THE AMBER ROAD

THE AMBER ROAD

THE STAGES

PRAHA - km 864 - Practically all motorway (apart from crossing Bregenz and a short stretch in Germany); the Czech motorway requires the purchase of a vignette (€6.5 x15 days) to be applied to the windscreen (you buy it just after crossing the border only with Czech crowns which are changed on the spot at unfavourable rates) - Camping Sunny (booked by e-mail. Following the directions on the website you reach it in a few minutes from the motorway exit whether you come from Plzen or Brno. Absolutely recommendable; excellent facilities, professional and kind staff, it is a few hundred metres from a metro stop and a few metres from a large supermarket where there is an ATM. In the city you have to be a bit careful with the prices both of restaurants and bars because some try to take advantage of the great influx of tourists; we ate well spending €26 for three (Rest.

U Dvou Kocek - At the Two Cats) in a restaurant in the historic centre, but frequented almost exclusively by Czechs. At the bottom of Wenceslas Square, worth visiting is a small monument to Jan Palach; the Routard guide doesn't mention it and the monument is really small and badly kept: perhaps best forgotten?

KRAKOW - km 508 - The Czech motorway is excellent as far as Olomouc; then, a good trunk road to the Polish border. Customs formalities quick, but with a brief inspection of the caravan. The road to Krakow is hell: roadworks, continuous lane changes, alternating one-way sections, deep ruts in the asphalt left by lorries, traffic including agricultural vehicles; it would have been much better to take the motorway to Katowice and from there always on the motorway (toll) to reach Krakow. Along the Krakow bypass the campsites are not signposted (this will be a constant in Poland!); coming from Zakopane at the exit for Oswiecim (Auschwitz) towards the city centre, you come across Camping Smok: good facilities, recently renovated; cost about €25 per night. The city is reached by bus or taxi (for 3 people it becomes worthwhile).

The car is to be discouraged because the centre is all pedestrian and public transport works excellently. From Krakow, an excursion to Auschwitz (about 60 km) and to the Wieliczka salt mine (30 km). Good restaurant 1 km from the campsite (Srebrna Gora €23 for 3 people). In Krakow we tried one of the old canteens from the past regime indicated by the Routard (Bar Grodzki in Ulica Grodzka) which turned out to be all in all decent at an ridiculous price (about €10 for 3 people).

WARSAW - km 388, passing through Katowice and Czestochowa. At Czestochowa we found a large car park along the road to go to the sanctuary. The dual carriageway from Katowice to Warsaw is decent, despite the ruts from the lorries; you come across numerous "motorway services" where you can stop comfortably; there is always a cheap restaurant but the spaces are large and it is in any case possible to have lunch in the caravan. Along the roadside you often see long queues of improvised sellers of blueberries and mushrooms. Camping 123 is easily reached: coming from Krakow you just have to guess the left turn along the avenue that leads to the centre of Warsaw. The campsite has decent facilities, costs little (about €15 a night), but has fairly limited spaces and so it is advisable not to arrive late in the evening.

It is near a bus stop for the city centre, which in any case can also be reached by car, since there are numerous car parks there. At 123 we met up with a family of caravanning friends who had left Milan a few days after us; one must say that mobile phones remove the suspense from these long-distance appointments... Lunch at Bar Mleczny, in Nowy Swiat, one of the old people's canteens, in the pedestrian street of the historic centre; quality and price guaranteed! Curious the market around the old football stadium on the other side of the river, where you find everything at incredible prices.

BIALOWIEZA - km 230 - The road is decent: wide but very busy in the first stretch, narrower, but with no traffic when you turn off for Bielsk Podlaski. Interesting to visit is the modern Orthodox church of Hajnowka. At Bialowieza there are two campsites, the first is a large meadow, the second, a little further on, is nicer because it is in the woods; both have very spartan facilities. We were guests (at a ridiculous cost) in the garden of a house where rooms are rented. Opposite our campsite (private) is the house of the legendary Boris, who for years accompanied Italians in visiting the forest; he is always pleased to chat with his Italian learnt during the war, but he is now retired and limits himself to acting as an intermediary in booking excursions.

WIGRY - km 220 - Many roadworks with alternating one-way sections before Augustow, lengthen the journey times. The campsite at Stary Folwark, despite the excellent position on Lake Wigry, is an absolute disaster: the facilities are completely abandoned. For now it is unliveable. Good instead is a "new" campsite right in front of the monastery of Wigry. It is found by following the signs for the monastery, which has been converted into a hotel. For dinner we chose the Holiday Hotel, in Stary Folwark, along the road connecting Suwalki to Sejny: nice atmosphere, decent cuisine €24 for 3. The park and lake of Wigry are an excellent holiday opportunity: everywhere, including our campsite, boats and canoes are rented and there are numerous marked trails in the woods.

PALANGA - km 365 Excellent road (one of the best of the whole trip), both in Poland and in Lithuania, where there is even a genuine motorway from Kaunas to Klaipeda. The border after Szypliski is crossed in an instant with a superficial document check. There are numerous (almost as many as in Poland) petrol stations, always with ample parking; everywhere you pay by credit card (with no surcharges). A few km from Palanga, you come across a line of people sitting on the edge of the expressway, offering, with large signs, hospitality in their homes. Finding the campsite is not easy: the classic one, indicated in the Lonely Planet, is practically unusable: mud everywhere and facilities that have not been maintained for several years.

On the advice of the Police, after the town, towards Liepaja, at the junction for Kretinga, there are two campsites: the first, right at the junction, is a well-kept lawn, with chemical toilets like the ones you find at big concerts; the second on the right, 100 m along the road to Kretinga, is in a fir wood in a lovely setting. Let's skip over the facilities...In Palanga there are two good supermarkets open until 11 pm-midnight.

The pedestrian avenue leading to the sea is an incredible parade of bars, restaurants, discos, nightclubs, with a constantly moving crowd, music, sounds, lights...We had a decent dinner in a little sailor-style restaurant (€28 for 3) with the accompaniment of music by the local star Vitalja, we even managed to hear "Quando m'innamoro" (Anna Identici) in Lithuanian! From Klaipeda you take the ferry to the Neringa peninsula; there are no signs, but following the road that runs along the port you see the queue of cars waiting to board. Neringa is a National Park and after disembarking you pay an entrance ticket. Restaurant prices (we stopped at Nida) are a bit more expensive than in Palanga. In Palanga another rendez-vous with two couples of friends with whom we will visit the Baltic republics.

RIGA - km 310 The road is good, despite a few unpaved stretches in Lithuania. At the border, documents are checked, including those of the car and the caravan. At the entrance to Jurmala you would need to buy a ticket from a vending machine. We have no local currency and the police allow us to reach the Nemo campsite without a ticket. The campsite is decent: the facilities remain the sore point because they are insufficient if the place is crowded. There is also a pool with water slides and the campsite overlooks a lovely beach. The distance from the city is considerable (35km), there are local minibuses that don't stop if they are already full. After a couple of attempts we used the car. In Riga there is another campsite which unfortunately is only signposted at the exit of the city; the sign can be seen on the right after the main bridge over the river in the direction of Jurmala.

If you are coming from the south you have to cross the bridge and then come back. In Riga we parked without problems on the riverbank, but continuing towards the centre there are numerous guarded pay car parks. At rush hour there is a lot of traffic, but overall the city is very pleasant to visit. Absolutely not to be missed is the visit to the art-nouveau house district, near the embassy area.

TALLIN - km 360 The road in Latvia, just after Riga, is terrible: nothing but roadworks. The Ainazi border is quite quick with the usual check of the car and caravan documents as well. The road in Estonia, on the other hand, is very good. In Tallin we try to stop before the city at the Peoleo campsite, but the place is truly awful: it is the car park of the hotel of the same name, amidst coaches and trucks, among stones and dust. We go to the City campsite, unfortunately on the opposite side of the city, naturally with no signs at all; the place is certainly unusual because it is the asphalted car park of a sports hall; campers use the facilities of the gyms, very clean and tidy (€70 for 3 nights). A few km north, after the campsite, you find the Bermuda restaurant (€28 for 3): decent. Halfway between the campsite and the restaurant there is an excellent supermarket open until 11 pm.

Besides visiting Tallin and its old town we spent a day in Helsinki; from the port of Tallin three hydrofoil companies depart that in an hour and a half of comfortable sailing take you to Helsinki. They have different prices and it is worth comparing them because they make offers depending on the times. We, for 3, spent €66 (outbound 8.30 / return 18.30) with the Tallink company. In Helsinki public transport is very expensive and it is worth buying the day ticket.

MUHU - km 150 Excellent road up to the ferry between Virtsu and Kuivasti; the ferry leaves every hour. You may encounter some problems on Sundays because the number of crossings decreases. We stay overnight in a nice campsite at Liiva; arriving from the ferry, on the right of the main road there is a small supermarket, just after on the left a restaurant, attached to the restaurant there is a small campsite with bungalows. The roads, both on Muhu and Saaremaa, are almost always unpaved, apart from the main one that leads from the ferry to the lighthouse. After Kuressare you come across a couple of nice campsites (at least seen from the outside).

We had dinner at the luxurious Italian-cuisine restaurant La Perla in Kuressare (we ended up there by chance because it was very late); the quality is only decent and the price is €40 for 3; Estonia is in any case a bit more expensive than the other two Baltic republics and even than Poland itself. Muhu and Saarema are a pleasant place to spend a few days. The coast with the loveliest sea is the one facing Finland.

TRAKAJ - km 580 This leg is one of the longest of the trip and, given the road conditions, especially in Latvia, it cannot be completed in a single day. Our plan was therefore to stop before Riga, at one of the campsites we had seen signposted along the road on the way there; but instead the campsites either don't exist, or are planned to be built in the future, or have only bungalows and the spaces for caravans are unusable. We therefore continue on to Bauskas (km 330) where we stop at a kind of farmhouse B&B: there are at least a couple of them and they are signposted along the road to the Pilsrundale palace. Between Riga and Bauskas we had dinner in a good restaurant (€32 for 3) with a large car park, on the left set back from the road, which is also suitable for a possible overnight stop.

The road in Lithuania is very good; in Vilnius there are no campsites and we stop at the excellent Camping Slenyje, on Lake Trakaj (km 32 from the capital). The visit to Vilnius is easily done in half a day; dinner in one of the numerous little restaurants (€25 for 3) on the lake in front of the illuminated castle is one of the worst of the whole trip.

MIKOLAIKJ - km 320 The road is decent as far as Augustow, then it becomes increasingly narrow and the surface very worn, so travel times must be calculated taking into account very low speeds. Just before entering Mikolaikj we find the sign for the Kama campsite on the right, towards Talty. The campsite is on the shore of Lake Talty after a few km of a fairly narrow little road: it is new, built to modern standards and indeed it is frequented by Germans and Dutch on holiday. The prices are slightly higher than those of the old Polish campsites (€18.50 for 3). The choice to stop at Mikolaikj will also prove to be a good one: the town is pleasant, more intimate than Mragowo and Gyzicko which we will visit the next day.

In the centre there are numerous little restaurants with an inviting appearance; we tried the pizzeria "Kuhnie Swiata", with live music (€13 for 3) and a nice kiosk (€17 for 3) on the other side of the bridge (with respect to the pizzeria). Mikolaikj offers all forms of entertainment linked to the lake and water sports (at very inviting prices); just outside the town in the direction of Mragowo there is a new golf course; in the surroundings, among woods, lakes and ponds, there are endless possibilities for walks, on foot or by mountain bike. For mushroom enthusiasts the area is a genuine guarantee of success.

GDANSK (Jantar) - 231km - Terrible road as far as Olsztyn, then it improves considerably. We make a stop at Malbork (km 215) where we visit the castle. In Malbork there is a campsite (on the right before the bridge over the river), and some car parks at the entrance to the castle where we stopped comfortably with the caravan. The visit takes about 3 hours. From Malbork we made our way to the coast east of Danzig where we stopped at Jantar in a good campsite on the Baltic shore, surrounded by a pine wood; it is an old state campsite, very cheap (€8 for 3), with recently renovated facilities. In the period when we were there (late August) it was practically empty and so the judgement should be revised at the height of the season. Just outside the campsite there are numerous open-air little restaurants, simple kiosks, offering mainly fried fish and chips.

Worth recommending is a good restaurant in Stegna (immediately on the right after the junction, arriving from Malbork). From Jantar to reach Danzig, you either go back onto the main road or you have to face a queue for the ferry over the Wisla that interrupts the coastal road. In Gdansk numerous guarded car parks near the old town solve the parking problem. Lunch in a former state canteen on the Royal Way (recommended by the Routard guide) will prove an utter disappointment, both for the quality and for the poor friendliness of the staff; it is the first time this has happened to us in Poland.

BERLIN - Km 478 - The road is generally good, through always interesting landscapes. We make a stop at Gorzow (km 346) where we stop at a pool with water slides, whirlpools and a splendid 50m competition pool; the complex is modern, well kept and cheap. The only drawback, as usual, is that it is not signposted along the road and we found it by chance following the signs for the Kostrzyn border. At customs we find a queue of dozens of vehicles and so we head for Slubice where, surprisingly, there is no one. In an instant, having crossed Frankfurt a/Oder, we are on the German motorway and by evening we arrive at Camping Krossinsee (exit Niederlehme then follow the signs); the choice proves to be a good one, the campsite is spacious, in a lovely wood, on the shore of a lake; there is a restaurant, a bit smoky, but cheap and altogether decent.

The metro for Berlin is caught a few km from the campsite, Grunau stop (in theory you can also get there by public transport, first a bus and then a tram, but opposite the metro station there is a convenient car park). It is worth buying the day ticket (€14.80 for 3). For lunch we followed with full satisfaction the advice of the Lonely Planet: kebab at Schlemmerbuffet in Rosenthaler Platz. An area, little publicised, that we instead liked a lot is that of Bergmannstrasse, with its venues with outdoor tables. The next day we set off (very calmly...) and, along the always convenient German motorways, after a night spent in a large lay-by near Ulm, we reached Assago. From Berlin it is about 1050 km.

THE NUMBERS: departure Fri 29 July arrival Mon 29 August total Km 8000 Km 6054 with the caravan in tow total expenses € 2700.00 diesel € 469.00 motorway € 80.00 campsites € 500 (approx)