2. Onward from Dresden

I had published this page once, but Google seems to have lost half of it. This is a recreation, and the chances of it being similar to the missing version are slim!

Thurs 9th May

A moderately early start (9 am) to break the back of the Poland leg (to mix a few metaphors). The roads have certainly improved since we last came to Poland, 20 years ago. We have been on  motorway or dual carriageway all day. A continuous stream of heavy lorries

Revenge of the Loo Rolls....

Route:Gorlitz (the border), Wroclaw, Wielun, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Lodz, to a tiny rural campsite at Lipce Reymontowskie. €15 per night with electricity. Right beside the pitch is a small tree with a hole in it, and sounds of baby twitterings emanating. Later we saw a starling sort of bird bring food. N51.929237, E19.928313 1280 miles since leaving

Rather spookily, the owner's wife came and took a photo of our number plate, and ignored us looking at her completely. No good asking - her English is as good as my Polish.

Later - another small campervan arrived. An Israeli couple, doing a similar trip to us. But they hadn't driven from Israel, only France.

Polish camp site

our neighbour

Fri 10th May

Woke early because it was so cold! That did mean we could get away early, another long drive. Polish motorways are hard work - streams of heavy lorries, then one will pull out to overtake, taking a mile to get past the overtakee. Max speed limit mostly 85 mph., but I didn't even attempt that. Heavy rain at times.

It has been motorway or dual carriageway right through Poland to Bialstok, and it probably carries on. As we approached  Bialstok we began to wonder if Sally knew where she was going. She did indeed - she knew a shortcut through Russia. Not having a visa, or insurance, we decided against that. turned left for Augustow, then set course for Radikes, where our target campsite is. Harmonie camping, N54-30-27 E24-53-23

Our route, and Sally's route

Crossing the border was no problem - there was no border. And we have discovered that all 3 Baltic states use the Euro, so no problem with Lats and Liths (but we came through Poland with no Zlotys- the wonder of a credit card!) (And we are now in the Eastern Summertime timezone - 2 hours ahead of UK)

LPG was plentiful in Poland, and so far in Lithuania, every other garage sells LPG, and a lot cheaper than the UK. We hope to fill up in Estonia, because there is none in Finland.

Later, both our phones buzzed and flashed, and a message "Emergency alert: Extreme" followed by a page full of Lithuanian text. I was convinced it was a scam, and I asked the Dutch camp site owner. "Ignore it" he said "it is about high winds in the Baltic sea". We have now turned off emergency alerts!

High winds in the Baltic, apparently...

Distance travelled since leaving home 1611 miles, 350 miles today

Sat 11th May

A day on site chilling, after some intensive driving. The site owner, a Dutchman, offered to drive us to the station to catch a train to Vilnius, and pick us up in the evening, but we would rather have a huge relax. We plan to go to a site in Vilnius anyway.

Camping Harmonie

We walked to  nearby "village" (collection of about 10 houses) Dailides, down a sandy track (aka "the main road".  Many of them had ferocious sounding guard dogs - luckily all chained up, but it does make you a bit nervous.

Dailides. ...and a few modern houses too

Back on site, and used the shower. Two huge showers, and unisex. There is one blonde Dutch lady who will remember to lock the door next time...

In the evening we went to the bar/lounge/communal area. The bar is help yourself, put the money in a tin. Very trusting. And everything costs €1.85. Everybody here except us is Dutch. One lady was telling us about her travels. This included several months in Australia with a trailer tent. and a few months in South America with a car top mounted tent. Both tent and the continent were challenging, she said. Now they have bought a small caravan, and seriously investigated taking it to Iran and Kazakhstan. That is SERIOUS adventuring!

...and the blonde Dutch lady didn't say anything...

Sun 12th May

This site has cost €22 pn. We have taken a reasonably short drive into Vilnius, via Trakai. Trakai is home of the Lithuanian's favourite castle, on an island in a lake, and very touristy. The castle has been much rebuilt but worth a visit though.

Balloon flights over the castle are a feature. This one was just 100 feet over the town!

Not speaking!

Trakai castle (and boats)

Thence on to Vilnius, the capital. There are a number of all singing, all dancing, sites, but these are some way out of the city. Instead we have come  to "Downtown Forest Hostel and Camping". 6 very tight pitches in front of the hostel - so close to each other the Caravan Club would go berserk. But there is electricity, wifi, a bar, and only 10 minutes walk into Vilnius centre.. All around is a building site, unmade roads, parked cars and narrow streets - but only 10 minutes from town. €26 pn. As we turned into the hostel, we did wonder where we were going - but it is fine. Subsequently we did find a car park, near the castle, where we could park overnight, and all day, but €15 per day and no facilities at all. Several German vans were there.

Downtown Forest Hostel and Camping - not a lot of forest!

Mon 13th May

Vilnius is a lovely little city - really low key. Much improved since the Russian occupation, which ended in 1991, but still some way to go. There is a rather wacky alternative area close to the site, called "the Republic of  Uzupis" which even has a steam punk bar.

steam punk pig...

local library

One of the first things we noticed was hundreds of electric scooters, whizzing about, or just parked up, anywhere. There is a Citybee app which you can sign up for, and hire these things by the minute. They looked very convenient - so many around you could just go and stop as you pleased. However, I looked at the reviews in the app store, and many were very negative. Problems with batteries, overcharging, etc etc. But for a while I was tempted.

We went round the grounds of the presidential palace - after we had been through metal detectors, and had our bags searched. Napoleon stayed here on his way to defeat at Moscow - then by General Mikhail Kutuzo, the Russian general chasing Napoleon back to Paris

presidential palace gardens

...with some unusual sculptures!

During the war Vilnius lost 56000 of its 58000 Jews - you really couldn't make such barbarity up! We expected to see some "Stumblestones" - little brass cobbles in the street marking the names and dates of victims, that are common elsewhere in Europe, but there were none. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolperstein )

Mon 13th May

The weather today is a lot brighter than yersterday, and we followed a directed walk around the town (courtesy of Lonely Planet)

Vilnius cathedral

and bell tower - once part of the city walls

In 1989 6 million Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians held hands in a chain joing all 3 capitals, as a demonstration of their desire for ndependence from Soviet Russia. At various places casts of feet are set in the ground in commemoration.

1989 peaceful demonstration

This flagstone is just outside the cathedral. If you stand on it and rotate 360 degrees clockwise you are granted a wish

When Napoleon was here he fell in love with St Anne's church, and had plans to transport it lock stock and barrel to Paris. Luckily defeat at Moscow put a stop to that

St Anne's church,

We lunched at an absolutely superb cafe "Sugamour" - presentation was faultless, the quality sublime, and the value for money unbeatable. A "Business lunch" fixed price, of soup (excellent) main course (equally excellent) and table water, €6.50. And a couple of the nicest  macaroons I've ever had included as freebies As we ate a fancy Mercedes parked opposite, registration "GHOST3". Out of it stepped 3 men who, if they weren't Mafia bosses, they should have been!

Back at the site, a German convoy of campervans arrived. Much shouting, gesticulating and manouevring. Then all changing positions - then they all left. And as I was writing that, the site management asked us to move too - it seems they are worried about the safety of a branch overhanging our pitch, and the wind is rising.

Tues 14th May

Another very cold morning. Rosemary wandered back into the city whilst I prepared to get back on the road ("secured for sea"). We heade northeast looking for Lithuania's lake district. There are so many trees the the lakes can be difficult to see, and long straight roads through miles of dense birch gets rather monotonous after a while. We found a site at Zarasai, close to the Latvian border. The site itself was closed, but the gates were open and we could have wild camped there - but it seemed rather desolate, so moved on a short distance to Salakas, a pleasant site beside a lake. This site was also officially closed, but the chap doing the gardening took €10 from us, and we used all the services including electricity. A site worth returning to.

Wed 15th May

Now heading southwest, towards the coast and past Vilnius again to a site at Jubarkas - Honey Valley Camping. A very pleasant site, not far from the river (but high above it - after our Bulgarian disaster we are wary of floods!). Nearby is one of the few remaining castles that usd to line the river, a half hour walk away.

 Thurs 16th May

We stayed on the site another day - this surprised the owner. Most people stay one night only. We spent the day relaxing, and walked to the castle at Pilis (Pilis means castle, so it was Pilis pilis or Castle castle)

In the castle was a group of schoolchildren, and we were struck once again by how rude and inconsiderate they were, pushing people out of the way. I REALLY hope British children aren't as bad as these.

We had a good wif connection here - helped by my latest toy, a hotspot with a directional aerial, supplied by Adam & Sophie at Motorhomewifi.com. You connect the hotspot router to the site's wifi, then connect laptops, tablets and phones to your own hotspot. Works brilliantly.

hotspot aerial

Fri 17th May

To the coast - Rusne, on the very southern tip of Lithuania. This turned out to be a typical frontier town, hard on the Russian border - run down and depressing. And miles of single track working - the sinle track being narrow, with a 6 inch drop if you got it wrong. The only way out was the same way, and we went round the bay to a campsite at Vente. This is on a narrow spit, in a nature reserve, and just half a mile away, right on the point, is a bird netting and ringing station. It seems half the migratory birds in the northern hemisphere pass over this spit, and many are caught in huge nets and ringed.

Sat 18th May

North up the coast into Latvia, to a sweet and unsophisticated site,  Camping Rugumi, right beside the coast. The main roads in Latvia are excllent - wide, good surface, little traffic, but many of the side roads are just dirt roads. Some are not too bad - 35 mph is achievable comfortably, but others have developed deep and regular corrugations where even 10 mph is not good.