Monday, 17 June Week 08

The river mist clears very quickly this morning and gives way to a bright, beautiful day. Before we even leave, we can already see three ships on their way overland.

Our first destination today – the Marienburg (Ordensburg) in Marienburg (Polish: Malbork).

The spacious complex, with 21 hectares of total area and 14.3 hectares of usable space, is considered the largest castle in the world.

The parking lot near the castle is almost empty at around 10:30 a.m. But dozens of school classes are already streaming towards the Teutonic castle. There are also a lot of other people out and about.

We decide to walk around the complex and just look at it from the outside. Somehow we don't feel like being around crowds.

Next to our parking lot is a hotel with a bistro, so we have lunch at the end.

We continue on to the Baltic Sea. Our accidental destination is Rewa, another 100 kilometers to go. We take a generous detour around Gdansk to the west, but we didn't expect the huge volume of traffic along the entire route. And the construction sites have been following us again and again lately.



And yet we arrive shortly after 3 p.m. So there would still be enough time to unpack the bikes and explore the place. But guess what, we're standing at the entrance gate and the rain starts! Just like yesterday, the sunny and warm day quickly turned into a rainy afternoon. What a shame, and we're not used to it anymore.

Tuesday, June 18

When traveling, there are days when you simply make the wrong decision.

Our original idea was to go to Usedom. So many people are enthusiastic about it and we thought we wouldn't be able to get any closer to this area any time soon.

And that's exactly why we drove to Rewa yesterday, because it's roughly on our planned route. Lots of traffic, lots of construction sites and a place that we're not at all impressed with, and not just because of the rain.

It stops every now and then and we explore the place. There are lots of people out and about, the high season is fast approaching. Rewa is something like Usedom, but on a smaller scale. Lots of beach, a beach promenade, lots of restaurants (not all of them are open yet) and a headland that extends far out into the sea.

And we are at the most expensive, albeit pretty, cheap campsite of this trip. Since we want to leave early tomorrow, I try to pay for the site at around 7 p.m., which turns into a small odyssey. The reception is actually open until 9 p.m., but there is simply no one there.

Usedom with even more people, with many full parking spaces, a beach promenade and lots of beach. We're probably doing Usedom a complete injustice, but we're scrapping our idea and deciding to just head home today. Let's see how far we get.

Well, and then you decide on a route. We want to take the slightly shorter route and drive via Stettin, then continue via Berlin etc.

On the way back via Gdansk there are countless construction sites and an enormous amount of traffic.

It takes us a full hour to cover the first 12 kilometers! Then things go really well on the motorway until we get to the roadworks here too!!! I have no idea, but that's about 100 kilometers of arduous driving with a lot of traffic, through villages and countless roadworks.

The next long stretch of highway is being built here!

Finally we are back on the motorway and are speeding towards the border. Just before we get there we fill up with petrol and spend the last zlotys and finally we are in Germany.

We want to stop at the first rest area and look for a place to stay overnight. But the rest area is closed due to construction work. And then we realise that the Park4Night app has a problem and is not working at the moment. Now it is getting a bit more difficult to find a place to stay overnight!

But first we should go shopping. Who knows if we'll find a restaurant today and we're missing bread again!

We do that in Joachimsthal and thanks to the "Top-Platz" app we then head for the parking space in Templin. It is located near a thermal spa that has seen better days and is closed at the moment except for the sauna. Perhaps that's fortunate - there are still plenty of free spaces. And there's even supposed to be a restaurant about 300 meters away!

And the restaurant turns out to be not bad at all. Not top-class cuisine, but OK and we are so happy not to have to cook anymore.

Apart from breakfast, we only had yoghurt today.

Thunder rumbles during dinner, but we return to the motorhome dry. We are curious to see how heavy the rain will be today.



So, that was it from a day of travel, of which you don't wish too many, but which just happen. And the mood can sometimes change. But the sun always comes up again. 😉

Yesterday's stage was pretty tough. So we don't want to ride too far today. Especially since the weather forecast for tomorrow, Thursday, is that it will be a nice, warm day just south of Templin. And when we look at the weather forecast for Flims, we decide to really enjoy this sunny day.

We chug along comfortably towards our destination for the day, Brandenburg an der Havel, mostly on country roads. There are three parking spaces here. The first and smallest is full, but not very nice either. The second is right on the canal and still has a few free spaces. OK, not exactly cheap, but whatever, we'll treat ourselves to it.

At around 2 p.m. it starts to rain, so we spend the afternoon comfortably in the motorhome. But from 5 p.m. onwards the prospect of sunny weather tomorrow becomes more and more apparent.



We walk to an Italian restaurant, enjoy a delicious dinner and then head back along the Havel.

Thursday, 20 June

We're staying, the weather forecast is right, the sun is shining!

​​​​​​​With our e-bikes we set off on a sightseeing tour through Brandenburg an der Havel.

Of course, a delicious lunch on the Havel is a must.



We return around 3:30 p.m. and simply enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Friday, 21 June

It's time to go home! That means a day of pure driving. Interrupted by a stop for fuel and a short lunch break. We change our destination about twice and end up in Dettelbach. And you won't believe it - we didn't have a single traffic jam on our 468 kilometers today.

A walk takes us to the nearby Edeka and since thunderstorms are forecast, we decide to cook ourselves a little something and simply enjoy the rest of the day.



We still have about 413 kilometers to go until we get home. Let's see how the traffic goes tomorrow and where we end up!

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Day route: Brandenburg an der Havel - Dettelbach

Distance: 468 km

Average consumption: 8.9 liters

Average speed: 81 km/h

Travel time: 5 hours 43 minutes

​​​​​​​Pitch costs: 10 Euro incl. V/E,

We get up shortly after 6 a.m. and are greeted by sunshine. The place was full last night!! Something we haven't had in the last few weeks.

First, we do some shopping at the E-Center in Kitzingen. Prices have risen in Germany too, but for most products you still pay much less than in Switzerland. And our wallets are happy about it!

We also pay a visit to the pharmacy. Here you can save at least 50 percent on Swiss prices!

We have set our GPS to Flims and now we will see how it goes.

At first we are amazed at the lack of traffic, especially since there are no trucks today.

But then it increases and we have a short traffic jam once or twice, but we never stand still.

And so we go through with it and arrive in Flims at around 4.30 p.m.

We simply didn't feel like spending the night on a full campsite again.

It really drew us home!

An interesting journey ends once again accident-free after 8,255 kilometers.

A short conclusion:

We deliberately decided to go on this trip to the Baltics, despite the war and proximity to Russia.

The countries have so much beauty to offer. Diverse and interesting culture.

Nature is not that spectacular in our eyes. But if you get involved, there is so much to discover and experience.

Admittedly, we had forest fever once or twice.

Above all, we got to know the hosts of the overnight accommodation as warm and open people. They are suffering from the war, and many tourists avoid the Baltic States precisely because of their proximity to the war.

OK, this time of year wasn't the peak travel season even before the war. But the emptiness that we encountered took us completely by surprise. We enjoyed this peace, this space, this vastness, this silence and sometimes this solitude. And all of that for several weeks.

We won't see this again anytime soon.

And while rainy weather dominated many places in Switzerland over the last few weeks, we experienced a wonderful early summer!

Unfortunately, this time we weren't able to bring the nice weather home with us, as we often have. But we hope that summer will still come to Switzerland.

We'll start our next trip sometime in August. Probably heading south.

And please keep your fingers crossed that our homepage will be “fixed” by then.



Thank you for traveling with us and stay healthy!