2013/8 The Road Home. Baltic to Blighty.

So yes we lost the ‘new’ camera in  the lake with pictures of our visit to the castle at Rundale in Latvia – wonderful castle with amazing stucco, state rooms,  relief, tapestries etc– a mini Versailles plus a lovely garden, pictures here are taken from the brochure !  Thence past the famed  Hill of Crosses to Trakai with beautiful lake (including camera), camp site and castle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seems an age since we last wrote but we have covered a lot of ground. From Lithuania through to Alsace in France. A couple of thousand kms or more. Arriving back in France feels like coming home, suddenly we can communicate easily, get decent bread and cheese, cheap wine and recharge the dongle so we have easy wifi. It is amazing how important that is becoming.

Crossed Northern Poland – spending a day or two in the Masurian Lakes. An extensive lake system, sometimes linked by canals with charter yachts by the thousands. Looked great  - we were a bit jealous.

 

City hopped the rest of the way to Germany and to a few days in Berlin. A great city with such an interesting history, but hard work as a tourist and we were knackered by the end of 2 full days of walking tours, one a classic tour and the other the ‘new’ street art scene.

On down  to Dresden – where we had a campsite right by the river overlooking the beautiful skyline of the Old Town. The big surprise was a Mark Knopfler concert right beside us. Sat on the river bank with thousands of locals and listed to the concert about 100 metres away – could listen but not see. Was brilliant, but noticed the Germans were really restrained in their responses.

 

  Spent a few days touring East Germany – Saxony and Thuringia – all pretty villages, half timbered houses. Motorwayed 400 km (unusually long distance for us), onto Strasbourg, with an overnighter in Worms. Loved Strasbourg – an aire right on the Rhine, beside a striking footbridge across to the German side, with a garden on each side – all to commemorate the unity of the EU. A flat bike ride into town and lots of wandering of half timbered houses, quaint alleyways – the usual stuff, but never fails to please.

When you travel quickly you really notice the differences between the different countries. The road surfaces being one of the more prominent. The Baltic States still have quite a lot of work to do, but we were surprised that Eastern German roads are not so crash hot either. However there are more important things like cultural aspects, architecture, food, language,  friendliness, helpfulness etc. Joanna has taken a fancy to the different deer warning signs on the roadside, in different countries. Wishes she had started taking photos much earlier. The Lithuanian one looks like it is trying to climb upstairs!

The storks ran out in Poland just near the German border. However we have found them again in Alsace, where there is a thriving reintroduction programme. Spent a couple of hours wandering round that, getting a chance to see the chicks close up, and learn a bit about them. There are plenty around the region, just had a coffee in the square at Eguisheim, near Colmar, watching them on the rooftops and listening to their clacking noise. Love it.

Meandered our way down the Route de Vin from Strasbourg to Colmar. The home of Gewurtztraminer and Reisling. A bit of obligitory tasting led to a bit of purchasing. A bit more expensive than our regular Lidl purchases. However the villages are stunning with all their old buildings and geraniums etc.

For those of you who don’t know, Lidl is a chain of German supermarkets, found throughout most of Europe. Small,with a limited range of products, but very cheap. They have many of the same products in every country so when the language becomes an issue, Lidl is great. They have a centre aisle that sells all sorts of goodies – this week in France the focus is on cycling and running. Sometimes it is tools, the beach, gardens etc. David loves the centre aisle and usually finds something that he just has to have. Have stocked up on a whole load of bicycle things this week – jackets, computers, repair kits – the list goes on – all must have, at bargain basement prices.

A few days on the Canal Rhone to Rhine and the river Doubs with Max and Lucy Thompson on their luxurious craft – Kiwirose. Started at the very attractive riverside town of  Dole. The evening before Bastille Day so we were treated to fireworks and a great display of hot air balloons.  The real 14th with a great display canal side with a local ‘tabac’s’ residual supply of fireworks plus David delighted to find the old fashioned ‘bangers’ in ascending ‘bang’ from the No5 to the grenade sounding No1 – the stuff of memories. Couldn’t stop him, we all went back to the boat and David stayed with the local lads, letting off bangers.

 

 

 

 

Two days of driving north in sweltering heat (no aircon in Stan) to Calais.  This is a town we now know well and feel relaxed in, parking on the seaside quays, great views BUT the continuous rumble of the  24 hour procession of cross channel ferries only a stones throw distant.  A few essential ‘fix ups’ to Stan with our favourite camper van shop,  mussels in the local cafe at lunch time, we know our way around and have grown to love this rather sad town with so many passengers passing through but no glitter.

No time now, must finish, some ‘gypsies from Ireland have just added spice to the campervan park usually only inhabited by the retired (like us !) and duck on the menu.

Here’s to old Blighty on Sunday.

2013/7 Far North

Well we made it to the ‘top’ of Estonia, nearly 60 degrees N and now just started on our return trip. Today is the longest day.They call this time the White Nights, because there is no real darkness. Sundown after 10.45pm and light most of the night, Joanna just has to wake David to verify the light outside in the early hours of the morning, with the predictable response. At present we are parked in the car park of an up market sports/health hotel at the Winter sports centre of Estonia – Otepaa. Their mountain is only 318m altitude but they are obviously crazy about sport here.  There is a cycle track alongside the lake and it is used by cyclists, roller bladers and cross country skiers training on 50cm ski/rollers with poles (they go faster than us on bikes). Mid Summer eve occurs tomorrow (the 23rd June and a public holiday on the 24th St Johns Day). Bonfires and plenty of alcohol to be drunk.We have been told that all locals leave the city and head to their village/town for a bonfire and lots of merriment, alcohol fuelled, for mid summer.  We saw some  fires in preparation and thought here would be all go – however here it is a two day pop concert with a big base sound just round the corner of the lake with many youth and predictable sore heads in the morning – just the same the world over  – good on’em.  However this weekend is the first time we have enjoyed some hot weather, good enough to get us into the lake for several swims, and it is a public holiday for the locals  as well.

Not Not sure when we will finish this blog or post but the internet in Estonia is a dream – free WiFi almost everywhere in the country which created Skype.  Only a population of 1.5M but doing quite well it seems and using the Euro.   Beer and spirits certainly occupies an important part of every supermarket and even sold in petrol stations although the driving limit is zero %.

We seem to have met plenty of fellow camper vanners on this trip, Brits, French, Belgian and even some Kiwis in Riga. Probably we gang  together a bit because with languages such as Estonian, which are so alien to us and so difficult to get any sort of a grasp on, you can feel a bit isolated. Everything is difficult, supermarket shopping the worst – we have had several surprises when we get it back home. Joanna’s cooking is probably best described as fusion. Estonian dumplings topped with a pesto sauce with lots of parmesan. ( Bought a huge chunk in Italy – we are not fond of the eastern European cheeses). The cooked, smoked meat is always of interest at markets and we have had many surprises, some good some not so, but last night smoked turkey was fab. David is into some of the herring but generally we don’t see many fish restaurants.

So after the last blog we spent a couple of days in Riga, the capital of Latvia with a great old city. Cycling in from the camp site we visited the markets housed in zeppelin hangars, and wandered the old town. A sudden downpour led us into the Occupation Museum which improved our learning about the troubled history of the region through the Middles Ages, ruled by so many of its bigger neighbours and more recent take over by Russia in 1940 followed by invasion from Germany 1941-1944, then Russia until the early 90s, all of them ruthless rulers.

 

 

 

 

 

Moving NE besides castles and villages we toured an underground bunker set up during the Cold War and hidden under a rehabilitation hotel. It was only taken off the ‘top secret’ list in 2004. On up to Tallinn where we stayed in the Olympic yachting centre set up as part of the 1980 Moscow games (boycotted by many nations).  After one desperate cycle into town against a gale force wind, we used the very cheap (free for seniors) busses.  Again a very animated old town partly due to the visiting cruise liners (3 on one of the days). We enjoyed a great walking tour, and wandered all over marvelling at the reconstruction following the war time destruction. Also spent a few hours exploring some of the trendy new parts of Tallinn. It really seems to be a city on the move. But the great contrast was the endless lines of soulless apartments, in a dreary, treeless setting, as we headed east out of the city. Followed the coast north, explored the quaint fishing villages of the Lehamaa National Park and then headed S beside Pepsi Jarv which forms the border with Russia (up to 1990 there was a ‘no go’ strip along the shore).

Have been a bit frustrated with the lack of wildlife spotting. Joanna finally saw some elk in the forest a couple of days ago, but not a very clear view. Apparently there are about 700 bears here now but you really need expert help to see them, as for beavers, racoons, foxes – I think you have to go to a zoo. Saw all the signs of beavers on a walk in the Soomaa bog land. Plenty of storks and frogs. Frogs seem to be the number 1 roadkill around here. Thousands of them.

David is enjoying the beer (no more wine) and we note that alcohol is an important section of any store and even sold in petrol stations although the driver limit is 0%.  What David cannot understand is why they sell some beer in 1 pint cans (0.568l), crazy unless those returning from work in the UK have got used to it or there is an export trade to the UK.

Within a few days we will be passing through Estonia to Latvia to Lithuania and west across northern Poland.

As of an hour ago our NEW camera is sitting at the bottom of Lake Garve at Trakai in Lithuania. Much easier to drop it into than a beer glass!