On to Wroclaw

In the car again. Are we there yet?

We planned to split the drive from Soest to Poland into two.  So we aimed to get close to the border of Poland for our overnight stopover.  Having seen plenty of Travel Lodges and Holiday Inn type accommodation on our travels we figured this would be an easy cheap option, but as usual, when you actually need something you’ve seen millions of times before you needed it, it doesn’t seem to exist! 

We found ourselves hovering along the border of Poland looking for a hotel, and ended up driving into the town of Gorlitz.  Coming from the excellent straight forward roads of Germany into this was like peacefully cruising down the Swan River sipping on your favourite glass of red, and then being suddenly plunged into white water rapids without any warning.  It was manic.  Trams everywhere, intersections with seemingly no structure at all (who gives way to who?), minimal road signs or lane markings, and cobbled potholed roads that felt like they hadn’t been improved upon since the days of horse and cart.  We asked ‘Karen’ for a hotel, she gave us the ‘Mercure’.  That sounded good, a familiar name, a reliable chain, so we followed her directions.  She brought us to a 3 storey carpark.  No sign of a Mercure or any other hotel that warranted consideration for an easy overnight stay!  So we legged it.  Let’s just get out of here as quick as we can, were the words I remember being shouted by someone.  But as we jiggled along we realized that somewhere along the way we had crossed the border and were now surrounded by number plates registered to ‘PL’.  So here we were, unexpectedly in Poland a day early, with no local currency to buy dinner.

So on to Wroclaw (pronounced Vrotswav) it was.  Maciek’s home town.  And as there was no sign of a welcoming hotel other than crumbling old creepy farmhouse types, we called Maciek’s cousin and announced we’d be arriving that evening instead of tomorrow afternoon.

The road a little way from the border merged into a new motorway and was smooth and easy, but arriving into the city became an encore experience of Gorlitz, only on a much bigger scale!  Hats off to Maciek’s driving.  Lucky for me he just gets on with it.  I’m stressed enough as a passenger.

We left Soest at 10am that morning, and arrived at the other Grabowski’s at 8pm, the longest driving day to date, but not for lack of trying.  Poor Ania and Kamil hadn’t even finished painting their apartment in preparation for our arrival!  Sorry!