Nathan’s Holiday Trek 2006
The other problem with Polish roads is that many cities do not have a ring road or a bypass of any kind, so one is forced to cross through the centre of town. So a distance which takes 3-4 hours in the Netherlands or elsewhere in Western Europe takes 6-7 hours in Poland. But finally I arrived in Wroclaw around 4 p.m.
After getting my stuff up to my sister’s apartment, we settled into an afternoon and evening of relaxation, eating and watching TV. Not too exciting, but it is good to do nothing at times. Here is my brother-in-law in a pensive mood.
Crossing the Baltic: Copenhagen-Świnoujscie-Wroclaw
At 8 p.m. on December 27th, I boarded the ferry Pomerania, which was going to take me to the Polish coastal town of Świnoujscie. It is a very nice way to travel; the crossing takes 12 hours, and if one is willing to spend the approximately 90 Euro for a “luxury” cabin, one gets a good night’s sleep and arrives rested, showered and ready to drive the next morning. My cat immediately set out to explore the cabin which was going to be our home that night.
This is the “forest bar”, the only facility in that rest area.
Of course, no rest area is complete without toilet facilities; however, given the situation, I found the trees more inviting.
Early on the morning of December 28th, the ferry is entering Świnoujscie harbour.
From this point on, I had another 450 km to drive to my sister’s home in Wroclaw, the city where I was born.
Polish roads are for the most part not yet up to Western European standards. Ironically, the western part of the country was among the first places in Europe to get motorways--they were part of the Germany until 1945 and benefitted from Hitler’s Autobahn-building programme in the 1930s. But since then, several decades of first war and the Communist neglect have rendered the Polish road network, let’s say, challenging. The Polish government and now the EU are spending a lot of money on upgrading the infrastructure, but it simply takes time. This is a rest area along the main north-south road in western Poland.
