Stepping Out in Dortmund!

Fixed! Hymer is back in favour too. The Dortmund service was great and the problem step is no longer. It turned out to be a small plastic bush that had broken and was stopping the step-motor from working. It could have been fixed 600km back! Fortunately we were traveling in this direction so now we will explore the area around Munster. 

Hymer world - Motorhomes almost as far as the eye can see. Nearly tempted to trade ours in!

Having all our worldly worries forsaken we set off in the direction of Munster but only got as far as Lüdinghausen and the small village of Rosengarten - where, living up to its name, was a whole village of rose gardens!

On our journey today we saw the contrasting environments of the modern world - a peek at the private serene world of a Schloss and the modern world's demand for energy. 

Schloss Sandfort and ....

.... it's moat.

Contrasting with a neighbouring nuclear power station .... 

..... with its towering stack. 

Arriving at Rosengarten we vowed not to drive another kilometre! Instead we took a long leisurely walk around the village and the extensive gardens of roses. A very special place. 

Rosengarten, a very tidy town. 

 

With some lovely sculptures 

Pendulum clock in rose garden. 

And the roses!

Deutschland Day 2

We have not driven such kilometres since a trip between Tennant Creek and Katherine in the Northern Territoriy in Australia! This time there were a "few" more cars and trucks on the road - but no road-trains! 

Some typical rural scenery as you drive across Germany. 

Hymer in Hamburg were useless! Fortuitously,  as we were trying to sort out who in Hymer could help us with our step, we had a call from Dirk and Brigitte and with their great language and negotiation skills they were able to get us an appointment with Hymer in Dortmund first thing tomorrow morning. So, on our bikes and off we went!

The lovely part of Germany we were going to explore will have to wait for another time. If we can get our step problem sorted out tomorrow, or even next week, we will have the opportunity to see this great part of Germany. 

An awful picture, but only one of the mighty Elbe River near Hamburg, whose course we tracked a couple of years ago. 

So, summing up the day - driving and frustration! 

Many more solar farms ....

....  And a new support structure for the windfarm towers!

Hello Deutschland!

Woke this morning in Poland and going to sleep in Germany! But that is about the excitement for the day.

Back in the land of serious recycling. Before shopping just insert your returnable bottles into the machine and it will deliver a cash voucher. 

Our purpose today was two fold - charge our German SIM card in Prenzlau and to exchange our new switch for our back step in Neubrandenburg. The first we achieved but the second indicated to us that Hymer has a way to go in the area of  customer service!!!! 

The rural countryside of eastern Gernany was in full harvest mode. What was interesting was the German commitment to renewable energy. This we had noticed in other parts of Germany as well. We could not help but notice just the huge investment in both wind and solar energy sources. With nuclear power stations being decommissioned throughout the country the big push into solar and wind energy is obvious. A shame about Oz's less-than-serious renewable energy policy!

Huge averages for new solar farms. Pic 1 is a stack of solar panels to be placed in the frames. Other pics are of the installation. Note the wind turbines in the background!

Wind farms throughout the agricultural landscape of eastern Germany. 

We visited Prenzlau, wandered around for a while, checked out the promenade along the lake with many other holiday makers. But with the approaching storm we decided to cut our visit shirt and start to head for Neubrandenburg. 

Pleasant lakeside promenade. 

It wouldn't be a blog without an ancient relic of some sort! Here is a chapel and an old town gate tower. 

The storm did arrive and it washed the van slightly too. 

Frustration at the Hymer dealership when they we unable to help is with a brand new Hymer switch. We now have to wait until we get to Hamburg to get it sort out. We couldn't even order a new one to be sent to Hymer at Hamburg!!

Still raining in Neubrandenburg so we decide to make our way to Hamburg more quickly than we had planned to do. 

An interesting house mural in Neubrandenburg. 

So we travel a little way out of town to our overnight stop in the old village of Penzlon. 

We are also in the land of the "Burgs". A burg in the village of Penzlin. 

Timber-framed house in Penzlin. 

View from the castle - with Hilton getting into the picture!

The witches playground at the castle's wall. Protestant Mecklenburg was one of the few areas of Germany that held witches trials. 

Just about to settle back for our last meal of pirogi, the last remaining link to Poland. 

Another pic from today:

This van pulled in beside us today!

Szczecin

Tuesday 26th July

Our last day in Poland! It has been an unforgettable experience, surpassing all our expectations. The variation across this vast country has much to offer the tourist. 

On our travels around Poland we have been fascinated by the regard in which the storks are held. These carvings sum up this popularity. And interesting to note that the stork migrates for the winter to North Africa - never crossing the Mediterranean Sea at any point other than at the Straights of Gibraltar.  

The people, and their obvious positivity, have turned a country that was very much behind the eight ball into one of progress and growing prosperity. The comparison of the Poland we first saw 36 years ago to the Poland of today is astonishing. Perhaps the biggest change has been the increase in the prosperity of the people. This can be seen in the large shopping complexes dotted over the country. A far cry from the days when you had to wait outside a small grocery shop for one of the ten baskets to become available before entering the shop! And the competition is fierce - Carrefour, Tescos, Aldi, Lidl, Auchan in the supermarket category alone, and the list goes on. 

The other great change has been the transport links. Motorways and A-roads have improved mobility greatly. Couple this with car ownership, and you have a huge change in personal freedoms. Enough of this!

Szczecin today! We spent most of the morning doing jobs we needed to get done before crossing into Germany tomorrow. But most with little success. The laundrette in Polish seems to be a "laundry service" - that is what we deduced from today. A waste of a lot of time with no result. Clean sheets will have to wait till tomorrow.

A view across the Odra River to the castle and old town. 

Some very clever street art under the road bridge. 

It is very much a working port  city and some of the infrastructure paid little attention to the aesthetics of the historical section. 

We did get to see a little Szczecin, a city of over 400,000 people, the important seaport on the Baltic.  For two hundred years it was controlled by Germany and was the port for Berlin.  Destroyed during the war, the reconstruction of the old town centre was done with little love and attention! The stroll along the Odra River is quite pleasant with some interesting observation points. 

The most celebrated building in the town is the new Philharmonic Centre, known as the Iceberg. The modern design is supposed to have taken its inspiration from the surrounding historic buildings. 

The Iceberg building "blending" with the historic!

The Zamek (Castle) of the Pomeranian Prince  was worth a look with its origins going back a thousand years, but what we see today is a reconstruction because of the bombing in 1944. 

The Pomeranian Prices Castle. 

An aerial view of the zamek. 

The castle's very distinctive 17th century astronomical clock graces the inner courtyard. 

It was getting late in the afternoon so we thought we had done well to this stage, we left for the village of Kołbaskowo. Here we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening. 

Other photos from today:

Multi-storey residential buildings are going up in great numbers on the outskirts of Szczecin. 

 More street art under the bridge. 

Non-event Day!

What can I say about a day that had no highlights, but with some distance travelled? Not a lot!

We even struggled to have any photos (that are worth publishing, not that this will stop the editor!) for the highlights - now that's a first! 

We did get our usual call from Maddie, and a call from Jim. That always makes for a good day. 

It was a beautiful morning in Iwięcino. We were not in a great hurry to leave, so we crossed the road and checked out whether the church was open - but afraid not! Some other visitors attempted to look inside but they had as much chance as we did. 

Hilton's sleeping place!

An early morning shot - lovely shingled tower. 

We got on the road eventually, basically heading for Szczecin, near the Polish-German border.

We passed many cereal crops, Baltic Pine forest (some of these were being selectively logged) and some arid land. Quite a mixture!  

Beautiful strands of Baltic Pine. 

The ace navigator and on-board photographer just captured multiple windfarm blades being manufactured here in Poland. 

We stopped for a while in Nowogard before continuing on towards Szczecin where we had an earlier than usual stop at our overnight destination. 

Daily extra: 

Tried the Bernard Bohemian Beer - very pleasant. 

The silly season continues! Back to the Argus lager - 29 degrees!

Darłowo

Our last Sunday in Poland and we were fascinated to see the numbers of church goers. The folk were all dressed in their Sunday best and they filled the church in two consecutive hours that we observed. Poland has traditionally been Catholic, and it has been said that it was the church that maintained the Polish culture and identity through the many years of foreign control. 

Beautiful! In the ancient church yard at Iwięcino. 

We decided that we would wander northwards toward the Baltic to the town of Darłowo. We were pleasantly surprised to find an old attractive central market square and some interesting historical buildings surrounding the area. 

The reconstructed Renaissance Town Hall in Darłowo. 

A fine pair!

Another angle. 

Castle entrance. 

Castle, mill race and restaurants. 

In the gothic church of St Mary's is the tomb of King Erik VII (1397-1459). I particularly loved his story: he was a local (Darłowo) boy who became king of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, married Henry V of England's daughter, Phillipina, whom he later tired of and banished her to a nunnery. He was kicked off the throne in 1439, returned to Darłowo as a Duke of Słupsk, and lives out the rest of his life on the earnings from his piracy in the Baltic Sea!

A plaque in St Mary's Church in reference to Erik VII's reign. 

Another red brick church - St Mary's. 

We took a stroll around the town where a lot of holiday makers were enjoying the pleasant surroundings of an old castle, a 14th century church and a reconstructed Renaissance town hall which were all within easy access from the square. 

After lunch we thought we would risk the 3 km journey to the beach - but we were beaten there by scores upon scores of Polish holiday makers. The place was pulsating with humanity. They all seemed to be out on the promenade waiting for better conditions on the beach. 

Crawling with holiday makers. 

We quickly changed direction - not easy in the van when you had just entered a pedestrian area and the folk weren't prepared to give much ground!

Fun....

..... and fair!

We reset our course to Iwięcino where we had heard there was a 14th century church worth visiting. On arriving the church was all locked up so decided that this was a very suitable place to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening.  

Rustic charm of the church at Iwięcino. 

Over the road is an old barn and a well tended garden. 

Another of the church at Iwięcino. 

Masses of brightly coloured hydrangeas around the church. 

A sneak look inside the church through one tiny window. It was all locked up!!