Stocking up and Polish Lakes, Mikolajki
Zagan the motorhome is squeezed into one of the tight spaces at the full stellplatz in Mikołajki (N53.80264, E21.57319). There isn’t room to get our awning out, but then it is a stellplatz and not a camping, so we can’t really complain.
We slept really well last night at the museum car park. We had the place to ourselves, and were only woken when the first bus of the day dropped off children to visit the place. Sadly we didn’t bother going in, terrible I know, but we just didn’t fancy it. Instead we got Zagan packed up and hit the road, aiming firstly for a Lidl (of course).
Spot the mistake!
We figure we’ll be leaving Poland in the next few days, and as the beer is super cheap here we took the opportunity to stock up. 72 cans, worth which work out around 30p a pint instead of £2 a pint we’ve been warned to expect further north. Jay has some tough decisions ahead: one beer a day, or nothing in the week and three on Friday and Saturday, or nothing all week and seven to celebrate Drunk Monday! The wine was only in bottles, so I’ll try a different supermarket to see if I can get a few boxes (less weight) to see me over the top of Europe.
We also bought some tinned stuff, pasta sauces, etc. Yes, we know there is food in Scandinavia, but having snow-boarded in Finland we also know how expensive it is, so we’ve stocked up to keep our costs down. As we understand it, the Baltics get increasingly expensive as we get further north. Even Charlie got in on the act.
After an hour in the shop, and a further hour squeezing everything into Zagan’s cupboards, we headed east to the Masurian Lake District. The road here varied from a bumpy single carriageway with two ruts worn by the lorries to a fresh dual carriageway that we felt like we were the first to drive on. In between, a new M1, seemingly being built across the country.
The last few miles took their toll on Jay as we wound our way through forest and lakes to reach the town. We were all glad to reach the stellplatz and grab a space – the two either side of us filling up within a few minutes after we arrived. It’s funny to see as all the ‘foreigners’ have parked in the narrow marked out spaces, but the single Polish van is parked on patch of grass opposite with tunes blaring, awning and sun loungers out, BBQ going and vodka shots being sunk! If the party gets going, we may have to join them.
Mikołajki
Charlie is paddling his way around Poland’s fountains
We’ve been for a wander around the town which straddles the biggest of the 2000 lakes in the area. The lakes are interconnected by rivers and canals which reach up into the Baltic sea. The town is a strange hotch potch and we’ve decided it’s a mix between:
- An Italian Lake (the big expensive motorboats cruising around)
- A British Seaside Resort (Skeg or Blackpool because of the
souvenirtat shops) - Lake Windermere (there are a couple of huge hotels and lots of greenery)
These fellas are all heading north too so we might see them again
The houses lining the main road back onto the lake and their back gardens have been turned into businesses – boat rentals, restaurants and some offering showers, loos and mobile phone charging to the masses moored just a few feet away in the summer. Luckily it’s not quite summer yet, so the place looks lively, but not crazy.
Back of one of the houses that hasn’t started a business, unless it offers baths!
The Barbara Cartland of restaurants
With thunder rumbling in the air we nipped out for another meal tonight, two in a row! Jay spotted one of the restaurants does his favourite – schweinshaxe (roasted pig knuckle), so it would be rude not to. We’re making the most of cheap meals out, in fact Poland is so cheap we can pay to stay somewhere and eat out and still be under budget, with great weather too we’re really liking it here.
Ju x
Favourite photo of the day.
I turned around to get a pic of this boat as it looks quite cool, my kind of boat cruising slowly along in a comfy chair chatting to your mates but as I did there was a splosh noise from behind. The poor chap in the background went leg first into the water and face first into the red boat!
Oh, well, it’s obvious, your on-the-road blues have totally disappeared! It’s a joy to follow your adventures. Soon we’ll be on our way too 😀, for a month 😔 … But I do realise this is a bit special, impossible for others so I should be happy!!
Depending on your route, only 3 Lidl’s left before Lithuania! Kindest, Wayne.
Wise move filling up guys as it is pretty expensive here in Norway. Craig just treated himself to a few cans of lager from the supermarket. They are only permitted to sell weak stuff and most priced at £4 tin but Craig spotted a cheap one hidden in the corner for £2. Beats paying £10 a pint in the bar.
Do you have any plans to pop into Kaliningrad?
We looked into it a while back but after reading reports of others who have visited we didn’t think what there was to see warranted the visa and additional insurance costs – also Charlie didn’t fancy it!
Hi both,
Been following your travels from near the beginning, really enjoying adding things to our itinerary as you travel and growing our own list of places to stop. Quick question, how is the Co-Pilot app doing? As we are thinking of running it alongside our Tom Tom.
Stay safe,
Clunk,
Hi Clunk! Ah, to be quite honest we’re only using the TomTom most of the time so we can’t really comment on the Co-Pilot app. We used it a few times and it picked decent routes, but we’ve got a mount for the TomTom and not for the phone, so we don’t tend to use it. It’s there as a back-up though – if anything happens to the TomTom we’ll revert to it. Cheers, Jay
Thanks for the reply, can understand the mounting problem. Looking forward to your Scandinavian adventures as we are looking at doing it in two summers time
Cheers,
Looks like you did the right thing “stocking up” especially given the comment by Our Bumble. £10 per pint versus £0.30p is a no brainer. The only question is, will Jay be able to ration it to make it last your stay in the Baltics? :-)
Good question Alan. So far, so good, just a slight hiccup when we met Helen and Chris, but it’s roasting hot here at the moment which is putting me right off the ale! Maybe only 2 or 3 weeks in the Baltic states before we hit Finland, and officially you can only import limited beer to Norway (not EU). Cheers! Jay