Sunday 26th January; one day in Poland

Slubice - Ostrów Mazowiecka,  Poland 561km

This morning after breakfast Tanguy and Gert-jan first tried to fix some things on Gert-jan’s car. Turned out that besides the broken starting engine there was also a bold broken from the exhaust manifold. And a broken wire from the positive battery cable. Luckily the boyks are handy and around 10:30 we were ready to leave towards Warschau.

We mostly took the new toll highway, a good road but almost as boring as Germany. Most exiting part was the litle shortcut we took to start the day with. Driving the same highway twice was really out of the question.

But once back on the highway it was just driving straight a head for miles. Because Tanguy was really tired, maybe from a jetlag or maybe last night was a bit to cosy, I was allowed to drive. Mostly Tanguy is driving and I don’t get a change, except when he is tired or sick.

No hands (just kidding)

While I was driving I noticed that the fuel was a bit low, so I asked Tanguy if i needed to stop at the first petrol station, but no, I could easily make it to the second on, he said. Guess what? He was so wrong, so we had to stop along the highway to empty the tin with extra petrol into the tank. And off course Tanguy wanted to drive again, so that was my short time behind the wheel.

First plan was to stay overnight in Warschau, but then we realized that tomorrow morning will probably be very busy because it's Monday. We didn’t want to get stuck in traffic in the morning, and it was already to late to visit the city and do some sightseeing, so we decided to drive a but further.

Tunnel on the way in Warschau 

I found a hotel about an hour from Warschau along the route we were taking and we decided to stay there for the night. The hotel is also a museum and has a special history. The building was built by the Germans during the second world war as a storage for the battle of Stalingrad. in the cold war the part were we are sleeping was used as a anti-atomic shelter, and now it is a museum and hotel.

On our way to the hotel petrol was going low again and no petrol station in sight, so for the second time today we stopped to empty the fuel tin into the tank. Maybe it’s wise to keep better track of the fuel usage of the car 🤔

After this stop we drove to the hotel, tomorrow we will find a petrol station and fill up the car and the tin with extra fuel.

In frond of the hotel

Local honey beer, very much honey 🍯 

Our room, very authentic 

We turned into bed pretty early today, tomorrow we go to the “don’t think you can get some sleep” hostel in Riga, so I think we need al the rest we can today. I put in my earplugs and hopefully get a good night sleep, even though it is pretty loud outside with heavy traffic.

Goodnight to you all.

Saturday 25th January; crossing Germany

Oldenzaal - Slubice 620km

Today we had to drive the most boring part of the raid, crossing Germany by highway. About 600km straight forward. Weather was ok, sometimes a little light rain, but nothing too serious.

Todays trip (it took us a bit longer than the 4 u 50 min 😂)

We left at the van Asperen residency around 9.30 after a good breakfast and went toward Germany. First stop was at a pharmacy just on the other side of the border to get me some painkillers. Friday morning while packing i made a wrong movement and my neck got frozen, not a good way to start a road-trip of a month. Luckily you can buy good painkillers in Germany so soon the pain was ok to deal with.

Next stop was a the liquor store to buy enough Jagermeister for the daily safe arrival drink at the end of each day during the raids. And then we really were on our way.

Being, as said before, the most boring part of the raid there is not much to tell and we almost arrived at the hotel in Lubice without any trouble. Almost.....

We just crossed the border with Poland when i tried to find us a hotel for the night, I found a really nice and payable hotel only 4 km away. Only little point was that we just passed the exit and had to make a d-tour of 20 km. But i already booked and payed, so we drove to the next exit to turn around. We did one stop at a gas station and when we left there Gert-jan told us over the radio that there was something wrong with his car. We decided to find a safe place to stop and have a look, but before we found one we had to make an emergency stop along the high way. His battery wasn’t charging anymore and his lights went out, not a good thing on a highway in the dark. So we stopped at the safety lane to have a look. The car was smelling badly as if something was burning, and soon we found out that the starting engine got stuck and wiring was melted. With a hammer the boys fixed the starter engine being stuck part, but the starting engine was finished. Luckily the battery loading problem was fixed and lights were working again, so we gave Gert-Jan a tow to get the car started and went to the hotel, deciding to have a better look tomorrow when daylight was back.

The hotel turned out te be a good  choice. Nice room, good restaurant end not too expensive. After a drink in our room we went to the restaurant for a good meal. Tanguy had salmon, I had duck and Gert-jan wild boar. The food was well prepared.

After dinner i went to bed, while the boys had some more drinks and chats and made friends with a group of Belgium guys who turned out to be a hunting group. 

Not a bad way to start the raid. 

Goodnight.