Arrived in Germany... country #43 for us. And, what have we named our new motorhome?

Not only have we arrived in Germany, but we have arrived at the town where our new motorhome is located!

We were picked up at 9:00am at our apartment in Warsaw by a young couple who were driving all the way to Netherlands... and they were doing the drive all in one day. This worked out perfectly for us, even though it's a long distance and it would be a full day in the car to do the 1,000 km (620 mile) distance. 

But, it goes by pretty quick when you're doing 160 km/h (99.5 mph).

Visit with The Chouters, and a change of plans...

We left the apartment after lunch and began walking downtown. We were actually on our way to meet up with The Chouters, but they were located at a campground on the other side of downtown and the opposite side of the river.

We wanted to see the rooftop garden at the University Library and it was pretty much along the way. Then we could walk across the river and take an Uber from there.

Planning to get to Germany and our new motorhome

Our new motorhome is located in the town of Dulmen, Germany. It's actually quite close to the Netherlands border. So from here, it is still about 1,000 kms (620 miles) away. There are too many restrictions still involved with flying, but crossing into Germany by land is okay since we are already in the EU and have not been in a "risk" country in the last 10 days.

Our current plan is to take the train to the city of Poznan here in Poland. That gets us a little closer to the German border. From Poznan there are quite a few rideshares available to get us to Berlin. There are some rideshares available directly from Warsaw, but it's an 8 hour drive and the ones that are available seem to leave at odd hours.

Easier said than done!

First order of business on Monday was to try to find out about getting the Covid vaccination. Here in Poland, you do not have to be a citizen and the vaccination is free. However it's not as simple as just showing up and getting the shot.

In fact, it seems it's not simple at all, and we are just about ready to give up!

Sunday wasn't a great day

It wasn't bad... it just wasn't great! They were calling for showers on and off, and the temperature never got much above 18C (65F) and there were gusty winds. It was just a dull day. And sure enough, it did rain but it was a little more than showers. It really came down a couple of times, and with the wind it was just not nice.

We still planned on going out though. After all, we have raincoats and we needed to get some fresh air.

First day in Warsaw... lots to see!

I've always wanted to go to Poland. Mostly because not many other travelers from North America come here, when compared to the more popular countries of Europe. When North Americans think of Europe, they mostly think of Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. Poland isn't nearly as popular for whatever reason.

Right now, we are only interested in Warsaw. We haven't done any research as to what to see in the rest of the country, and it's a pretty big country. All of that will have to wait until we get into our motorhome. Poland will be on the agenda at some point over the next couple of years. For this visit, Warsaw is our only interest.

Arrived in Poland... country #42 for us

I never sleep well the night before a travel day. Too many things running through my mind! And you just don't know what roadblocks will be thrown your way. I don't think I would describe it as stressful... it's more exciting to me than anything else. 

Yesterday's post ended with us in the departure lounge at Tirana Airport. Our flight to Warsaw, Poland was supposed to leave at 9:40am, but the departures board listed it as 9:20am. Turns out we didn't even start boarding until 9:20am, and didn't actually take off until 10:00am.

Off to Poland!

Writing this from the departure lounge at Tirana Airport. It's only a two hour flight, so by the time most of you read this we will be in Warsaw, Poland.

Yesterday, we walked downtown and had lunch at the very first restaurant we went to when we arrived here almost three months ago.

View above Tirana, and more Poland planning

One of the things we had wanted to do here in Tirana is to take the cable car up into the mountains. Wednesday was supposed to be warm and sunny, so we figured the views should be good. 

The lower cable car terminal is located on the outskirts of the city, about 6.5 kms (4 miles) from our apartment. We thought about driving, but traffic in Tirana can get backed up at all hours of the day. Also, when we return to the apartment it's difficult to find parking.

Life in Communist Albania

We wandered downtown yesterday afternoon. There had been some showers in the morning, but by after lunch it was a pleasant day.

It's only about 2 kms (1.6 miles) to downtown, but we took a bit of a different route because we wanted to see a small archeological site in a nearby neighborhood.