The Return to Slovakia

We woke up to another bright sunny morning in our strange little campsite. We cheerily greeted our fellow campers who seemed a friendly bunch and clearly understood proper bedding airing techniques.

We tried to pay at the reception of the penzion. It wasn't easy - the receptionist was very cheerful but rather inefficient, and then we were off and bombing along the German autobahn again.

Soon we got to the Polish border and the next hundred kilometres of awful rutted pitted road surface on the 'motorway' with stretches overgrown with grass stands as a monument to human folly. As we drove along all the pots and pans rattled in the cupboards of the campervan, as did the plates and cups and cutlery, and the table threatened to rattle itself into pieces, our bones rattled around and our teeth rattled in our heads. The only entertainment was watching the lorry in front of us bounce along in a bizzare way. Then it started raining.

By the time we got to a more normal road surface, the sun was out and we stopped for coffee and the delicious sour soup zurek. We drove across Poland and crossed into the Czech Republic and then into Slovakia.

The weather grew colder and greyer and we were dismayed by all the roadside billboards spoiling the views of the hills and mountains. There had been very few in Norway, Denmark and the other countries - even free-wheeling Poland had reined in the excesses but in Slovakia they appeared as a blight. We also bounced along the 'tankodrome' road between Martin and Turcianska Teplica which also made us annoyed. Then we had bryndzove halusky at the famous St Christof salas (shepherd's hut) and even they tasted like they'd been made from a packet mix. So though we were all glad to be back, we suffered a bit of a culture shock and felt a bit sad.

We travelled 8,100 km in three weeks and stayed in four countries - Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and we drove across the Czech Republic, Poland and Finland. We'd been in 7 boats, 5 of which were ferries. Highlights were experiencing the midnight sun, whale and dolphin watching, seeing Copenhagen and Oslo, swimming in the sea, spaghetti, the beauty of the fjords, first sights of the reindeer, delicious fish, oystercatchers on the beach, and rowing on the fjord. It was a really great holiday and we had seen and learnt a lot on our trip.