As today rain and colder weather were expected in our previous location, we moved South again, to Cervia. Let’s see if the weather predictions are correct and if gained few days of summer more?
At this time of the year the town is almost empty. As well as is the camping (Adriatico) or the beach 🙂
Considering the cold evenings and nights in Poland we decided to take advantage of the sun and warmth still available in the Southern Europe. The closest (and the easiest) was to drive to Italy.
A little bit more than 1000km and we reached the Adriatic Sea in Grado.
It felt really good to have italian pizza for a dinner. We really missed the Mediterranean food…
30°C in the evening made it pretty difficult to fall asleep but the next days should be a little bit colder (26°C) and we will be looking for some shade for the van.
The castle in Łęczyca is small but worth seeing (free entry on Thursdays). The exhibition inside is mostly dedicated to the devil Boruta, famous character of local fairy tales.
No photos from the top of the tower bacouse, as it often happens, as soon as we reached the top, Jasiu announced he needed a toilet…
The next stop was the Collegiate Church of St. Mary and St. Alexius in Tum. For me that is one of the most beautiful churches in Poland. And with looong and interesting history as well. Do not miss it on your way. If closed, pass by the neighbouring museum to request a free visit (donation based visiting).
We started the day in Kruszwica to see a tower well known from a fairy tell about price Popiel and maises.
About 170 steps up and the view on the neighborhood is beautiful.
We could not enjoy these views for too long because as soon as we reached the top, Jasiu announces that he needed a toilet. Urgently!
The second castle remainings are less famous but worth seeing as well when you are nearby Koło.
This could have been a nice place to stay for the night, but it was still relatively early so we decided to see another ruins 25km away, in Besiekiery.
Later we continued to Uniejów to stay overnight in a parking next to the river and Uniejów therme.
In Wągrów there is a unique spot in Europe, where two rivers are crossing their water and flow further separately. Honestly, I imagined them as bigger but their water was very clean 😉
When we reached Biskupin the weather was just perfect for a walk, with a little bit of wind that stopped the mosquitoes. The views were lovely and the free audioguide available from the museum website provided a very good insight into the history of the place.
We wanted to stay for a day at the shore of Jeziorsko lake that is known for lots of opportunities for wild camping. But seeing the tons of trashes left behind by the previous tourist, we knew we would not enjoy it there… Amazing how irresponsible people can be…
We moved severel kilometres North, to a small lake called Przykona. The nature was beautiful, but it is allowed to use motorboats on that lake so knew staying for longer is not an option.
On the next day Rafal took some time to have a look at our solar installation that seemed not to work as expected… Indeed two of the panels are not charging the second battery but fortunately the fix should be relatively easy, once we are back to our “base”.
He was lucky enough to secure all the connections on the roof right before a huge thunderstorm…
And do it was time to move forward… The public beach in Śrem is excellent for families with kids. Free water slide for kids above 100cm (but smaller could to try it as well as noone is guarding it), clean sand and warm water (poor water transparency though – I lost my ring in the water and there was no way to find it back 🙁 In that beach we also left behind the best sand toys of our kids, but we only discovered it on the next day :-/)
After getting enough (too much?!) sun we decided to move forward and visited a beach in Nowy Debiec, which occured to be a big holiday resort with a nice beach and dozens of small bars, ice-cream places and toy stands. Our kids loved it but we didn’t so we decided to look for another place… After having checked several forest parkings we ended up in a public beach in Dominice at the shore of Dominickie lake. We actually liked it so much that we stayed there for two nights. Nights of the falling stars 🙂
Tykocin should be very beautiful and full of history but to us it occured very touristic and disappointing… Visiting the castle was tempting but it is only possible with a guided tour of about 1h which is not doable with our kids right now. The boat trip was fully booked for the next hours and the church was full of people. Or maybe it was simply too hot and we were not in a mood for explorations 😉
The hidden beauty of that day, or even the whole region, was the European Stork Village in Tykocin. Lovely old houses surrounded with peaceful and gorgeous nature. And by the storks, of course…
Our friends (few days after our visit) were wise enough to ask there if they could stay overnight. There was no problem and the price was 1/3 of a campsite price.
In the end of our visit there we discovered a tick in Julia’s forehead. It already was very deep inside so we left the storks in a hurry to find a doctor in Tykociny. We were lucky to get help easily and quickly which should not be taken for granted in the Covid times…
Once the tick was removed we grabbed some food (Bistro Krypno: delicious and at reasonable prices!) and ice-cream and drove North to the Tsar’s road (Carska droga) with high hopes to spot a moose!
Rafał drove very slow and carefully but we did not spot neither a moose/any other animal nor the police/national park rangers…
For that night we ended up in a camping in Rajgrod. Because we arrived very late, we were standing almost outside, just at the gate, but in a quiet and empty field. But the campsite was full, veeery much full. And seeing that nonexisting level of privacy and the crowd of people in the Covid times, I suddenly realised again how lucky we are to be able to do wild camping 😀
Kruszyniany – although the place is very touristic, it is worth a visit. In just 20min long guided tour to the mosque one can learn a lot of history and interesting stories about the Tatars from the village and in Poland. The guide is a very interesting person as such! Do not miss the cemetery!
We had a late lunch in the local restaurant serving Tatar’s traditional food. Everything was tasty and of good quality but our kids did not share our enthusiasm towards the new tastes 😉
Few kilometres North from Kruszyniany, there are Krynki with a roundabout connecting 12 streets (unique in Poland!).
When driving towards Supraśl we knew that we will get some rain at last. But we were lucky to reach the town right after the heavy rain was over.
Lovely small town with lots of history and several picturesque places. It is definitely worth a longer walk, but we were running pretty late and hungry.
We spent a quiet night at Kopna Góra, a recreational area prepared and managed by the State Forest Authority.
After having voted in the presidential elections (we really hoped for changes…not yet though…) we were back on the road towards the East. We arrived to Białowieża hungry and a local road closure made it difficult to reach the restaurant of our choice so we ended up dining at “u Pasibrzucha”. The service was slooooow but the food was all right. For the night we selected two parking lots in the National Park, but the parking in front of the bizon reserve was further from the road. And there were 3 other campervans staying overnight so we joined them. It was very nice to sit all together and talk about being on the road. Such random “meetings” with their friendly and cheerful holiday atmosphere can we truly inspirational!
In the morning we visited the Bizon reserve (with our fellows from the parking) and drove to Białowieża to see the the museum in the Park.
On our way towards towards artificial lake Siemianowka we had several stops to observe the beautiful nature…
After driving like hell to pass the borders before they are closed, we arrived home last evening…
On our way we reached Andalusia in the evening, when the state of emergency was announced in Spain. After checking all the news coming from the EU Member States and the numbers of hospitalized people rocketing (when we were leaving Poland there was no cases of the virus in Portugal, one week later there were 220!), with broken hearts we decided to drive back home.
Before leaving we spent a couple of hours on a deserted beach, just playing with kids, enjoying ourselves and our mobile home… We would have loved such live, all of us!!!!
And then we read the news that Catalunia will close its borders with France next morning. So we drove like hell to reach France.
And then we were notified by a Friend (thanks Katja!!!) that the German borders with France will be closed next morning. So we drove like hell to reach Germany…
And then we were queuing for 7h to reach the border of Poland. Lucky us! At some point the lane (actually 2 lanes) of cars waiting to pass the border was 47km long!!!
Finally yesterday we reached Rafal’s parent’s place to leave the van there and move for the next 2 weeks of home quarantine to Rafal’s sister place. Now we need to stay isolated for 14 days after crossing the border.
We are incredibly lucky to have such a supporting family! Rafal’s Sister appartment (new, she was about to move in) was waiting for us, stocked with food (for 2 months rather than the obligatory 2 weeks) and toys for kids. Amazing!!!
So we have to figure out now what to do next… What to do for work, where to look for a place to live… Interesting times coming!!!
May the force be with us! All of us!
Stay healthy!!!
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