a boat around the moat of the old fort. Tomorrow we catch the ferry back to the UK, I will post a summary of the trip tomorrow when we get home. In the meantime some pictures from today, and finally our selfie in front of the fort at Gravlines.

Day Twenty Seven - France

31st July - Had breakfast and was joined by a friendly pigeon who was quite tame. after a leisurely breakfast we packed up and moved on from the lovely city of Bruges. We headed out towards the coast and Zebrugge, then followed the edge of the North Sea until we came to a lovely sandy beach, so we stopped for a couple of hours. After topping up our tans we carried on following the coast to a small town called Petit Fort Philippe, where we are staying for a couple of nights so we can explore the town and be close to Dunkirk for the ferry on Saturday. Only a couple of pictures today one of our pigeon and another of the bridges which abound in this part of Belgium and France, and finally today's selfie taken tonight at the campsite.

Day Twenty Six - Chocolate and windmills

30^th July – Bruges, It would be easy to forget that once this city was a flourishing world market place, from the 11^th to the 13^th century Bruges became the main commercial and financial centre of the middle ages. At this time the French king was in control of the city and this was unpopular, ending in the Massacre of the French Troop during the Battle of the Eperons in 1302. By the 15^th Century the city had reached its pinnacle, it offered exceptional standards of living to the inhabitants who could find every kind of exotic goods within the markets. It was at this time that Bruges became a an important center for culture. However also at this time competition from Antwerp and the silting up of the river Zwin which connected Bruges to the all important North Sea for trades with Britain and other countries caused economic difficulty, as a result of the withdrawal of English merchants and the loss of markets from the south. The decline continued through the 16^th and 17^th centuries, by the 19^th century however things were beginning to improve because of the romantics who rediscovered Bruges as a destination. Since then worthwhile restorations and a tourist management plan have made it once again a welcoming city, which has earned it UNESCO world heritage status.

Today we have been on the boat around the canals which goes along the Quia du rosaire, with its old façades and is one of the finest views in the city. We also cruised under the Sint-Bonifacuis Bridge, said to be the most romantic and picturesque bridge in the city, and as a consequence also believed to be the most photographed. The trip continued past the Beguine Convent which dates form the 13^th century, it was originally constructed to bring together the devout women of Bruges, who were not happy with the control of the city which was at that time by men. The convent was like a tittle town within the city, with its own jurisdiction, administration and organisation.

We then moved on to look at the Concert Hall a big ugly building built in 2002 to celebrate being awarded European City of Culture, the building dominates one side of the 't Zand square, where there is an impressive fountain and sculpture.

Then it was Tracy's favourite bit the chocolate museum, three floors of the history of chocolate and its history with Bruges, identifying the link to the Aztec's who first discovered cocoa and how the Spanish introduced it to Europe after conquering the Aztec lands. At the entrance to the museum there is complimentary chocolate, it took us some time to move from there and actually enter the museum. Worth a mention were some amazing figurines all made out of chocolate  by a Russian chocolatier who worked in Bruges.

After we dragged ourselves away it was off to visit the windmills guarding the city, introduced by the Flemish crusaders returning from the middle east, during the 15^th Century there were thirty windmills spaced around the outside of the city, the introduction of steam driven machines brought about their decline and of the remaining four, only one is in working condition.

After this we look at going up the Belfry, however the queue was so long we decided to leave this to our next visit here. Yes Bruges is such a lovely city that we will come back, its quaint streets, its lovely food and good hospitality make it a real gem of a place to visit.

Day Twenty Five - The city of towery things

29th July - Tracy has said that Bruges is the city of big towery things - so now we have had bunkery fort things and towery things! We camped last night about one hundred and twenty miles from Bruges, so up, packed and on the road by eight thirty, got to a great campsite by twelve, on the edge of Bruges, set up the tent and caught the bus into the city to explore. Did the city bus tour to help us decide what we want to do tomorrow. So far Tracy wants to visit the Chocolate Museum, I want to climb up the belfry (366 steps), Tracy wants to go to the Chocolate Museum, I want to take a boat ride along the canals, and Tracy wants to go to the Chocolate Museum, I want to visit the Windmills, and Tracy wants to visit the Chocolate Museum. I would like to visit the narrowest street in Bruges and Tracy wants to go to the Chocolate Museum. Today was spent mostly trying to get her away from the Belgium chocolate shops, we will post some interesting facts about Bruges in tomorrow's blog. oh did I mention that Tracy wants to visit the Chocolate Museum, I did a few times, oh well that about a tenth of the times she has told me she wants to go there! BBQ tonight at the campsite, have got pork loins real beefburgers and curly sausages. Bruges is a lovely city although it does seem quite busy with tourists, will update tomorrow.

The Bruges Canals

The Belfry from the courtyard

The Belfry from the square

Burg Square

The campsite

Selfie with the Gentpoortstraat Gate behind us

Day twenty four - Bad Traffic and thunderstorms

28th July, the title says it all really - we decided to head towards Bruges, some 509 miles, according to the computer it should have taken about ten hours give or take a bit at the speed we are traveling and allowing for stops on the way. Up early and packed and on the road at 8am the first part of the journey went well, until we reached Hanover when as a result of two lorries coming together we spent the next two hours crawling at between 5 and 10 mph, it wasn't the accident that caused the problem but the drivers stopping to look and take pictures at the scene. Once clear we managed to cover about another 100 miles when we encountered another accident this time delaying us for another hour. By seven o'clock we decided we should stop, having been on the road for eleven hours, encountered two accidents, heavy rain, and thunderstorms, and we had only covered  400 miles. We pulled off the motorway and found a campsite in Westerhoven, a few miles North West of Eindhoven where we will stay tonight and cover the other 100 or so miles to get to Bruges in the morning where we plan to spend a couple of days. No selfie today as we have been on the road all day, but one of the camel on tonight's campsite for a quick over night stay.

Day Twenty Three - Berlin

27th July, after our visit to Dresden we carried on up the A13 towards Berlin hoping to find a campsite in the evening. By about 7pm we managed to find a campsite by the river about 20 miles from Berlin, so we could catch a bus and train to get into the city. All went to plan until we arrived at the station, which was unmanned and our German not being very good had trouble finding the ticket we wanted. Eventually we worked it out and within ten minutes the train arrived, a few stops later and we were in the centre of Berlin. Having spent a day in Dresden I think we expected more from Berlin, it is a nice city but felt somehow less friendly than Dresden. A lot of the building were obviously destroyed in during the war but the city has decided to almost remove those elements from its landscape. Even the Berlin wall is now reduced to a section of a few meters, with checkpoint charlie a touristy box in the middle of the street, so folks can be charged for taking photos. We visited the Sony centre one of the more impressive buildings in the city constructed after unification, where the Lego discovery centre is located as well as restaurants, shops and a cinema. at the end of a long day it was on the train and bus back to the campsite for a second night before heading off towards Holland.

Tracy with the Lego giraffe

The Sony Centre

The victory column, Designed by Heinrich Strack to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria  and France, giving the statue a new purpose. Different from the original plans, these later victories in the so-called unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, 8.3 metres high and weighing 35 tonnes. Berliners have given the statue the nickname Goldelse, meaning something like "Golden Lizzy". The Victory Column originally stood in Königsplatz (now Platz der Republik), at the end of the Siegesallee (Victory Avenue). As part of the preparation of the monumental plans to redesign Berlin into Welthauptstadt Germania, in 1939, when the Nazis relocated the column to its present site at the Großer Stern (Great Star), a large intersection on the city axis that leads from the former Berliner Stadtschloss (Berlin City Palace) through the Brandenburg Gate to the western parts of the city. The monument survived World War II without much damage. The relocation of the monument probably saved it from destruction, as its old site - in front of the Reichstag, was destroyed by American air raids in 1945. Without a British-American veto, the French would have dynamited the monument after the war.
 

What's left of the Berlin Wall

And finally our day twenty three selfie with the Berlin Wall behind us

Day Twenty Two - Dresden

26th July, spent the night on some land just outside Dresden wild camping. With only 20 odd miles to get into Dresden we were there in time for breakfast which was taken at a pavement cafe on Albertplatz. Dresden is a wonderful city despite the best endeavours of the RAF during the war. Much of the cities historical buildings haven been reconstructed, often from the original stone, each piece painstakingly cleaned numbered and then reused, some buildings having only been completed in the 70's or 80's. Dresden is a spacious city. Its districts differ in their structure and appearance. Many parts still contain an old village core, while some quarters are almost completely preserved as rural settings. Other characteristic kinds of urban areas are the historic outskirts of the city, and the former suburbs with scattered housing. During the German Democratic Republic, many apartment blocks were built. The original parts of the city are almost all in the districts of Altstadt (Old town) and Neustadt (New town). Growing outside the city walls, the historic outskirts were built in the 18th century. They were planned and constructed on the orders of the Saxon monarchs, which is why the outskirts are often named after sovereigns. The strict building controls after the war have developed the city in a very sympathetic and stylish way. Its a place we think we may return to, probably for the Christmas market held every year in the city centre.

Day twenty-one Auschwitz

The day started with us packing up as we are on the move again after two lovely days relaxing. It's onward to Oswiecim and the state museum of Auschwitz, about half an hour drive from where we are staying.

What can one day about Auschwitz which has not already been printed or said before? To experience the environment first hand was humbling, there were some facts that I was not aware of prior to our visit. For instance Auschwitz consisted of over 40 camps in total and took over the town of Oswiecim making it a no go area for the local Polish people, anyone who resisted could stay but it would be short lived, as the average length of survival was 3 to 6 months due to the work regime and poor nutrition, let alone the beatings and death squads.

The other side of the the camp was of course the extermination centres, much of which was destroyed in the days leading up to the liberation of the camp.

A sad but enlightening day to round off our time in Poland. We are currently about 40 miles from the German border and we hope to make it tonight.

Day twenty - Bielsko-Biala

Thursday 23rd July - Having spent yesterday recovering in excellent surroundings from our 630 mile drive, we are still in the campsite on the southern side of the city of Bielsko-Biała. We spent this morning exploring the city which was created in January 1951 when the adjacent cities of Bielsko and Biała were unified. Bielsko, which for centuries belonged to the Duchy of Cieszyn, was founded in 1312. From 1457 the Biała river was the border between Silesia and Little Poland. Silesia belonged to Austria, Little Poland to Poland. In 1723 on the opposite bank of the river the city of Biała came into being. In 1772 Biała was annexed by Austria and included in the crownland of Galicia. In 1918 both cities became part of reborn Poland, though a significant part of the population was ethnic German. During World War II the city was annexed to the Third Reich and its Jewish population sent to Auschwitz. After the liberation of the city by the Red Army in 1945, the ethnic German population was expelled.

Towering in the Bielsko-Biała city centre, the Castle is the oldest and largest construction of historical importance, erected in the old town of Bielsko. A legend says that in its place there used to be a settlement of robbers who attacked traveling merchants. The Opolski Prince, Casimir (1229/30) of the Piasts is said to have conquered that fort, wiped out the robbers and had the hunting palace erected in its place, which over the years grew into a magnificent castle around which the city of Bielsko developed. The oldest part of the Castle dates back to 14th century. Over the next centuries the Castle gradually developed and transformed. It is a city castle in its nature, incorporated into the system of Bielsko fortifications from the beginning, at the same time providing their strongest section.

The campsite where we are staying has lovely views across the valley and down the terraced gardens

Today's selfie was taken in front of the Biala River (White River) Silesia's border with Lesser Poland, it used to divide the kingdom of Bohemia of Poland. Until 1950 it divided Bielsko from Bial. The trouble with our selfies is that Tracy is a good foot shorter than Richard and getting our heads level and trying to take a photo at the same time can prove interesting, today Tracy stood on the wall to bring her up to the right height.

Day nineteen

Wednesday 23rd July, we have arrived in Bielsko-Biala, woke up at 5.30 after sleeping on the side of the road, - it was late last night when we stopped. So off to town we went to find something to eat and drink, we settled for croissants and juice. Had a bit of a search for Decathlon as we could do with getting another gas cylinder, as one of our two is now empty, only to find that once we had located the store they didn't sell gas.

The next challenge was to locate the campsite and the signs in Poland are atrocious, they only show main centers and not any of the smaller areas. We eventually found the campsite and it's wonderful, a small place built on a hillside with terraces looking across the valley and onto the hills beyond. We are sharing the site with four other couples camping. We've had a relaxing day swimming in the indoor pool and lazing around in the sun, that is until a thunderstorm decided to arrive accompanied by torrential rain, the first rain we have seen since we left home. Dinner is to be a traditional Polish one cooked for us by the campsite owners.

Day eighteen - the long road south

Today Tuesday 22nd July we started out early as before we leave the Curonian Spit we wanted to visit a local sight but before the hoards of tourists arrive. So we were packed up and on the road by 7.45am. Halfway from Nida to Smiltyne, where we catch the ferry back to the mainland there is a small village called Juodkrante, and here there is a hill known locally as the Hill of Witches. A large collection of wooden sculptures by various artists is displayed on the hill. The sculpture park was started in 1979 and now has more than 70 wooden objects. Most of the figures are based on Lithuanian legends and folk tales. It is the world of witches, demons, swings, small hills, chairs and other characters of Neringa legends.

When we left the hill we caught the ferry to Kliepedia on mainland Lithuania to start our marathon journey into Poland. Our eventual destination Bielsko-Biala, some 633 miles away. During our trip we have driven through about 12 countries so far and we have come to the conclusion that Polish drivers have the least respect for life, theirs or anyone elses! The roads have been quite bad in most of the Baltic countries but are getting better now the more west we head. The prize for the worst roads we think goes to Lithuania, they are so broken up and bumpy that even in the Land Rover speeds were down to 50mph, I am going to set up a chain of suspension garages in Lithuania, I'm sure I would make a mint.

Anyway enough of my rantings about the roads and traffic, we go to about 20km from Bielsko-Biala by about midnight, I say about because at some point in the 633 mile journey we crossed another time zone moving us back one hour nearer UK time so now we are only an hours difference. We parked up for the night and grabbed some sleep in the car, as it was too late to set up a tent.

Today's Selfie taken first thing this morning

Day seventeen

Day seventeen was spent relaxing on the beach on the Curonian Spit, having a relaxing time and soaking up the sun. We did go into Nida at Lunchtime for a visit, its a very small fishing town although most of its income now is derived from tourism. The many old fishing huts now turned into restaurants and bistros. The town does have one modest supermarket for supplies and quite a few souvenir shops for the cruise ship visitors that come across from mainland Latvia.

The spit is 98 km long and is a thin curved sand dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. The Southern end of the spit is in the Russian Territory of Kaliningrad, and its norther end in Lithuania. All of the Spit is a UNESCO world heritage site. In 2000, UNESCO put the Curonian Spit on the World Heritage List under cultural criteria "V" (an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture [...], or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change).

The Curonian Spit is home to the highest moving (drifting) sand dunes in Europe. Their average height is 35 meters, but some attain the height of 60 meters. The largest town on the spit is Nida in Lithuania, its very popular, mostly frequented by Lithuanian and German tourists, and where we have been staying. The northern shoreline of Curonian Spit is the site of the beaches for tourists.

There is a single road that traverses the whole length of the Curonian Spit. The spit is not connected to mainland Lithuania. Car ferries provide a transportation link between Smiltyne, located on the spit, and the port town of Klaipėda.

On the ferry to Klaipėda

Currently there is a demand to tear down the homes on the Curonian Spit. These homes are owned by people who were given permits to build by corrupt local government officials. The demand to tear the homes down is based on the fact that the Spit is a UN World Heritage Site and the only structures that were to be allowed there were fishing shacks based on the history of the Spit.


No selfie today, forgot the phone when we were on the beach, but instead a photo of Tracy getting a white moustache, trying the local brew - white beer, it was like normal larger but with a white tinge. She said it was worse than English beer!