Wilting in the heat in Warsaw, Poland
Zagan the motorhome’s parked up between a dual carriageway and the historic old town of Warsaw, capital city of Poland (N52.25070, E21.01568). We suspect we’ll need our ear plugs tonight, but it will be worth it to be able to nip in for a cheeky beer after dark. The parking area is fenced-in and under guard, and cost us 62 zloty (about £10.50).
Last night as I cooked tea another motorhome arrived at the campsite, and it had British plates. Big excitement in Zagan, as we haven’t seen another British van since Croatia (we think). After we ate I nipped over and said hello to Claire, Niall and Daisy the Boxer dog and they popped over for a few glasses of wine later on. We spend a great evening swapping stories and places to stay – they are heading south, we are heading north, a perfect time to meet. Gallant as ever, Charlie gave up his basket for Daisy and let her eat his chew (which has been untouched for about a week), so he could join us on the sofas and snore in time to our talking.
This morning the sun was heating up my back before it was 6.30am, the days are getting noticeably longer. At 7.30 I nipped off for a quick jog before it got too hot. Seems I was already a tad too late, so while it wasn’t my fastest time, I did go the furthest I have been yet so I was happy. After a much needed shower, we packed up Zagan, said our farewells to Claire, Niall and Daisy and set off north. All our databases have a dearth of places to stay between Kazimierz Dolny and Warsaw and, with the temperature aiming for 30°C, a big city wasn’t really our first choice, but reluctant to drive any further than a couple of hours a day, Warsaw became our destination.
Not a great name for a building material supplier!
The red ’17’ road had us gasping more than once in horror at the local’s driving. The road is a single carriageway but with a bit of a hard shoulder, so like we have seen in Greece, slower cars and lorries drive on the hard shoulder and edge of the carriageway so others can overtake. It works really well in Greece and people are laid back and not on a mission to get to wherever they are going before they even set off. We witnessed the aftermath of one three car crunch, but it was the number of crosses and memorials beside the road that really told the story of how bad the driving is. We made one stop on the way to fill up with diesel and top up our LPG tanks, at 69p and 26p a litre you can see why.
Warsaw skyline from a bridge over the Vistula
Arriving in Warsaw, we were elated as the road turned into a dual carriageway and traffic ground to a halt due to the sheer volume of it. We crawled along with the rest of them, Jay deftly urging Zagan into all the right junctions and before long we were parked up and breathing a sigh of relief.
By now it was 2pm and too hot to stay in Zagan, so we headed out for a wander around the city. We stopped at the tourist office to pick up a map and then sat by the Plac Zamkowy (Castle Square) to see what there was to see – as usual we had done zero research. A couple of fellas clutching small bottles of vodka were shouting in our direction and one of them wandered over talking to us in Polish. Jay apologised that we didn’t understand, at which he started to bark ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ as he wandered back to his mate, who was now peeing against a wall.
Charlie cools off with a paddle in the mermaid (the city’s guardian) fountain in the old town square
The old columns that once held up King Sigismund, one destroyed in 1944.
We hastily retreated along Szlak Krolewski (The Royal Way) shade-hopping to keep Charlie as cool as possible. Monday seems to be school trip day, with umpteen groups of children, faces wishing they were elsewhere, as they followed their teachers and guides.
Bored boys at the Warsaw Uprising memorial
The Polish tourists we have seen over the last two days were now replaced with a usual ethnic mix you find in a big city armed with selfie sticks and way more energy than we had.
A monkey ate my breakfast, Warsaw style!
A big hand for the theatre please!
I’m pretty sure 90% of the shops are amber shops in the old town
After an hour or so, we headed back towards Zagan, stopping to marvel at a massive queue of people piling into a church. They all seemed rather overdressed for the weather, and around us we could hear the crackle of walkie talkies. Spotting the tape across the road we soon realised that there were only vintage cars in the street – we had managed to wander into a film recording, ooops. We didn’t spot anyone famous before we hastily made our way to the city walls and out of the scene.
Beer taps facing outwards, we may have to find this place again tonight
Ju x
PS – Satnav is beginning to know us too well
Hi Sounds like you are having a great time and certainly warmer than Somerset is in the UK. I am interested to know how you got the Lidl’s on your Sat Nav. We always spend ages trying to one when abroad. Thanks Paul PS. Keep up the excellent blog.
Hi Paul
If you search for Lidl POI you should find somewhere you can download a file for the countries you’re interested in, like this site:
https://www.gps-data-team.com/pda-gps-navigation/topic/1889.html
Once you’ve downloaded the file, how you get them onto your satnav depends on the make and model of satnav you have. The instructions for it should hopefully explain how to load points of interest files.
Cheers! Jay
Great to meet you. We’re staying at Kazimierez another day, to make the most of the good weather. 28′ C yesterday. Planning to do Lublin tomorrow. I can’t find the parking at the Palace. There seems to be 3 palaces Was this from Park4night? Thanks for all your tips & the books, by the way. We’re getting the hang of it, although surprise is half the fun. Good travelling. Maybe catch up with you again one day. Claire, Niall & Daisy.
Hi Claire
Yep, it’s on park4night.com, hopefully you can find it there. Have fun in the sun, we’re a fair way north now and it continues to pour down! Not too hot though, we had all the windows and vents closed last night to keep the noise down and slept like children.
Great to meet you, Charlie has gotten over his chew being eaten by Daisy. No, wait, he hated that chew and couldn’t understand why it kept reappearing in his bed, Daisy did him a huge favour!
Off out for Polish grub tonight once it’s cooled down.
Happy travels, Jay
We’ve sussed out Park4night now & it looks just the job. We’ve even worked out the code to enter the co ordinates on our Snooper Sat Nav, so we’re cooking on gas. Off to Lublin tomorrow. Weather still great here, but storm due tomorrow.
Awesome! :-)