ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno
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ManVanNoPlan Visits Rostock, Stralsund, Mrzezyno & Gdansk

ManVanNoPlan Visits Rostock, Stralsund, Mrzezyno & Gdansk
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Day 10 – Thursday 13th of July
Wismar to Rostock – (54.092988, 12.130426) (40 Miles)

After stating yesterday that we are aiming for at least two overnight stays in each place we visit, that theory goes straight out of the window today as we are moving on to Rostock where we will only spend the one night. To give Rostock some justice we serviced Bessie just after 8am and headed off from Wismar, arriving In Rostock just after 9am. The facilities for motorhomes are non existent in Rostock but there is a designated area of a huge car park directly on the quayside, and only a hop, skip and a jump into the city centre.

ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock

It is free to park here overnight from 9pm to 8am and the day rate to park is € 18 at a machine that does not take credit cards or bank notes, so unless you have € 18 in coins you have to download an app and pay that way, which I did. As I was returning to the van to report my success at mastering the complicated payment method, a lady traffic warden was in front of Bessie tapping in the registration details into her terminal and looking concerned that she couldn’t find it. I showed her my app confirming payment and we compared apps, but she was unimpressed until my registration pinged onto her screen and all was well.

It is amazing how two people of different nationalities and languages, who can’t speak a word of the others language, can resolve matters by talking in their own language anyway and pointing and gesturing at devices!

There are two ships tied up at this point which can be visited, the ice breaker Stephan Jantsen, and a tall ship, the Santa Barbara Anna. We had a look at them in the passing but decided neither of them merited spending a sizeable portion of our pension on.

ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock

From the car park you cross a dual carriageway and up a slight incline where you arrive onto the main shopping street. We turned right as an interesting looking tower could be seen at the end of the street. It was a remnant from days, nay centuries, gone by and was a gateway of the once impressive town wall defences. As with everything in this country, it had been well restored and now served as a museum. I wandered off to get a better angle to take some pictures and on my return The Navigator reported that she had discovered that the museum served the cheapest tea and latte in all of Germany at € 1.20 and € 1.40 respectively so we indulged ourselves and the lady brought it out to us outside where we sat and admired the surroundings.

ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock

There is one long shopping street with no empty units and the usual mix of upmarket, expensive (to us) shops and bargain shops, although they were very much in the minority here. Half way down the street is an area to sit around a fountain area and take in an even more impressive vista than back around the museum. It was warm and sunny and children were enjoying the cooling jets of water while we admired the renovated colourful buildings looking forward and the facade of the Univeristy behind us.

ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock

We eventually continued walking down the street and at the end it opened up into a fairly sizeable square with a few odd food vans. By this time it was lunchtime and the age old decision had to be made of what to have. The solution we arrived at was to revisit one of the malls which looked to have a food court where we could indulge our own tastes, me as a carnivore and The Navigator as a pescatarian. The first food court was simply amazing with none of the usual fast food outlets, but instead, independants offering a bewildering array of quality foods at prices to match so reluctantly we walked all the way back up to the end of the street near where we had our cuppas this morning.

ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock

Again there were no fast food outlets but what did catch our attention were two side by side very reasonably priced Asian restaurants. One was Chinese and the other a Thai / Indian which is the one we chose. We both had a pork, noodle, vegetable combination with The Navigator having a Thai sauce and I had a Mango sauce. To say it was delicious is an understatement and for a total of € 15, a bargain as well and we’ve paid a lot more for not such good food in the past.

ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock

The fountain area beckoned again to sit and digest our food in front of the beautiful University of Rostock building which was founded in 1419, and it’s the oldest in the Baltic Sea Region. 

A surprise heavy rain shower, which had been threatening most of the morning, sent us scurrying for cover until it abated. After the rain stopped we headed back to Bessie, content we had seen the best of Rostock, and impressive it was too.

In the evening more vans arrived for their free overnight stopover and lots of people were out for a stroll along the quayside and quite a few people waved in to us when they saw Bessie’s registration, or maybe the small Scottish flag beside it! There was a lovely sunset across the water in front of us and we stood on the quayside to take it in before walking a hundred yards to our left where people were relaxing with a drink in deck chairs, some were even dancing a la ‘Strictly’ and it was all very civilised.

ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock
ManVanNoPlan in Rostock

On the town side of the car park, a bar had outside seating and there was live music provided by a guy playing drums, keyboard and singing and very good he was too. All in all, we really liked Rostock and for a city that was heavily bombed in WW II, it has been well restored and  would recommend it to anyone visiting this part of Northern Germany. For info there is another large quayside motorhome parking area, but its not near the city centre, instead it is beside the ferry terminal for ships to Sweden.

Day 11 – Friday 14th of July
Rostock to Stralsund – (54.302730, 13.098633) (69 Miles)

Today we are heading to Stralsund, another German city you have probably never heard off and you are in good company as neither had we. Stralsund is tucked up in the far north east corner of Germany and is another of the former Hanseatic League cities on the Baltic Coast of Germany.

We had to be off the Rostock parking area by 8am or feed the meter to stay longer but because we had arrived so early yesterday morning we had seen most of the city centre and we are keen to make progress eastwards, hence the early start for Stralsund. We arrived at the Stellplatz in Stralsund before 9.30am but there was no problem getting a pitch, even that early as other vans were leaving to move on. Entry through the barrier once you take a ticket, which cleverly is also used for entry to the toilet and shower block by means if the QR code printed on it.

ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund

It is a big stellplatz with over a hundred pitches and we chose one on the edge in the shade of some tall trees. After sitting outside for a while to relax after the drive, we set off to walk to the harbour area where we intended to have our lunch of some sort of fish, naturally. It took just short of half an hour to arrive in the refurbished former docks area which are now given over to yachts, both for locals and visitors.

ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund

For the land based visitors like us there were plenty of fish restaurants, with the ones doing the best trade on what looked like converted trawlers. The prices seemed to be very reasonable and we picked one and found a table under a big umberella for some much needed shade. The fish we had was not battered, and seemed to be smoked, but for € 8, including a good portion of chips and a home made tartar sauce, it was delicious.

ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering about and watching yachts, tourist boats and a huge big hotel boat arrive. The whole quayside has been redeveloped at huge expense with the biggest attraction a very modern Baltic Sealife building which has been built to offer a contrast to the red brick former warehouses.

ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund

The city centre was nearby but we decided to leave that until tomorrow so headed back to Bessie, buying a cake on the way back to have with a cuppa. Across the road from the Stellplatz is a caravan and motorhome dealership and we went over to kill an hour looking at the shiny new campervans, the outstanding one being a Malibu, made by Carthago, a premium German brand and it was two thirds the size of Bessie but was on sale for €95,000!

The pitches were almost all taken by late afternoon and after sitting out for a while we had a snack and called it a night.

Day 12 – Saturday 15th of July
Stralsund – (54.302730, 13.098633) (0 Miles)

An earlier objective of not arriving anywhere on a Saturday has been achieved this weekend so we had a longish lie in knowing there was no driving today. Today’s plan is to cycle to the city centre and explore the Unesco World Heritage buildings there, as the Old Town has many red-brick Gothic landmarks, like the 13th century Town Hall.

First though, The Navigator wanted to make use of the washing machine, as yesterday afternoon we mastered the fairly complicated payment method, so she wasn’t going to let that new found knowledge go to waste! By ten o’clock however we were ready to head off for the day and the first time we’ve used the bikes.

ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund

If I’m honest it was a bit of a struggle to walk into the port area and back in the baking heat yesterday, but today we are heading into the city centre on our bikes and we did it in a fraction of the time and with a fraction of the effort! This was another pristine city centre with one main shopping street with the usual mix of quality shops along with quality bargain shops, one of which was Woolworths where we purchased another bottle of Italian wine for € 2 and a bottle of Coke for € 1.

After all the fuss in Scotland about numpty Lorna Slater’s DRS Scheme, it can be reported that it is fully implemented in Germany and my € 1 bottle of Coke actually cost € 1.25 with the .25 cents refunded when it was returned at a supermarket. Because of the intense heat we have been drinking more than usual and later this evening we took our plastic bottles to Netto, just around the corner from the stellplatz. The machine does not return cash but does give a receipt which is scanned at the checkout and deducted from your shopping bill.

One of the unintended consequences of this scheme is that you see homeless and down and outs searching bins and picking up discarded bottles and cans to earn a few Euros! Every cloud…

Back to today’s visit to the city, one of the thing that previous generations of Germans were good at was building impressive buildings like churches, cathedrals and town halls and Stralsund was no exception as you can see in the following pictures.

ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund

It was over thirty degrees by lunchtime and we called it a day in the city and cycled the short distance to the harbour area where we both had a roll on shrimps which were delicious, served with lettuce and mayo.

ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund

We had one last walk around the harbour area and were in time to watch a Dutch sail training ship cast off with a crew of smartly dressed youngsters learning the ropes as it were!

ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund
ManVanNoPlan in Stralsund

Back at the van I had a doze in the shade of Bessie and The Navigator ironed this morning’s washing load – a woman’s work, etc, etc! I watched the end of an exciting stage of the Tour de France and was about to get the barbecue fired up when a shower of rain came on putting an end to my turn to cook!

We have been to Germany many times down the years and have really enjoyed visiting Minden, Hamburg (almost), Schwerin, Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund on this trip. They are not the household names you have heard of before but that doesn’t mean they are not worth visiting, in fact they are all worth visiting and I commend that notion to the house m’lud.

Day 13 – Sunday 16th of July
Stralsund to Mrzezyno – (54.145610, 15.285963) (201 Miles)

Poland, land of plumbers and potatoes awaits us…
The plan for the next week or so is to make our way up Poland’s Baltic Coast visiting more places no one has ever heard of until we reach the major city of Gdansk, which, certainly everyone of a certain age should know about as in August 1980 the Gdańsk Shipyard was the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union movement. Its opposition to the Communist regime led to the end of Communist Party rule in 1989, and sparked a series of protests that overthrew the Communist regimes of the former Eastern Bloc, and the movement’s leader leader, Lech Wałęsa, later became President of Poland in 1990.

As you would expect, the journey from Stralsund in Germany to Mrzeźyno in Poland was motorway most of the way with the roads in pristine condition, especially in Poland where the road heading to Gdansk looked brand new.

There were no issues at the border crossing and we simply drove straight through, but then immediately peeled off to fill up with diesel, not really knowing if it was dearer or cheaper in Poland, but the amount of German cars filling up led us to assume it was cheaper, and it was.

At this point I will give a glowing endorsement to our Revolute debit card which works in any currency and gives a great conversion rate. The only issue is keeping an eye on your spending and maintaining a balance on it but the transfer process from your own bank account is simple to use.

The satnav said we had about an hour and a half to our destination so we were looking forward to the drive in this new country for us. A short while later the traffic in front of us ground to a halt and with a junction about a mile ahead we assumed it was either roadworks or an accident. At this point a strange thing happened. The slow lane traffic that we were in moved onto the hard shoulder leaving a gap up the middle of the road, presumably for emergency vehicles, but we are used to them using the hard shoulder.

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

It was indeed an accident just past the intersection and the police had blocked the motorway and everyone had to take the slip road off, and that’s when the fun began! My phone lost the signal which meant the satnav didn’t work so we were heading into the Polish countryside heading south when we should be heading north up to the coast. 

About two miles later everyone in front of us seemed to be turning left so we decided to follow them in the hope that their satnavs were working. What we had turned onto was a forest track no better than single track and heavily rutted with huge potholes. The incredible rattling caused the screen for our rear view mirror to stop working and the next twenty minutes or so were horrendous to drive but at least at the end of it we arrived at the next junction where got back on the pristine motorway. It was one thirty by this time so we pulled into the next rest area for some lunch and our regular Sunday three way video call with the family.

Once we came off the motorway to head north to the coast it took about half an hour to reach Mrzezyno through some pretty countryside and some sleepy villages, this being Sunday afternoon after all. There is a large campsite in this small town but we were heading for the quayside where motorhomes can park with full facilities. We were fortunate to get the last space and it was a tight fit to get Bessie into the pitch but after a fair few cuts I managed to get parked.

And boy was it worth the effort!

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno
ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

We were right on the quayside but as I had to reverse into this space our door was on the wrong side but we were just glad to be here. Mrzezyno is an out and out holiday resort and is split by the river Rega with most of the town on the other bank from us. On either side of the harbour entrance are two of the most pristine beaches you will find anywhere and because this was a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon, they were both packed.

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno
ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

A few yachts came and went but mostly it was trip boats from the other bank that kept going out and in with passengers going for a trip around the bay. We were knackered by the almost six hour drive in boiling sunshine so we had an early night.

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

We did sit out for a while and were treated to a great sunset.

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

Inexpensive Birthday Gift Ideas…

Titles for the four nations also include, Best Wife, Best Mum, Best Son, Best Dog, Best Golfer & Best Cat!

See the full range of titles HERE.

Day 14 – Monday 17th of July
Mrzezyno – 0 Miles

What a contrast from yesterday looking across to the busy side of the harbour as it was far from busy this morning. The weekenders and day trippers of yesterday were back home or at work and the town had reverted to normal, however as the morning wore on it did get busier.

We had been speaking to a Polish woman yesterday two vans up from us as she spoke passable English and this morning they were moving on further up the coast which was a bonus for us as I wanted their space. The big advantage would be that I would have far more space to allow me to turn Bessie around to put our habitation door at the the side of the quayside, which would give us privacy from the car park.

That achieved we decided to walk over to the far bank and explore the town, and a very pleasant little town it was. We walked along the jetty and tried to decipher the menus on display, without much luck it has to be said, but whatever the dishes were, they were reasonably priced.

Here’s The Navigator expertly pointing out that Bessie has now been turned around.

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno
ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno
ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

It was another warm day and we picked one of the quayside restaurants to have a tea and a latte which seemed easy enough to order and that came to 21 Zloty, just over £ 4 (5 Zloty to the pound). After that we walked away from the quayside to see the rest of the town and the shops and stalls were mainly catering to the tourist trade although we did find the local supermarket and bought a few things to keep us stocked up on Polish goodies. Again we were surprised at the value of our purchases and are really warming to Poland in more ways than one.

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

“Houston, we have a problem!”

After Gdansk we were planning to go on to visit Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, aka The Baltic States but we woke this morning to a newspaper report that, “Putin is planning to use Wagner fighters to invade key strategic strip of land straddling border between Poland and Lithuania in move against NATO’s Baltic states’, a Putin crony reveals.”

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

On Poland’s northern border is an enclave of Russia called Kaliningrad with a million or so Russian citizens living there. There is a gap of 104 kilometres which forms the Poland – Lithuania border known as the Suwalki Gap and then it is Belarus, effectively Allied to Russia, and it is this gap that we were due to go through early next week to tour Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, but…

Our conflicting thoughts are,
1. If World War III is about to kick off, we really shouldn’t be behind enemy lines!
or
2. There’s no way that World War III is about to kick off and we should proceed as planned!

Decisions, decisions lol. All will be revealed in the next blog…

We are really loving Mrzezyno and management (The Navigator) has thrown the whole three month tour into complete disarray by insisting that we stay another day, so we relaxed, enjoyed the sunshine, the harbourside activity and had a barbecue. 

To be fair, this is such a perfect location and the weather is so good that it would be a shame to waste it driving somewhere else. By the way, the candle tin you see on the table has a peat fire aroma, not to remind us of a peat fire in a Highland Bothy, but to keep some pesky flies away! 

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno
ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

Day 15 – Tuesday 18th July
Mrzezyno – 0 Miles

So, our unplanned extra day was spent mostly relaxing with The Navigator reading and knitting and I fished for the first time in a long time, with no luck.

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno
ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

I say no luck, but does foul hooking count as a catch? This is me by the way. The Navigator thought my head was surplus to requirements in this pictures.

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

The extra day with electricity gave me the opportunity to finish off the last blog, the first of this series.

Surprisingly, after being overflowing last night there was an exodus of vans this morning and only two vans came in all day. In the evening we had a barbecue for the second night running and we sat out again watching the activity as boats came and went from the harbour.

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno
ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

The forecast is for rain tomorrow which is hard to believe as we were treated to another beautiful Baltic sunset.

ManVanNoPlan visits Mrzezyno

Day 16 Wednesday 19th of July
Mrzezyno to Gdansk – (54.369370, 18.728845) (177 Miles)

With rain forecast for most of the day we changed our route today and headed for Gdansk, which I’m sure everyone has heard of. If not, I admire your youth, but not your education!

The original plan was to visit another one of Poland’s Baltic Coast resorts but that wasn’t an option now that the inclement weather had made a seaside resort not the best use of our time, so after servicing the van in the lashing rain, we set off eastwards. Google Maps was forecasting the journey would take between three and a half and four hours, but that turned out to be wishful thinking.

Mrzezyno had been half an hour north of the new motorway but we were routed eastwards passing through an area which was heavily forested and interspersed with massive wheat fields on some of the worst roads we have driven on. We think the roads in Argyll and Bute are bad, but these were much, much worse, and we were glad when we were guided back onto the pristine motorway after about an hour.

All was going well until we approached a huge city called Koszalin where the motorway by pass was still being built causing us to be diverted through the fairly nondescript city. First chronicled in 1244, Koszalin nowadays is an industrial town and from what we saw of it not worthy of a visit, especially not on such a dreich day.

The motorway is being built all the way from the German border to Gdansk and will be a superb road to drive, in maybe two years time but today we drove on what was mostly single carriageway through flat and unremarkable countryside, the only highlight was to see the odd stork perched on a lamp-post. The Poles are taking a no prisoners approach to road building and for the most part the new motorway is being built alongside the existing road and straight through the middle of the wheat fields which must be soul destroying for the farmers.

We stopped for lunch at a busy petrol station then carried on. Google Maps gives you a countdown to the time left to your destination, but even though we were back on a stretch of the completed motorway, the time hardly moved from an hour and a half to go. As we approached the outskirts of Gdansk, we saw why the time to go was not counting down as our route turned from a blue line into a red line, meaning stationary traffic ahead.

On any other day it might have taken thirty minutes to reach the campsite we were aiming for, but the quoted hour and a half on the screen turned out to be very optimistic. Even Google Maps got frustrated with the lack of progress and ‘she’ re-routed us away from the bypass and through the city. Even this new route had long stretches of road works and this, combined with the beginning of the rush hour(s) meant we hardly saved any time but because we were moving, albeit slowly, we felt this was a better option than being grid locked.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

Six hours it took in the end and we booked into the campsite for three nights to give us two full days in the city centre. The campsite, Camper Van Stogi 114, is located in woods near the beach and it was packed but we managed to get in OK, although others were turned away later.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

After dinner we ventured out for a walk as the rain had abated and we wanted to work out how to get tickets for the nearby tram into the city centre. That done, we went to the beach which was surprisingly busy and had excellent fine sand. There are resorts all around the world that would kill to have sand as good as this, but they probably don’t have a massive container port adjoining it, which completely spoils the view, and sunset.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

Day 17 Thursday 20th of July
Gdansk – (0 Miles)

Today is my birthday and The Navigator has kindly offered to buy me lunch, which is an occasion in itself. She loves when its my birthday as I am now the same age as her, although my retort is that I’m still a toyboy!

First a little bit about Gdansk, a city most of us have heard of because of the historic events that happened in our lifetimes.

“Gdańsk (Danzig in German) is a port city on the Baltic coast of Poland. At the center of its Main Town, reconstructed after WW II, are the colourful facades of Long Market, now home to shops and restaurants. Nearby is Neptune Fountain, a 17th-century symbol of the city topped by a bronze statue of the sea god. Gdańsk is also a centre for the world’s amber trade and boutiques throughout the city sell the ossified resin.”

“One of Poland’s most beautiful cities, Gdansk has played major roles in history, especially in the 20th century. It was the 1939 flash point of World War II, and then in 1980, the birthplace of the Solidarnosc labour movement, ushering the end of Communist domination in Eastern Europe. Gdansk’s Old Town, painstakingly reconstructed to its Hanseatic League glory after being levelled during World War II, is a highlight.”

Gdansk sounded promising, so after opening cards and presents from my family and reading good wishes from friends online, we set off from the campsite. A small shop in a nearby campsite sold tram tickets (approx £ 1) and then it was a ten minute walk to get the tram for the 15 minute trip into the city centre.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

Within a few steps from the tram station you pass through an archway originally built in 1614, but the War damage was beautifully restored in 1957 and immediately you are in Dtuga, one of the most impressive streets you can imagine, beautifully restored and thronged by people enjoying the lovely weather.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

There are no large department stores or recognisable branded shops, instead there are individual businesses catering for all the tourists and locals alike and the two main outlets seemed to be restaurants and amber shops. Halfway down this long street is the impressive Neptune Fountain. As you walk down the street you catch glimpses of churches and other impressive buildings at the end of lanes to your left and right.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

At the bottom of the street you pass though another impressive archway and find a canal where you can hire motor boats shaped like cars to take you around the canal system. There are dozens of restaurants lining the canal and the historic crane is in here but still being restored. A modern and stylish footbridge crosses the canal at this point and further down past the boats of all shapes and sizes that take tourists for a trip is another impressive footbridge, this one lifting up on the hour to let the tourist boats and yachts out of the city centre.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

The forecast had been for some rain and it began to fall just as we reached my chosen restaurant for lunch. It has rave reviews, both on Facebook and Google and the online pictures of the food looked fantastic. Although it was my birthday treat, the choice of restaurant was endorsed by The Navigator as they had Pierogi on the menu.

“Pierogi are an important part of Polish culture and cuisine today. They are filled dumplings made by wrapping unleavened dough around a savory or sweet filling and cooked in boiling water. They are served in a variety of forms and tastes (ranging from sweet to salty to spicy) and are considered to be the national dish.”

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

I had a tartar salmon starter, which looked too good to eat and The Navigator had a herring based starter.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

For the main course I had a breaded cod fillet on creamy mash while The Navigator had the Pierogi. To say it was delicious is a huge understatement and I would recommend the Bazar restaurant if you are ever fortunate to travel to Gdansk.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

After lunch, the sun came back out and we spent an hour lounging on a wooden recliner seat near the lifting footbridge and had a tea and coffee and very nearly a nap!

We slowly retraced our steps heading for the tram, and found an ice cream shop on Dtuga doing great business selling a sort of flavoured ‘whippy’ type cone and that finished off the treats for the day.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

Back at the van a German registered motorhome was parked near us, but what made it stand out was the New Zealand stickers and emblems and (long story short) we spent a lovely evening in the company of Gary and Dianne from New Zealand’s north island. They keep a motorhome in northern Germany and use it as often as visas allow. Schengen eh!

As luck would have it their travels had taken them from Finland by ferry to Tallin in Estonia and south through Latvia and Lithuania and were kind enough to supply us with a motorhome guide book for the Baltic States, as well as lots of other useful information.

Day 18 – Friday 21st July
Gdansk – (0 Miles)

We started the week in Poland with three nights at Mrzezyno and we are ending it with three nights in Gdansk as each of these destinations has merited two full days in their different ways.

Today we took the tram back into the city centre and tried to find some other sights to see. The first of those was the Great Armoury, an elaborate, restored 1600s building, housing rotating exhibits from the Gdansk Academy of Fine Arts.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

Further on we found the covered market, which was underwhelming, but the stalls outside had an incredible display of colourful fresh fruit and vegetables.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

We then walked down another beautiful street full of amber shops and stalls until we came to Saint Mary’s Basilica, or to give it Its full name, Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a massive brick built building, currently one of the two or three largest brick churches in the world.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

Built between 1536 and 1572, St. Mary’s Church was used for Catholic and Lutheran services simultaneously and from the 16th century until 1945 it was the second largest Lutheran church in the world. It is 105.5 metres (346 ft) long, and the nave is 66 metres (217 ft) wide and can hold a staggering for 25,000 people.

The church was severely damaged late in World War II, during the storming of the city by the Red Army in March 1945. The wooden roof burned completely and most of the ceiling fell in. Fourteen of the large vaults collapsed, the windows were destroyed and in places the heat was so intense that some of the bricks melted. Today you would never know it had been damaged and it is a truly magnificent building and well worth a visit, whether you are religious or not.

Entry is free but you can climb the tower for a small fee. The Navigator offered to take a pew for some contemplation if I wanted to climb the tower, but I declined her kind offer.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

We walked on and eventually crossed the lifting foot bridge and had our lunch overlooking the canal. Thankfully, we were under a huge canopy as a heavy shower of rain came on as we were eating. After lunch we slowly meandered back towards the tram, but could not pass the ice cream shop and had another two cones.

ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk
ManVanNoPlan visits Gdansk

Back at the campsite I met Joop the Dutch man we had met in Wismar and we invited him, and wife, Frida into Bessie for a cuppa and a chat. Having a motorhome and travelling far and wide exposes you to some lovely people and we have been fortunate to meet two such couples here.

We (I) have also been busy working on new ranges for Fyne Editions and one such new range is the 2024 Week-to-View Diaries There are over 50 published so far with more to come soon. You can see a small sample of titles below but check out the full range HERE.

This map shows the approximate route we have taken on week 2 of the 2023 Road Trip…

Week 2 Map

Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn a small affiliate commission from Amazon if you click through the link and finalise a purchase.

COMING SOON ON THE NEXT BLOG...

We have one more planned stop in Poland before we have to make the final decision about passing through the Sulwalki Gap into the Baltic States or explore more of Poland and Germany. This is as close as it gets to a cliff hanger on this blog…

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