Well, we've finished for the summer, the last 6 weeks at our second location. We feel that having seen it through to the end we probably won't be doing it again!
The campsite for our last 6 weeks was quite large and run by the owners who work full time at it. One other warden couple covered maintenance, odd jobs, pitching arrivals, reception, shop etc. - our duties solely revolved around cleaning.
The temperatures continued in the middle to high 30s while we were on the campsite, so we decided that it would be far too hot to think about visiting Berlin, as we had planned - it will always be there for another day. So, after five nights at Cottbus we headed for the Baltic coast near just beyond Rostock. We spend a few nights there, including some time lazing on the beach (unusual for us, but very enjoyable). Then we woke up one morning to the coldest day we had experienced since we left the northernmost parts of Norway(!) - we had certainly got the cooler weather we were looking for!
We decided that, at 19 deg. we may as well move on; we didn't feel like 'doing' any more cities, so headed for Calais, ringing forward to book a ferry. It's a good job we did, as the first price we were quoted was way high. However, we were able to get a sensible price for Sunday morning. We headed to Calais for Friday night, giving ourselves a day to do the 'necessary' shopping and enjoy a lazy French lunch before our return home.
So we arrived back early afternoon today (Sunday) having travelled through 12 countries and having covered 7559 miles. All is well back at home, now all we have to do is the cleaning, washing, gardening etc!!
We have spent 5 nights in a campsite near Cottbus just over the border from Poland - catching up with washing - clothes and Sally, who was covered in thick dust - and chilling out with ice cream, cold beer and shade (thank goodness for the bigger fridge in Sally 2!). We have had some very high temperatures - in the low 40s - one of the reason's we decided to 'rest up' for a few days. Today has been up to about 37. We have also decided that we will not be going to Berlin next (it will still be there when we come back this way again) - it is far too hot for visiting cities, so we plan to make our way slowly towards the Baltic coast, and work our way along the north of Germany, hopefully catching some sea breezes on the way.
Some pictures of what we have seen
Torun
Birthplace of Niclaus Copernicus. Like Darwin 2 centuries later, he was considered a heretic (and, no doubt, a lunatic) for his theories - in his case that the earth revolves round the sun and not the other way round.
The Mazury Lake District - sailing, holidfays and having fun
Another quick update - there is likely to be another in a day or two when we plan to stop for a bit in a campsite (!), not least due to it being rather warm. We are in Leszno, Poland where last night it was 39 when we arrived at 17.00 and still 31 when we retired at 23.30, so rather a warm night! All is going well for us; the 'tooth' (now gone!) hasn't been too bad, but my cheek where the tools bashed me has needed a bit of care when eating toast and cereals!
What with it being hot, I haven't downloaded any photos for several days, but will do a catch-up when we stop - we have a plan for a site just into Germany - probably tomorrow. Then I'll post some up.
We decided (with some regret) to leave southern Poland for another time, as we felt the distances, times and toll charges would make it a bit pressured - and that's not the isea at all, so after leaving Warsaw we are slowly working our way towards Germany - whether we go to Berlin or not will depend on the temperatures - not if it's going to carry on being over 30 - that will be another one saved for later!
We are now in Gdansk. It is a beautiful city, and we would not be here had it not been for our (Polish) dentist recommendung it to us before we came away. Earlier today we went to Malborg - site of he biggest brick castle that has ever been built, and very impressive it is too. We are doing our best to understand the history of Poland and its neighbours - we have got as far as understanding it has been 'turbulent'. There are advantages to living on an island!
No photos yet, as I haven't had time to sort them out, but a request:
At the moment we are only sure of three or four people following our blog, so maybe we are doing it mainly for our own amusement?! If you are reading our blog can I please ask you to add a comment to this post, or maybe send us an email (if you have ours) - then we'll know if we are just talking to ourselves or not - thanks :-)
The first thing we noticed on entering Lithuania was that the roads had gone back to the surprisingly high standard which they were in Estonia - in contrast to those of Latvia, which were most pretty awful. Where did the money go, we wonder?
We went to the Hill of Crosses
Lithuania is a mainly Catholic country (unlike the other two Baltic countries which are Lutheran protesant, or in the case of Latvia, mainly nothing!). This place is important to the nation and was started in the 1830s after oppression by Czarist Russia. They were all 'hacked down' by the Soviets in 1960, 'bulldozed' in 1973 and again in 1975, but they kept coming back. In fact it continues to grow, mainly with the many cheap crosses sold at the site, and now hung in 10s of thousands on the larger crosses - this last aspect being, in our view, somewhat tacky, and taking away some of what the place is really about.
Riga is a much larger city than we had anticipated. The suburbs began 10 miles outside the city centre. The city has many fine buildings, those in the old town being best maintained, but continuing well outside there are many classical buildings – give it a few more years and no doubt the whole city will be covered with fresh paint.
The freedom monument
It's been a while since we have found a wifi, so here, at last, is an update. It's a long one this time, so hope it has some interest; most of the stories are in the pictures.
We have now in Latvia on our way to Riga.
In Estonia we have visited Tallin
Well, no-one can accuse us of sitting on our laurels!
After quitting the job in Cornwall we were a bit down, but mainly because of sitting back and reflecting over the recent events. Although we were bucked up a bit by comments by friends and fellow members of Club Motorhome and also offers to park up on their drives should we need somewhere - Huge thanks to all! Caroline got back onto the internet and looked at couple of campsite job finder type websites and found a likely looking position in Norfolk of all places, so ideal for seeing the family before we do eventually head off into Europe again.
I telephoned the site and had a chat with the owner who sounded very positive and he subsequently emailed some details of the job to us. I returned our CV and said that we would be interested should they wish to interview us.
Nothing more happened for a day and we thought that was it - but no worries, we'd just go and see the folks and forget about work for the time being.
As we were packing to leave the site our mobile rang and it was the Norfolk site owner saying that he was pleased to offer us the job and gave us a start date and an invitation to visit beforehand to look around and iron out any queries that we may have.
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