RV Roadtrip – Czech Republic and Through Poland

After our quick visit to Bratislava we were headed into the Czech Republic for a night and then on into Poland to make our way north.  Our first stop was a place called Landek Park, which offers camping among other things. It is the largest mining museum in the Czech Republic and a sports and recreation area with a multiple sports facilities, camp and catering options and a small children’s zoo.

It was a very interesting stop on our trip, though we didn’t do the mine tour, only the exterior. When we arrived it was wet and raining but that all cleared the next day and we were able to explore a bit before we needed to get back on the road. Don’t worry Czech Republic, we’ll be back before you know it!

Next on the roadtrip agenda was a visit to Krakow in Poland. It was only a couple hour drive to get from Landek Park to the camping in Krakow, a place called Camping Clepardia. It was a pretty easy drive on nice modern highways though getting near Krakow it got significantly busier like it does around most cities.

The camping is about 5 km from the historical city center and town square. There is a bus stop almost directly out side of the camping and the bus ride is about 30 minutes or so. Pretty easy, Sebastian was allowed without a problem.

Krakow is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Krakow was the official capital of Poland until 1596 and has traditionally been one of the leading centers of Polish academic, economic, cultural and artistic life. Cited as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, its Old Town was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (Thanks Wikipedia)

We got to the Old Town area and had a leisurely look around at all of the historic sites. We eventually ended up in the historical town square, the largest medieval market square in Europe. After wandering around the square for a bit we decided it was time to grab a bite to eat. Never an easy task when looking for something tasty and gluten free, here was no different. Eventually we settled on a fairly popular spot and ordered our food. Unfortunately for us, there was a large group of British guys having a Stag party at a table a few spots away.

Loud Brits not withstanding, we had a decent meal and a few drinks in the square. One of the prominent buildings there is Saint Mary’s Basilica. On every hour, a trumpet signal—called the Hejnał mariacki—is played from the top of the taller of Saint Mary’s two towers. The plaintive tune breaks off in mid-stream, to commemorate a famous 13th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before a Mongol attack on the city. We were fortunate to be close enough to see and hear it. Pretty neat.

Another fun fact about Krakow; In 1978, Karol Wojtyła, archbishop of Kraków, was elevated to the papacy as Pope John Paul II—the first ever Slavic pope, and the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

We had two more nights on our trip through Poland, the first of those was at Chlebow and Bumerang Camping. The claim to fame here is that it is in the center of Poland and conveniently located half way going across Europe both north to south and east to west. It’s also just off the major highway we were taking north. We didn’t do any exploring and just used it as a convenient stopover. Maybe next time we’re in the area we’ll stay for longer.

Our last stop in Poland was Eurocamping in Suwalki, Poland, located very near the border with Lithuania. Again, this was just a good place for us to bunk down for the night before crossing into Lithuania. This was an excellent little campsite adjacent to the local sports stadium. Had we not been in such a rush we would have stayed on a few days. As it was, we did use the little town to fill our wine and food coffers full to the brim before our ferry into the expensive Nordics! The van was a very heavy rig moving north.

Stay tuned as we spend a couple of nights in Lithuania, take an overnight ferry to Sweden and push the rig as far North as it is possible to drive in Continental Europe.