Club Motorhome Bloggers

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!

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

Just to prove that we did get to Nordkapp, here is the picture

So far, Finland is as promised - trees and lakes and one or two (only) (motheaten)reindeer.  We have arrived at Santa's base, Rovaneimi.  We passed his workshop just outside the town, but resisted the temptation to go in.  The long endless days must help Santa and his elves get all the work done in time for Christmas!

Yesterday was very warm - 24 deg max and sunshine till 2.00am when we finally turned in.  We have pulled into a campsite and had a busy time doing our washing and ironing - paying the price for only doing 'small things' for a month.

There has not been much to photograph so far in Finland except - you guess?!  So here is a picture of a very wide section of road on an otherwise two-way road with 100 miles between any significant town or village.

Yes, we have arrived at Nordkapp.  Haven't sorted out the photos here yet, so they will have to follow later.  There are some photos to catch up on:

Going to Norkapp in a motorhome is easy! There are a surprising number of cyclists making their way north too. We kept seeing this young man over a period of about a week - he was keeping pace with us! When we arrived at a ferry at the same time we went to talk to him, then had a good chat during the ferry crossing.  He is on his gap year and is, amongst other things, cycling the length of Norway!  That will be some achievement for his CV!

The roads in Norway are generally quite narrow, as they don't seem to like wasting tarmac.  When passing a lorry or coach, you must have your nearside wheel ON the white line.  The lorries and coaches are mostly very good and follow the nearside white line exactly (I should add that there is usually about 3 inches of tarmac beyond the white line and very often a 45 deg. slope after that).   Here is what happens when you get it wrong!