Torun

The weather is a little wet in Poland and we are currently at an agrotourism farm in Znin south of Torun. We left Grudziadz on monday, after a trip to Lidl and a stop for fuel and LPG. The guy at the service station was great and filled up our LPG tank. He spoke good english and we had a quick chat about the amount of vehicles here that run on LPG. Apparently loads do and its so cheap at about €0.50 a litre. Its abundant here, as well as nearly every petrol station they have just autogas/ lpg stations. I think the polish have this sorted. We arrived in Torun to the rain and parked in a guarded car park right next to the old town. I set off in search of a laundromat about 2.5kms from the carpark. I arrived in a suburb on the outskirts and walked down a few streets before asking a girl if there was a pralnia (laundromat) in Torun. She said no and I thought, great we are in desperate need in this weather. I walked a little further on and stumbled across it. I was happy till i realised it didn’t have a change machine. I asked at about three shops, all saying no to change, till i asked at a restaurant, who changed 10 zlotys (€2.32) enough for me to wash the clothes. With only 100 zloty notes left i thought, great this is going to be fun. The polish almost laugh at you when you give them 100 zloty, its like giving them a £50 note. I went to the nearest shop and bought a chocolate bar so i could get change. The lady was indicating something smaller, to which i said no. She gave me change and i finished the washing, munching on my mars bar. When i returned back to Jas and the dogs we headed into the old town. Torun is a beautiful medieval town with intact brick town walls, a leaning tower, amazing brick churches and the remains of a Teutonic castle. The squares with their cobblestones and a few brass statues. There was one of a dog and top hat, that George was unsure of. We laughed as he barked at the brass donkey. He doesn’t like horses, so i don’t know why we thought he would like a fake donkey. Torun is a lovely place to visit and we wish the weather was greater, we could have spent a couple of days there. Due to the rain and thunderstorms we have arrived in Znin and a lovely family run farm. Its right on a lake and this morning a guy was out fishing on the pier with his son. The weather is looking better tomorrow and we plan to go to Poznan, then onto Wroclaw. Tomorrow marks a month in Poland. Driving the roads here you see the new ones being built. A lot of the roads straight like driving through the outback. No passing lanes which leads to constant passing from trucks and cars. The sat nav does like to try to take us down roads that are currently under construction, which makes it a little stressful figuring out an alternative route. It’s a very motor home friendly country which is great as it has a lot to offer. Its dog friendly and my only real dislike is its lack of laundromats, that make it hard as a traveller. The people friendly and even if they dont speak english, try to communicate. It’s cheap to visit monuments and museums. Poland is quite westernised it has all your brand names like McDonald’s, KFC, IKEA, Tesco and H & M. But in the smaller towns you have their local brands and not so much choice. A lot of Germans holiday here and you can see why, the scenery and the cheap travel, well worth the trip across the border.