Can you imagine leaving Egypt for the Wilderness...
Early morning, first day of Pesach:
...and it turns out you've left Vienna for Poland?
And then your first stop is Auschwitz!
Not that it was all bad, we'll report on those kinds of experiences in the normal (town by town) Web site.
There had been some rain as we ate our lunch in the van in the parking lot of Auschwitz. For some, unknown reason, Gertrude had us go into Krakow by some two lane rutted road on which there were a number of slow trucks in front of us. We finally approached the city and missed the appropriate road. I got on the "freeway" headed south and took the first exit.
We skidded getting off the freeway.
Debbie writes:
Fortunately, Mark instinctively did the right thing and we were fine.
We could not find camping in Gdansk--the local campsite is not yet open and our books with lists of campsites do not include Poland. We knew that we had a five-hour drive ahead of us, even so, we spent the morning in Warsaw. We left late, after sightseeing in Warsaw on the way out of town. Then we took a route through a tiny town (for the portrait of that day). We finally reached the main route north to Gdansk and I assumed my usual driving speed. However, it being Easter Sunday, there were many speed traps set up and I did not notice that the speeds changed as you approach a town. This speeding ticket cost 100 zl (about $33.00). I got an official receipt for the payment. I was doing 70 KPH in a 50 KPH zone (that converts to about 35 and 25).
The police there were very busy. One car was stopped when I arrived. Another got stopped while I was still being processed.
I must be a slow learner.
Not more than about 50 KM further on, I got caught in another, similar trap.
I gave the policeman my documents and he said: "Mark 'Shmuel'". After realizing that we were from the States, and for some reason I cannot, now, remember, he sent me off without a ticket (or paying anything), he waved us off with "Sholem Aleichem!"
It had rained off and on throughout most of the afternoon, which slowed our arrival. It was dark and we were tired. The campsite for which we had been following signs for about 10KM was closed (not open yet for the season). I pulled into a Shell gas station where they had given us permission to stay for the night, and backed into a spot where another larger camper was parked. We heard a horrible crackling sound. I had backed into that camper's bike rack and broke our back window. Fortunately, I had not damaged the other van.
There was a hole in the glass right near where my head would be on the pillow. I taped up the window with the "fragile" tape we'd bought in Paris and went to sleep.
We had also picked up some literature at the Holiday Inn, including a piece that warned tourists not to visit the Old Town without a tour guide as it is not safe. The fellow at the desk said that was a bit exaggerated but we should be careful as in Rome. Well, there were a lot of people wandering in Old Town and it felt perfectly safe both during the day and in the early evening.
During the day we parked the caravan in a place we were told was safe, followed the procedure for leaving all the curtains open (to convince passers-by that nothing of value was being hidden), ate dinner in the van, encountered the couple with the bike rack van (temporarily parked outside the Holiday Inn) and inquired as to where they would be camping that night, went back quickly to our caravan to get our map to confirm the locations. We did some walking along the Motlawa River and sat in a cafe (again (the Ferber Cafe with wireless)).
At about 10:00 PM we returned to the van to sleep, only to find that thieves had broken in and stolen our GPS, the radio (both of which were closed into the glove compartment), Mark's recorder (which was in a cupboard in the back (over the bed)), and various books, the receipts for the trip so far, our toiletries and medications, and the documentation for the van. That led to our visit to the Polish police, where they kindly brought in an English interpreter, the captain took very careful and detailed notes, and we signed the report. However, given the type of theft it is we don't have much hope of retrieving any of it. The officer asked how he could reach us if they find our things. Since we have no phone, we suggested email, but the police only have computers that they use as glorified typewriters but no Internet connection in the police station. We offered Stas Lewak (Mark's boss' son who lives in Krakow) as our contact person (and told him the next morning). We noticed a sign at the entrance to the police station that warns that people may have to wait as there are a lot of reports of thefts in the city. Our van dealer tells us that this happens 10 out of 500 rentals, but we suspect it may be higher in the Tri-City area (Gdansk, Sopot, Gdinia) Poland.
OY, it's only money...Some of the costs for all of this may be covered by insurance...but we are healthy and fine.
After sleeping in the caravan on the street in front of the Mercure Hotel, we found, with the help of the hotel staff, a Fiat dealer that could handle the repair of our window. We drove to the suburb to take care of it. While they worked on it, we spent the day at a nearby Auchan mall where we bought a new GPS "Tom Tom 700" (at Noruto), did some food shopping, sat and "relaxed". We waited for a while at the Fiat dealer and at about 6:00 were able to leave; we headed back to Gdansk to check out D's Dad's addresses <>, headed over to the Holiday Inn to use their sauna, steam room and showers (a real mechiya after no showers for two days), and slept on a quieter street (in front of a church).
The next morning we left Gdansk for our trip to Berlin via Sopot. We had a lovely, sunny morning walking along the Baltic promenade, strolling the longest wooden pier in Europe, taking care of some correspondence, using email at the Novotel and enjoying some free tea. D can see why Dad likes the ocean experience at Oceanside. Then back to two lane highways to get us out of Poland, with a night at a Orlen gas station which fortunately had free showers. A breakfast of latkes and blintzes, Polish style, perked us up for the long drive, the two lane highways and the assorted detours of the day.
When we arrived at the Polish/German border they asked us for our papers and the papers for the van. I (Mark) explained that the van's papers had been stolen. We were directed to the waiting area. I took out the Police Report. The border guard read it, shrugged and sent us off.
Bruised, But, Better, in Berlin
And here we are (writing this) in Berlin, finally hooked up again (with electricity and water) at a camp site.
Surprisingly, we each feel better to be in a somewhat familiar language setting and away from the poverty and drabness of Poland...