Lodz to Breslau (Wroclaw): The streets are long, loud, dusty and many parts in bad condition. For the distance between both big town of 180 Kilometres I calculate four hours. With some rest we need five hours.

Fortunatly we find in Breslau the Camping Place easy, next to the Olympic Sport Arena. It's with 50 Zloty (12,8 Euro) the most expensive night for us in Poland, and it's our last night.

For two Zloty each we drive with the tramway in 20 Minutes into the Old City Centre.

Like in Gdansk the war has destroyed in Breslau nearly everything. But the citizens build up the town, like everything has been. The place around the City Hall is the greatest in Europe with 173 to 28 Metres.

For hours we walk around in Breslau. To lazy to climb on a tower or to visit a Museum, we cross several bridges over the river Oder and rest in a public garden beside the river. Mima buys several little gifts; meanwhile I use the quick Internet Connection in a Cafe. Late in the evening. We take the street-railway back to the Camping Place, drink a beer and look astonished at the first rain drops after 10 days.

The rain hammers at night a bit on Blue Whale's roof, but my deep sleep is not much disturbed. This Friday we leave Poland to Czech. All big streets cross Breslau, where the traffic jams up. But in only three quarters of an hour we have left the city behind early at 9.30 a.m. This day we have to drive 145 Kilometres. Close behind the border we take the next Camping Place at a lake in Czech.

As last City in Poland we visit Zabkowice Slaskie. The German name in the map is ''Frankenstein''. The tower of this town can compete with the askew one in Pisa.

As last polish prey I get a honey liquor from Gdank. And Mima buys in a market new glasses (+2,5) to read for 10 Zloty.

We fill Blue Whale up with gas oil, continue the voyage and admire the lovely hills covered with forests. In this beautiful area we pass the border form Poland to Czech.

The first Czech Camping Place just behind the border in Ceska Skalice offers a big lake to swim. In little restaurants the price for fish with chips and an excellent beer from Pilsen is 3,50 Euro only.

The sun shines again. Few white clouds decorate the blue sky. What we need more in our holidays?

My haircut in Czech costs 2 Euro, half price than in Templin, east Germany, a quarter from the cheapest price in Munich.

The afternoon we drive with our bikes around the lake till the night falls.

A smell from Silo animals’ food molests this Camping Place at the storage lake, where the water from the mountains is collected.

Saturday sunny morning we drive 130 Kilometres to Prag. The streets are soft, clean, smooth and straight. The last 50 Kilometres a high way in best quality brings us to the metropolis Prag, an immense, a gigantic city like most capitals in Europe.

First stop at a Metro station offers a guarded parking place. Mima doesn't accept this place, because the car stands in the hot sun. A place in the shadow I don't want, because I don't trust the safety for our little possessions in the car. But I can buy a map of Prag in the Metro Station.

Equipped with this map we plan, to drive to a place near a park. We drive a few Kilometres in the direction to the Zoo, cross several bridges and want stay near a castle, called Troja.


On a small side road the first sign advertises a Camping Place, we take. At 11.30 we start to explore Prag on bikes.

Somehow with the map and the guidance of the sun we bike back five, six, seven Kilometres, we cross the Moldau on little bridges, and after a small hill we come closer to the Old City Centre.

The closer we approach the Old City Centre, the more the streets are packed with tourists. The oldest bridge from the middle Ages is crowded with people; we can't drive on our bikes there. In a park near the Moldau we watch dances and listen to music from the Middle Age.

In an open fire the smith hammers iron works, just exact the right moment and place, for the saddle of my bike to break down. The smith cuts the safety chain between saddle and bike, and several hours left we look for a new saddle.

From one Tax Free superstore ''Kotva'' tired salesmen send us to another one ''Tesco'', where I get a new saddle. Only the broken screw, to fix the saddle again, I don't get any more.

So I have to return driving standing. It's not comfortable, but must look funny, because many people smile. Smiles I have not seen so much in Prag. Maybe salesmen and Restaurant waiters are as tired like we tourist?

At least we return to our Camping Place without more troubles at 7.00 p.m. My lovely exhausted Mima and I recover in a shower.

Like each evening my little Lady announces: ''Moscito alarm!'' That means that all doors and windows of Blue Whale, her VW Transporter, need to be closed. But she is so finished, that she forgets herself to close the door.

Is is fun, to travel, sometimes hard. The stomach gets many beatings from bad streets. Many toilets are dirty. Most food is strange. Some evenings you may eat too late, to an unusual time. So the sensitive stomach may suffer. After hours in the car your nerves are tense, traffic noise hurts. Rotten, old Diesel engines blew black oil smoke in front of your car. So you have to close all windows. The sun heats up the car, that has not enough horse powers to pass the stinking one before you. In the night you may wake up, and can't sleep any longer. Your entertaining short wave station may broadcast only whistles and rustles. Mosquitoes molest your sleep.

The greatest difficulty is the language barrier. Mima asks i.e. two times for a ''vegetarian'' meal, 'is this WITHOUT meat?''


''Yes, yes'', answers and nodes the waitress. After her first bait Mima complains: ''iii! Again meat! These people don't care at all about what I say!''

After more than two weeks, nearly 3.000 Kilometres, with changing sleep places each night we are happy to return.

At 9.00 a.m. we leave Prag. Trucks have to drive around this huge city. After three quarters of an hour we are on the high way to Pilsen. Mima reads the sign: ''Nueremberg 271 Kilometres''. From there we started in the morning two Saturdays ago.

Sometimes I ask myself: ''For what all these words?'' My answer: '' First for myself.'' In some long boring hours my fantasy travels back again through my memories, filled up with these wonderful sunny summer pictures of towns, streets and country sides, flat or hilly, with forests or huge fields of sun flowers, now all with black heads, bowing under the weight of their fruits.

In a strange, solemn way love to our Mother Earth growth, when we thankfully admire all these marvellous mysteries of our nature.

In Ceska Skalice, first town in Czech after the Polish border, historical signs describe a war fight from 1866: ''On this battlefield the Prussian army has lost 87 officers and 1400 soldiers''. These descriptions of wars go on endless - from past, present to future.

As last town in Czech we visit Pilsen. 170.000 people live their, many work in the famous Pilsen brewery, others in the Skoda factory.

The gothic Bartholomew’s Church has the highest tower in the Czech Republik: 102 Meters. On the front door to the steps a sign announces: ''View over town and information system.''

The City Hall in Renaissance style and most of all the Synagogue are other attractions. In the Synagoge impress pictures after the war. The exhibition is titled: ''Yesterday was a war.''


It feels like this, when I watch i.e. a picture: ''Munich 1946, October-Feast''.

We eat last time in Czech two salads, two drinks, bread and one Ice Coffee for nine Euros only, fill up the car with diesel, and come to Germany.


Soon the high ways are filled with cars, even trucks are forbidden to drive from Saturday till Sunday night.

At an one hour short stop in Regensburg I visit once again the immense Cathedral. Astonishing these priest politics centres from the Middle Ages! The same technology in those times has created similar buildings in most European Capitals.

Meanwhile the river Donau has to bring away all the falling rain floods from the last week. We can be lucky: Catastrophe alarm is not more.

About Mima's mood my floppy fingers better doesn't write anything. She doesn't want to spend so much time in Pilsen, she doesn't want to loose one hour in Regensburg. She wants to visit her friend Eeva in Ingolstadt. So we quarrel - first time near home.

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