Ten years ago on February 8th, 2014 Margot and I left Victoria to begin a year-long retirement motorhome adventure in Europe. It was truly the most amazing year imaginable. Since 2014 we’ve made three additional trips back to Europe with each one lasting about three months. We have visited many wonderful countries, seen incredible sites and experienced the very best of people and cultures. This never gets old for us and we seem to never tire of these experiences so… here we go again! On March 12th we’re off to our favourite destination… Europe 2024. This trip however will not only cover Europe but much of Türkiye as well. We’ll be driving our motorhome south through Romania and Bulgaria to ultimately explore the ancient world of Western Türkiye. This will actually be our second attempt at making this trip and hopefully turmoil in the world will not interfere with this plan as it did in 2022 when we diverted the trip to Portugal. Again, we’ll be renting the motorhome from our favourite dealership, Dumo Reisemobile in Dulmen-Hiddingsel, Germany where they have faithfully taken care of our motorhome needs and always treat us like family.

Once again, as you see, I’ll be firing up my BrumaBlog which is mainly intended for “Friends and Family” to help everyone keep track of where we are and what kinds of things we’re up to. I also use these Blogs to produce hard cover books of our travels that make gratifying journals with actual pages. I’ll try to keep the words to a minimum, pictures to a maximum, and not overwhelm your in box. Let the journey Begin!

Bruce

This beyond belated blog is intended to wrap-up and complete the story of our latest motorhome trip in Europe. For each of our major trips I eventually publish a travel book based on my published blog posts and then these postings become a chronological hardcover diary of our most significant trips together. Upon returning to Canada in June we became so busy, so quickly, I never did get a chance to complete the final blog entry for this trip and therefore this posting will fix that. 

May 25th – June 8th

After a traffic congested exit from amazing central Paris we headed eastward to Reims where we saw the magnificent Gothic Cathedral Notre-Dame and got an up-close sense of how it dominates the city centre with its grandeur. Onward we drove through the Champagne region with a wonderful drive along the “Route touristique du Champagne”. Miles of rolling hills with immaculately groomed vineyards and wineries of all types, size and age. Enough to impress even a die-hard beer drinker.  We camped the night in an “Aire” just outside the defensive walls and moat of a very interesting little fortress village called “Rocroy”. We can highly recommend the little bakery just off its main central square. North to Dunkirk then east along the popular Belgium coastline and on into the magnificent Netherlands. We skipped across the beautiful Dutch islands populated with picture perfect farms and villages as we made our way towards “The Hague”.  Along the way we saw first hand why the Dutch are considered worldwide as the masters of water management. The water control systems along this route are something you have to see to believe. Miles and miles of extremely high dikes, causeways with hundreds of flood gates, huge tunnels, locks, canals and bridges of all sizes. So impressive and so easily taken for granted when driving about the country’s beautifully groomed and dry lowlands. As rising water levels challenge many regions of the World, there is no question who should be in charge of trying to solve the problem, and then control it. 

Once we reached Leiden we were once again greeted with love and warm smiles from the best family relatives imaginable. It was a brief stop with Hedy and Kees to drop off some bulky luggage in preparation for our upcoming flight home from Schiphol Airport. We moved on quickly toward Dulmen Germany where we returned our rented motorhome to our good friends at Dumo Reisemobile.  Every-time we arrive here we feel like we’re among good and caring friends. Once again they took care of all the details. Michael & Anne, Jorn, Dominik, Eddy, Sanna, Sandra and all the Dumo staff make us feel like we can hardly wait for our next return trip to Dumo. Speaking of good friends, we cannot forget to include in this list Hendrick and his mom Anne who own and operate the Hotel Van-Lendt in Buldern just outside of Dulmen-Hiddingsel. Every stay we have with them is truly amazing in every way. It’s like a perfect reunion providing us with a chance to catch-up on all the latest news, and we never leave this beautiful hotel with the feeling of “this was just another transaction”. Thank you again to all of our wonderful Westphalia friends. 

And now back to Holland and a final few days of fun and heartfelt goodbyes with our dear friends and family there. Despite a minor covid related issue that required a few adjustments to the plans, we managed to have another wonderful visit with everyone and we will cherish this visit, like all our others, forever.

A little “Road Ramble”

Fancy-free living is not always care-free living. Unfortunately things can and do go wrong wherever you may be. When you’re on the road and your health and/or welfare is negatively impacted it can be extra stressful. Over the years we’ve been super fortunate in this regard and have experienced very few health related situations but on this trip we did have a few issues to deal with.  Some were illness related and one was hospital related. In all these cases the final results were positive including the overnight hospital scare I had in Quimper, France. Our desire to travel remains strong, but we’ve learned the value of having flexible “back-up” plans and procedures in place for as many situations as possible. Pre-organizing your thoughts and actions for various scenarios can potentially save you a great deal of stress, anxiety, and time. Generally a good idea for home living too, but even more important for when you’re traveling and on the road. Kinda like having an earthquake preparedness plan in place, but for traveling.          

Changing plans on the go:

This 2022 trip to Turkey unexpectedly morphed into an opportunity to revisit and explore new parts of previously traveled regions of Europe. Our original plan was to travel a circular route through Western Turkey arriving there via Romania and Bulgaria.  Unfortunately the Ukrainian war situation negatively impacted that plan. Not wanting to put additional stress on limited resources and harbouring a certain amount of apprehension about traveling in a turbulent region, we reluctantly decided to concentrate our travels on the Western side of Europe instead. Thankfully we had a predetermined plan B option available and though this was a discouraging turn of events for us, our real feelings of grief and concern were for the Ukrainian people impacted by this unnecessary Russian aggression. Hopefully this horrible situation will soon come to a peaceful and lasting conclusion.  

We really did enjoy our motorhome travels on this 2022 European adventure and even though we had to deal with a few minor setbacks along the way, we recognize how privileged and fortunate we’ve been to have had the opportunity to travel like this and we will never be taking that fact for granted.

After celebrating Margot’s birthday in splendid Albufeira, we started to make our way east along this increasingly popular resort-rich coastline towards Spain. Faro is not far from the border and things started out so well with us scoring a coveted camping space at a nearby campground on a beautiful sandspit beach. Unfortunately, however I ended up with what I think was food poisoning from some “fresh fish” and required a number of down days to fully recover.  As a result of loosing those days we had to move quickly along. We drove east through Sevilla turned left at Cordoba and made our way north towards Toledo (places we have enjoyed before in past trips). El Escorial, northwest of Madrid, was a very interesting stop for us with its incredible 16th century palace and nearby “Valley of the Fallen Monument”.  We capped off our visit to Spain with a really nice stop at the 1020-1287 Loarre Castle north of Zaragoza. What a fascinating castle, and the vista views from it’s defensive walls were absolutely stunning. Over and through (tunnel du Somport), the Pyrenees we drove onward into France. Bypassing Bordeaux we stopped at an interesting little place called Blaye that is situated further along the extremely long inlet into Bordeaux. Here a major and long standing fortification was built to protect Bordeaux from invading forces coming from the Atlantic and its origins date as far back as the Romans and Vikings.  Another more modern fortification further north was also an interesting stop. At St. Nazaire the Nazi’s built a huge fortified submarine repair and supply base that is still standing today and now used as a massive multi purpose structure. St Nazaire also has one of the largest dry docks in Europe and for this reason it was a major target of the Allied forces in WWII. In fact, the most daring commando raid in history took place here attempting to neutralize that dry dock and the details around that event makes for a very fascinating story, if your interested. I had a quiet and laid back birthday in Quimper, Brittany before we headed off to the Normandy coast for a overnight stop on Utah beach and a respectful visit to the Canadian war cemetery outside Caen. Onward to Paris where we completed another long walkabout that connected many of the major sites of Paris including Norte-Dame Cathedral that is still undergoing restoration from that dreadful fire. It’s now time to put our feet up for a couple of recovery days before wrapping things up and returning the motorhome back to Dumo Reismobile in Germany and completing this unpredictable 2022 adventure. 

After leaving Arles, France we drove a short distance to an interesting coastal holiday destination called “La Grand Motte”. This massive seaside apartment/marina complex is based on the design conception of one architect. Jean Balladur’s wave like pyramidal shaped buildings are intended to blend into the natural environment when viewed from boats offshore. Our first close-up impressions of this 60’s era resort were not that great but then when you see large sections of this complex from a distant vantage point, I must admit, it is impressive and it’s still a study destination for many architectural students. Onward to Andorra which today does not resemble the country that Bert and I visited in 1972 where we parked our VW van at the top of a mountain because we got good radio reception and then almost froze to death during the cold icy night. Actually many of those mountain tops are now populated with somewhat impressively large ski resort developments. Combining awesome skiing with tax free shopping has created a mega European winter  destination and has rendered this entire little nation unrecognizable via my 1972 experience. We actually moved through busy little Andorra fairly quickly (which is not too hard to do considering it’s size) but lucky for us, diesel fuel was a bargain on the way out.  

Spain is a fascinating country and is truly one of our favourite destinations. It has so much natural beauty, culture and history to offer that it’s impossible not to be impressed with it. With limited knowledge about the northern part of Spain we called on Kees to help guide us along and he did not disappoint. Extremely well informed and an experienced traveler throughout Spain he graciously shared some wonderful ideas and destinations with us… thank you once again Kees. Zaragoza, Logrono, the wine district of Rioja, Burgos, Leon, Astorga and Ponferrada along the “Camino de Santiago” (Pilgrimage walk to Santiago de Compostela) were all great suggestions. Also of interest was a fascinating archaeological site we stumbled upon in the Atapuerca Mountains. Here, Europe’s oldest human remains were accidentally discovered by railway construction workers cutting a trench for a new railway line. Some artifacts and human fossils date back an astounding 1.2 million years. They are still excavating this site. 

Into Portugal and down the coast to Porto we drove. The weather cooperated and we had a great time exploring the old town and eating the best Portuguese sandwich ever (as promised)… twice!  Continuing south we stopped in at the surfers mecca of Nazare. Here you find the largest surfing waves in the world (they can reach over one hundred feet high) and this is the place where surfing records are set. Even though the waves were rather tame during our visit we were still able to experience this beautiful and busy place bursting with its surfer energy and mixed together with the atmosphere of a traditional Portuguese fishing village. It was a very cool place to spend a relaxing sunny day. We are now in the Algrave area on the South coast of Portugal and working our way back east again towards Spain. From this point on, we have no real agenda as we start our return trip north so we’ll just follow our instincts and drive the roads less traveled.

From Venice we drove a short distance south to one of the smallest countries in the world, San Marino (60.5 Km2). It basically covers the upper part of a small mountain and with its impressive cliff hanging medieval fortifications it has maintained its independence since the 11th century. Interestingly, it’s also considered the oldest Republic in the world. Next we made our way to another beautiful mountain top town called Assisi (thanks George for this recommendation) to visit the birthplace of St. Francis  (namesake of San Francisco) and the impressive two level Basilica di San Francesco. All very impressive, especially when lit up at night from our campground below. Hadrian’s Villa east of Rome was our next stop and we were not disappointed. This place is amazing as well as amazingly vast. I knew that a Roman emperors summer villa would have to be larger than your average country club but this place is ridiculously gigantic. Its large, impressive, and well preserved ruins sprawl over an area the size of a small town making it a challenge to visit in just one afternoon. 

We made a quick stop in Rome to re-visit some of our favourite places and an interesting new visit to the”Castel Sant’Angelo” before heading to Pompeii and Naples. A rental car drive through Sorrento and along the compact Amalfi coastline was a driving challenge but a great way to complete this southern part of our Italian journey. After a quick scoot north we exited the toll road northwest of Rome and then followed the coastline past Pisa. The quick driving pace did not end at Pisa as we were now focused on reaching Spain and Portugal as soon as we comfortably could. Therefore, a few more toll roads required until reaching Monaco where we could no longer resist the temptation to drive along the Riviera coastline roadway all the way to Marseille, France. This blog concludes with us spending a great day visiting the World Heritage Site, Arles, France. This is the location where Vincent Van Gogh spent time recovering in a hospital and also painting a number of priceless paintings.

Crossing quickly over the Alps from Fussen, Germany and waving to a few late spring skiers along the way we arrived in one of our favourite locations in northern Italy. Highway 38 and 40 is lined with apple orchards and vineyards and passes through a magnificent alpine valley dotted with medieval castles all the way to Merano. Unfortunately, and a little disappointing for us, this fruitful valley was still a few weeks away from it’s glorious spring bloom. But, this drive is worth the trip at any time of the year and Merano itself is a beautiful mountain town/city with a number of historically significant and interesting sites  surrounding it as well. From Merano we drove south along the east side of Lake Garda, a very popular tourist location, to Sirmione, Italy on the south end of the lake. This interesting sliver of a peninsula with castle and village on it’s outer end draws millions of visitors every (normal) year. Luckily we enjoyed a rather laid back and quiet visit.  From Sirmione we traveled once again to fabulous Verona and Venice.  We were very surprised at how busy both these places were but we did notice that most of the crowd seemed to be more “local-ish” in nature. Having driven through Croatia two times in past trips and missing Pula both times, we decided we had to make it happen this time. The ancient Roman amphitheatre in Pula is truly magnificent. It is one of the largest Roman Arenas in the world and it’s the only one with all four sides still intact. From the centre of the Arena you can almost sense the gladiators around you as they fight-off the lions. This amphitheatre is over 2000 years old and is still used for significant concerts today. In it’s prime it could accommodate 23,000 bloodthirsty spectators and today… about 12,500 music lovers. Rovinj, a small coastal (cone hill shaped) village a short distance north of Pula is well worth a shout-out.  A very unique town with an interesting water frontage and incredible sunsets. 

But… now the time has come to make a very difficult and trip altering decision. Traveling western Turkey was our original plan and we held onto that dream as long as we could. As we drove south and the days passed by, we hoped that things would start settling down in the Ukraine. This has not been the case and this horrific situation just seems to be escalating and getting worse. So, the idea of heading eastward presents a certain amount of anxiety and uneasiness that Margot especially does not feel comfortable with. Therefore, this northern part of Croatia will be the furthest “South-East” in Europe that we will travel and we’ll now concentrate our efforts on many unexplored locations within Italy, France and Spain as we make our way westward towards Portugal.  We do feel a little disappointed about missing out on Turkey, but in no way do we feel bad about this decision… we can only feel bad and upset for the millions of innocent people in the Ukrainian that are suffering beyond imagination at the hands of a madman and, our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Despite the stomach-turning global events that are dominating the news these days, we managed to have a great flight over to Europe thanks to KLM Airlines. We spent the first night at an airport hotel trying to recover from the jet-lag that seems to be progressively getting worse with our maturity. Early the next morning we caught a train to Dulmen, Germany to connect with the fantastic crew at Dumo Reismobile. As usual, we were treated like royalty and even given a choice between two great motorhomes. We chose the Citroen based “Glucks Mobile” (Lucky-One Mobile). This “GlucksMobile” will make for a very comfortable home for the next three months. Thank you to Dominik, Sanna and Eddy. We then loaded up the motorhome with some supplies from a local super store and spent the first night at the Dumo Dealership. The next morning Michael Thyssen (Dumo’s owner) and his wife Anne sat with us over coffee and we talked about trip possibilities. Turkey or Portugal? Michael called in an employee that moved to Germany a few years ago from Turkey to give us a picture of how things are right now and this was very helpful. Still undecided, Michael phoned his rental department and had them add on required additional motorhome insurance for us to drive in Turkey, just in case we decide to make this our destination (Typically this would be an added expense for us at the border crossing). Portugal however is still very much on the table and a strong possibility, we actually have a few more days before we have to make that final decision. Stay tuned!

When we drove off we didn’t get very far at all. We stopped at the wonderful Gasthaus (Pub) and Campground called “Peters” just outside of Ludinghausen. We planned to see a magnificent nearby Palace called “Schloss Nordkirchen” that was built based on the design of Versailles outside of Paris. We took a tour of the impressive Palace but it was  presented in German. Of course we met a wonderful couple that translated the entire tour  for us. After the tour, we enjoyed getting to know them a bit better over a cold beer. Speaking of beer, we had the greatest time at Peters Gasthaus where we became very friendly with the Pub patron Hendrick, and a large number of his other guests too. The beer was good but the food was fantastic. We actually stayed at Peters for two nights and have plans to see Hendrick again on our return in June. Another castle nearby is worth a big mention. It’s one of the smallest castles we’ve ever seen but in my opinion it’s one of the best. There is something very unique about it and I have often thought about it ever since we first visited it in 2014.  Die Burg Vischering is a small historical gem that somehow transports me back through time to Medieval days.   

Hitting the road we put on some quick, and expensive, miles (Diesel @ $3.34/litre) and we made it to Kassel. A very interesting town with a ton of beautiful history.  And Kristen… you would be impressed with the dozen or so rowing clubs all within a one kilometre stretch along the river bank. Every time we see rowing, we think of you.

Now, with a concerning eye on the mess that Putin has created, it’s time for us to commit to a general direction of travel, keeping in mind that Turkey will still be in the running for a few more days yet.  Will keep you posted.

Who ever knew that it would require this much stress, energy, patience, organization, determination and luck to just go traveling for a few months. Yes, Covid-19 has certainly changed our world and increased the complexity of “tripping-out” for fun. And, as if Covid alone was not enough to worry about, the recent and reckless behaviour of Mr. Putin is not making travel easier or less stressful, especially when considering travel in Eastern Europe. But… we’ve decided we’ve waited long enough for the world to fix itself and its now time to get on with doing the things that make us happiest, including motorhome travel in Europe. With no desire to live recklessly, putting ourselves or others at risk, we plan to follow all the latest national guidelines for safe and healthy travel. Hopefully things will improve daily and we’ll not have the feeling that we have wasted another precious year or two in frustration. We now consider the absolute risk of aging too quickly and waiting too long, greater than the risk of not loving and living our lives to the fullest possible extent. We really hope to generate a few more good memories on this trip that can be added to our list of adventures and retirement scrap book.

So… with fingers crossed and N95’s at the ready, we are once again flying off to Europe on the 7th of March and renting another motorhome from our good friends at Dumo Reismobile in Dulmen, Germany for three exciting months. Our plan is to “bee-line” for Turkey and complete a Western circle tour of this amazing country. If for some unfortunate reason we are unable to make the trip to Turkey, (touching wood as I say this) we will head towards Portugal through France, then Italy and possibly Croatia again. All considering, not a bad alternative to have as a back-up.

My plan is to once again rely on this blog to keep our friends and family informed as to our whereabouts and activities as we go along. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the new (limited) updates and possibly become inspired to visit some new places yourself.

Ukrainian Situation Update:

A few days have passed since I wrote the above introduction to our Europe 2022 trip and in that short period of time Vladimir Putin has done the unthinkable and has recklessly created an unnecessary international military crisis. Our first thoughts turn to the millions of innocent Ukraine citizens, young and old, that have had their lives turned completely upside-down overnight and now find themselves in extreme danger of not only loosing their homeland but their lives, and the lives of family members as well. What was Putin thinking and what is his ultimate goal? What impact will all this have on the rest of the world? Will the Russian people stand ideally by and let this bully behave like an out-of-control Czar? How, and how long, will this situation take to settle back down? Way more questions than answers. Hopefully some calmer and cooler political minds will surface soon.

As for our own upcoming travel plans… we are following government travel advisories on a daily bases and we’ll base our final decisions on the information provided by them. We have a great deal of time, effort and money invested in this trip including a few dreams as well. Hopefully things will return to a “new normal” and we can get on with our peaceful lives. As the British would say… “Keep Calm and Carry On”. However, not wanting to make light of the situation, I have planned a couple of alternative drives south towards Turkey staying further to the West. If any of these plans become questionable, we can quickly alter our course towards France, Portugal and Italy. Hopefully we’ll be able to stick to the original plan but understand that we’re not taking any of this situation lightly. Let’s keep the words of John Lennon in mind and… “Give Peace a Chance”.

From Sopot, we travelled a short distance northwest to another impressive Polish seaside resort called Leba where sand dunes and spectacular beaches abound. Leba is a popular summer holiday destination with lots of restaurants offering good seafood on the menu and sensible sized glasses of beer. Leba marked the farthest location north on our trip and from here we followed the Baltic coastline southwest to another interesting resort town called Miedzyzdroje just a short distance from the German border. Our next thought-provoking stop was Peenemunde, Germany to see the infamous WWII Army Research Centre museum. This is where the Nazi’s developed the A4 rocket, more commonly known as the “Vengeance Rocket II” or V2. At the time, this facility was considered the most technologically advanced centre in the world and besides the unimaginable destruction that resulted from it’s existence, it was here at this location that the entire space race frenzy began that allowed the Russian’s to launch Sputnik into space and NASA to ultimately put a man on the moon.
Moving along at a quick pace, we drove to a nice campground close to Potsdam. Potsdam is near Berlin and has more palaces per square kilometre than any other place that I know of. In one of these smaller summer palaces the “Big 3” Churchill, Truman, and Stalin met after the war to carve up Germany and thus setting the stage for a troublesome East West divide. Potsdam is also where you find the “Spy” bridge (Glienicker) made famous during the “Cold War” and also the headquarters of the KGB in East Germany. A short train/metro ride from Potsdam takes you to the main station in Berlin. This station is amazing with it’s many platforms and levels, truly a tourist destination in itself. We walked about Berlin and revisited many of our favourite places before moving on to Dresden. Dresden was a beautiful city that was completely flattened in WWII but once again, skilled craftsmen have reconstructed the ‘Old Town Centre’ to much of it’s original glory and this restoration work continues to this day.
Driving west we stopped at Nordhausen. This is where you find the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp that provided a massive amount of manpower for a familiar project. This was the main production location of those “V2” rockets that were produced using the technology developed at Peenemunde. This surprisingly massive and complex tunnel system was excavated to accommodate the mass production of V2 rockets and it was built, and then operated, at the expense of countless slave labourers. Only a few guided tours a day provide an opportunity to visit a small section of the tunnels where you can still see rocket components littering the snakelike landscape. An impressive but sobering place to visit.
Onward to Hameln, Germany. This is the beautiful little town where the famous fairy tale “The Pied Piper” was written; the story was supposedly based on a true event?? Throughout the town centre you find dozens of small bronze “Rat” tiles set into the cobble stone streets. They all seem to be following a statue of the Piper himself along with a number of unsuspecting children. We were lucky enough to just happen upon Hameln and were once again reminded of our favourite traveling experience; that feeling of excitement with a surprise discovery of something fun and interesting.
Finally, we made our way into the Netherlands with a quick visit to Amsterdam and one last welcoming stop in beautiful Leiden to say a goodbye to our wonderful Dutch family there and also to give Bob and Katie a “High 5” as our two individual trips just happened to cross paths. Thank you again Hedy and Kees for taking such good care of us again and treating us all to that delightful boat ride through the old canals of Leiden.
Now, onward to Dümo Reismobile in Dulmen, Germany to return our cozy little motorhome thus completing our wide circle tour of Europe and bringing to an end our 2019 trip. A little sad to be ending this “gypsy-like” lifestyle again but filled with all kinds of excitement and anticipation to see our kids, grand kids, friends and family once again.

 

 

As expected, Venice was crowded with tourists but we still had fun exploring this fascinating city for the third time.  Not that far north of Venice you start entering the eastern Alps. We decided to drive through Austria and the Czech Republic to Poland as this was the most direct route.  This southeast part of Austria is absolutely beautiful and a motorcyclists dream. In fact, the big campground “Arneitz” that we stayed at just outside the lake resort of “Faaker See” is the epicentre of the largest Harley motorcycle rally in Europe that draws tens of thousands of riders each year… I now have a new entry on my “bucket list”.  Surprisingly we have had very few regrets about the many pathways that we have traveled but with hindsight in this case, I wish we’d spent a few more days exploring this beautiful alpine part of Austria. We zipped on into Vienna and stayed at the same campground as we did in 2014 that was only a short distance from the magnificent Schönbrunn Palace that we missed seeing the last time through. Vienna could be a shoppers delight but it’s also filled with so many other significant attractions, it really is a wonderful city to explore.

Onward to Poland and a significant change-up in experience, especially considering that our first stop was in Auschwitz 1 and 2. This is one of those rare places that must be experienced first hand to truly appreciate the emotion. No photograph(s) can express this place appropriately in true perspective and no amount of written words can adequately describe it.  A very sobering experience for everyone and probably the most significant memorial that we have ever seen. Also a very busy one with millions of visitors now visiting each year. Despite the somewhat “thought provoking” way that we entered Poland, our overall impressions of Poland have been extremely positive. The people have been wonderful, the sights and attractions are quite interesting and varied, the countryside is beautiful with many impressive infrastructure projects on the go as well.  But, one does get the overall impression of a quickly developing nation that is finding it’s own way and also becoming a very serious travel destination. If only they could “dial down” some of the aggressive drivers. We like the feel of Poland and think it’s a great country to visit with a real added bonus for those wanting to have a more authentic experience without the crushing and growing crowds we experienced in places like Barcelona, Rome, Pisa, Venice and Dubrovnik. Do however expect long lines at the amazing salt mines of Wieliczka south of Krakow. We were very surprised at how beautiful the Old Town centres of Krakow, Warsaw and Gdańsk are considering they were almost wiped off the map during WWII. The Old Towns were re-built as they originally were and the craftsman of the time did a great job. A short distance south east of Gdańsk is a castle worth mentioning. The huge brick “Malbork Castle” was a real treat, much larger and more interesting than we thought it was going to be with it’s medieval squeezing doors and tiny passageways, it was a fun place to explore, not to mention the colourful history that goes with it. We have stopped to catch our breath at the historically famous seaside resort of Sopot, just outside of the major shipping centre of Gdansk. This has been a prime resort for the rich and famous since 1824 and it still has that “turn of the century” feel to it. Like much of Poland, it’s in the process of revitalization, but from our front seats, we think this is a great place for a relaxing visit right now. And, what an amazing beach! Too many good restaurants and beach bars to count with reasonable prices and matching service. By the way, “Camping Park45” next to the beach has earned two thumbs up from us.  We now set out on the last leg of this journey with exciting thoughts of soon seeing our five wonderful grandchildren… and their mom’s and dad’s too.