Jane & Rog’s Eastwards Coddiwomple

[nicholsong]

See, woman carrying man’s stuff. Not fair! Which is why Rog has one, even though it’s a tiny little thing.

It is usually only a leaflet or map from the Tourist Office which will not fit in a pocket.

 

[cliffanger]

Nearby there was a fragment of the true cross. Sadly it’s only allowed out on special occasions and for parties.

I’ve seen so many fragments, together with thorns from the crown, blood encased in crystal, wood from the manger, etc.

Dawn Mousy and I could tell you the story of when we thought we were going in to a church to see the Shroud of Turin couldn’t we Dawn ….

 

[Gina M]

I’ve seen so many fragments, together with thorns from the crown, blood encased in crystal, wood from the manger, etc.

Dawn Mousy and I could tell you the story of when we thought we were going in to a church to see the Shroud of Turin couldn’t we Dawn ….

ummm now you have my interest, pray tell

 

[G-RMPS]

Thank you, but you are far too kind. My (Jane) only publishing fame is a technical book about Symbian OS. It had a readership of literally tens of people.

I could make your Symbian readership up to eleven, or maybe even twenty-one, but I would save it for an "insomniacal" night. Apparently not a proper word, unless you also read the Urban Dictionary!

 

[cliffanger]

ummm now you have my interest, pray tell

I hate to hijack Jane and Rog’s thread, so here’s an abridged version (I can’t find the original thread)

….. one abiding memory will be Dawn Mousy and I, in our bright summery outfits, queuing up in a church in the South of France, really excited because we thought we were about to see The Shroud of Turin.

The church was packed to the rafters, as it would be if the Shroud of Turin was ‘on tour’! We joined the right flank of three queues, on the right side of the aisle - and we moved slowly up the queue of very sombre dressed worshippers. Nothing strange there we thought, only to be confronted at the
head of the queue with a coffin!

Me: “It’s a coffin!”

Dawn: “What - they keep the shroud in a coffin - how weird...!”

Me: No! We’ve just gate crashed a funeral!”

To this day we thank our lucky - whatever - that we didn’t join the central queue who were given holy oil to sprinkle on the coffin whilst offering up a prayer to the deceased!

In our defence, the photo on top the coffin was of a young motorbiker (hence the packed church) who we hope would have smiled at two hapless females, in the wrong place but for all the right reasons! ….

Again, my apologies Jane and Rog, but I hope it gave you a smile!

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[Jane And Rog]

I hate to hijack Jane and Rog’s thread, so here’s an abridged version (I can’t find the original thread)

….. one abiding memory will be Dawn Mousy and I, in our bright summery outfits, queuing up in a church in the South of France, really excited because we thought we were about to see The Shroud of Turin.

The church was packed to the rafters, as it would be if the Shroud of Turin was ‘on tour’! We joined the right flank of three queues, on the right side of the aisle - and we moved slowly up the queue of very sombre dressed worshippers. Nothing strange there we thought, only to be confronted at the
head of the queue with a coffin!

Me: “It’s a coffin!”

Dawn: “What - they keep the shroud in a coffin - how weird...!”

Me: No! We’ve just gate crashed a funeral!”

To this day we thank our lucky - whatever - that we didn’t join the central queue who were given holy oil to sprinkle on the coffin whilst offering up a prayer to the deceased!

In our defence, the photo on top the coffin was of a young motorbiker (hence the packed church) who we hope would have smiled at two hapless females, in the wrong place but for all the right reasons! ….

Again, my apologies Jane and Rog, but I hope it gave you a smile!

Love it! Sounds just like something we’d do!

 

[Jane And Rog]

I have seen the Turin shroud. Back when it was real too. I think my main impression of it was “bigger than I expected”

 

[Jane And Rog]

Yesterday’s map:

 

[Jane And Rog]

It’s been a fairly uninteresting day today although we did get stopped by the police.

We left the car park at Kazimierz Dolny and drove kindof north. We’re camped at the “House of the Stork” near to the European Bison reserve where our ancestral bison are kept in grassy idil for future generations.

It’s a great place and they actually have a stork wandering around living in peace with the camp dog and and the camp cat. We haven’t told Flynn about any of them.

A pet stork!​

We’re here because Białowieża Forest is one of the largest remaining parts of the primeval forests that covered Europe - i.e. it’s been forest since forests were invented. It’s also incidentally home to over 800 European bisons although the ancestry of the bison is somewhat in question - they were nearly wiped out by a couple of wars that happened around here and have been subject to a lot of selective breeding. There are also wolves and lynx.

We are also only 3km from the Belarus border which is why the police stopped us. They are looking for illegal imigrants driving towards Belarus in a bright orange campervan with UK plates.

Also, we notched up 2000 miles today sometime before lunch stopped at traffic lights.

Winner​

 

[Jane And Rog]

We also played this, which Rog isn’t mentioning because I won!

I’m the pink chaps. It’s a rule in our house that Rog always has to be yellow else he sulks, so I’m just whatever other colour there is. Not that I mind. Not one bit.

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[nicholsong]

It’s been a fairly uninteresting day today although we did get stopped by the police.

We left the car park at Kazimierz Dolny and drove kindof north. We’re camped at the “House of the Stork” near to the European Bison reserve where our ancestral bison are kept in grassy idil for future generations.

It’s a great place and they actually have a stork wandering around living in peace with the camp dog and and the camp cat. We haven’t told Flynn about any of them.

View attachment 918705

A pet stork!​

We’re here because Białowieża Forest is one of the largest remaining parts of the primeval forests that covered Europe - i.e. it’s been forest since forests were invented. It’s also incidentally home to over 800 European bisons although the ancestry of the bison is somewhat in question - they were nearly wiped out by a couple of wars that happened around here and have been subject to a lot of selective breeding. There are also wolves and lynx.

We are also only 3km from the Belarus border which is why the police stopped us. They are looking for illegal imigrants driving towards Belarus in a bright orange campervan with UK plates.

Also, we notched up 2000 miles today sometime before lunch stopped at traffic lights.

View attachment 918706

​

Winner​

I prefer butter myself

 

[Jane And Rog]

Yesterday’s map. We’re right next to Belorus. Yesterday the nice camp site lady and I were swapping languages to try and settle on a common one.

CSL: “German, Russian, Bylorussian, Polish of course, and a little German.”

Me (outfaced): Well, English, French and a little German, I suppose.

I didn’t mention my Latin O’ Level. It’s proved to be just about as useful as you might imagine.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Nothing to do with Poland but we’re in first place in the July photo comp! First place until Northernraider mobilises that is

 

[Jane And Rog]

Soon after nine, we walked down to the entrance of the park to enquire about bison viewing and primordial forest hiking. Białowieża National Park is the last untouched lowland forest in Europe - but you can’t just casually stroll in, no, you have to arrange a 4 hour guided walk with a park ranger. If you don’t speak Polish, the cost is a massive £104, whether there is one person on the tour or ten, so we rushed back to the campsite to see if our friendly Swedish neighbours wanted to share with us. The answer was yes, so Rog went back to buy tickets, then to be told that the only time available was 4:30pm tomorrow.

The Swedes had to head off north towards their frozen wastelands, and we were less sure about the value without them sharing the cost, so we ditched the idea too.

Looking at the leaflet I took with me, there are a lot of interesting tours to be had - dawn bird spotting (lots of rare species) and night tours with exciting night binoculars supplied. Not sure if they are available in English, but what we’ve found is that it’s definitely worth phoning ahead and trying to book.

We waited for the rain to stop, then went for a walk along a nature trail just outside the national park - good for Flynn not being actually banned, although he (possibly) did have to wear his rather fetching yellow muzzle.

Not impressed

The path was good for my ankle too, as it was well-groomed with boardwalk sections. I did end up with 15,000 steps once we were finished though!

The highlight was spotting a black woodpecker - an impressive bird with a red crown, rather like a certain bald husband when he’s forgotten the factor 50…

Not my photo

We came out by the bison zoo area, whose car park was full of stalls selling everything the thirsty hiker could desire - stuffed furry toy bison, fridge magnets, and mead. Not, sadly, ice creams or freshly-made lemonade.

Rog checked out the zoo and returned with water, hurrah! The vending machine was keen to reassure him that its TCP/IP stack was in good working order - always something I like to check before slaking my thirst.

Despite this, Flynn still managed to find not one, but two muddy puddles to bathe in, necessitating a close encounter with Denby’s outside shower when we got back to camp.

In trouble? What, me?

We ate out at the local hotel which has also won a best 100 in Poland award 3 years running. My soup was probably the highlight for me (cold cucumber, dill and beetroot) but we did also manage a reprise of “can we have the lard to go” with Rog’s starter.

Fish for us both for mains.

 

[nicholsong]

Soon after nine, we walked down to the entrance of the park to enquire about bison viewing and primordial forest hiking. Białowieża National Park is the last untouched lowland forest in Europe - but you can’t just casually stroll in, no, you have to arrange a 4 hour guided walk with a park ranger. If you don’t speak Polish, the cost is a massive £104, whether there is one person on the tour or ten, so we rushed back to the campsite to see if our friendly Swedish neighbours wanted to share with us. The answer was yes, so Rog went back to buy tickets, then to be told that the only time available was 4:30pm tomorrow.

The Swedes had to head off north towards their frozen wastelands, and we were less sure about the value without them sharing the cost, so we ditched the idea too.

Looking at the leaflet I took with me, there are a lot of interesting tours to be had - dawn bird spotting (lots of rare species) and night tours with exciting night binoculars supplied. Not sure if they are available in English, but what we’ve found is that it’s definitely worth phoning ahead and trying to book.

We waited for the rain to stop, then went for a walk along a nature trail just outside the national park - good for Flynn not being actually banned, although he (possibly) did have to wear his rather fetching yellow muzzle.

View attachment 919090
Not impressed

The path was good for my ankle too, as it was well-groomed with boardwalk sections. I did end up with 15,000 steps once we were finished though!

View attachment 919091

The highlight was spotting a black woodpecker - an impressive bird with a red crown, rather like a certain bald husband when he’s forgotten the factor 50…

View attachment 919092

Not my photo

We came out by the bison zoo area, whose car park was full of stalls selling everything the thirsty hiker could desire - stuffed furry toy bison, fridge magnets, and mead. Not, sadly, ice creams or freshly-made lemonade.

Rog checked out the zoo and returned with water, hurrah! The vending machine was keen to reassure him that its TCP/IP stack was in good working order - always something I like to check before slaking my thirst.

View attachment 919093

Despite this, Flynn still managed to find not one, but two muddy puddles to bathe in, necessitating a close encounter with Denby’s outside shower when we got back to camp.

View attachment 919094
In trouble? What, me?

We ate out at the local hotel which has also won a best 100 in Poland award 3 years running. My soup was probably the highlight for me (cold cucumber, dill and beetroot) but we did also manage a reprise of “can we have the lard to go” with Rog’s starter.

View attachment 919099

View attachment 919100

Fish for us both for mains.
View attachment 919103

View attachment 919106

Looks like good food. I am guessing food, without drinks was 150 Zloty, unless tourist prices.

How does Rog compare with the Black WoodPECKER?

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[Wanders from Glos]

Soon after nine, we walked down to the entrance of the park to enquire about bison viewing and primordial forest hiking. Białowieża National Park is the last untouched lowland forest in Europe - but you can’t just casually stroll in, no, you have to arrange a 4 hour guided walk with a park ranger. If you don’t speak Polish, the cost is a massive £104, whether there is one person on the tour or ten, so we rushed back to the campsite to see if our friendly Swedish neighbours wanted to share with us. The answer was yes, so Rog went back to buy tickets, then to be told that the only time available was 4:30pm tomorrow.

The Swedes had to head off north towards their frozen wastelands, and we were less sure about the value without them sharing the cost, so we ditched the idea too.

Looking at the leaflet I took with me, there are a lot of interesting tours to be had - dawn bird spotting (lots of rare species) and night tours with exciting night binoculars supplied. Not sure if they are available in English, but what we’ve found is that it’s definitely worth phoning ahead and trying to book.

We waited for the rain to stop, then went for a walk along a nature trail just outside the national park - good for Flynn not being actually banned, although he (possibly) did have to wear his rather fetching yellow muzzle.

View attachment 919090
Not impressed

The path was good for my ankle too, as it was well-groomed with boardwalk sections. I did end up with 15,000 steps once we were finished though!

View attachment 919091

The highlight was spotting a black woodpecker - an impressive bird with a red crown, rather like a certain bald husband when he’s forgotten the factor 50…

View attachment 919092

Not my photo

We came out by the bison zoo area, whose car park was full of stalls selling everything the thirsty hiker could desire - stuffed furry toy bison, fridge magnets, and mead. Not, sadly, ice creams or freshly-made lemonade.

Rog checked out the zoo and returned with water, hurrah! The vending machine was keen to reassure him that its TCP/IP stack was in good working order - always something I like to check before slaking my thirst.

View attachment 919093

Despite this, Flynn still managed to find not one, but two muddy puddles to bathe in, necessitating a close encounter with Denby’s outside shower when we got back to camp.

View attachment 919094
In trouble? What, me?

We ate out at the local hotel which has also won a best 100 in Poland award 3 years running. My soup was probably the highlight for me (cold cucumber, dill and beetroot) but we did also manage a reprise of “can we have the lard to go” with Rog’s starter.

View attachment 919099

View attachment 919100

Fish for us both for mains.
View attachment 919103

View attachment 919106

The food looks fabulous... muddy dog less enticing

 

[Jane And Rog]

nicholsong I don’t have the full bill but looking at the total with drinks I think you’re about right. Actually, here’s the menu. Jane had the zander, my fish isn’t on that menu (and I can’t remember its name)

 

[Jane And Rog]

How does Rog compare with the Black WoodPECKER?

With my new red hat and a black tee shirt I reckon I could make a passable woodpecker.

 

[Mousy]

Informative, funny, great pictures, maps, food…..10 stars. Muddy dog

 

[Jane And Rog]

Coddiwompling day 26: Not on my watch

We waited out a brief rain shower then left the forest. We stopped to take a photo of this weirdly coded road sign before… we got stopped by the police again. This would not be our only rub with borders today. Happily he got a look at (and a lick from) Flynn and let us go.

Does not apply, we are under 5.2m wide​

Onward to the “land of open shutters”; supposedly a lovely set of villages with… open shutters. We may be missed the main event here because we just saw a town where the shutters probably didn’t close and weren’t that well painted. OK but, to misquote Michelin: not worth a detour. Anyway, onward to the Green Mosque.

The drive to the green mosque was… interesting. Garmin suggested a circuitous route north then returning south. 100km to travel 30km as the crow squawks.

Be serious​

We didn’t believe it. Would you? So after consulting Google and Apple Maps we set off directly east towards the mosque. Garmin got increasingly alarmed about the route. We discussed why it might be wrong: Could there be a bridge out? Maybe it had a broken map or a ferry wasn’t working today? We were driving down a well maintained road but… we were alone. Suddenly we saw signs saying “Lorries left, VIP bus right”. We were neither and also both. We chose a lane at random. Immediately it hit us: Apple and Google had chosen a shortcut through Belarus! We had plausible deniability (and a green card, if not a visa) so we carried on. At least we could get to the border and be turned away. At the last minute A&G were correct: a right turn north about 150m from the border. We passed a couple of scary looking mIlitary bases and then we were good.

Make a U turn in 150m​

A brief interlude here for a Belarusian joke. Whatever your think about Russians etc, a corrupt government gives you good jokes:

One day Lukashenko is driven through a village in his limo. They run over somebody's pig. Lukashenko, an honest person, stops, gives his driver $100 and tells him to find the killed pig's owner and apologize. The driver leaves and isn't back until two hours later, dead drunk. Lukashenko yells at him: “Are you crazy?” The driver replies: “I haven't done anything wrong: I took the money, put the pig into the sack, placed it on my back, walk down the village street and yell – Dear people! I'm Lukashenko's driver and I've just killed this pig! – and suddenly they're all running towards me, with tears of happiness in their eyes, and start pouring me drinks, one after another…”

The green mosque is one of a few remnants of medieval Poland's Muslim Tatar community. Given the prediction from Sandomierz Cathedral I was on full alert and wore and extra scarf. We snuck our way into the mosque with a Polish group - we even got 50% off because the guide didn’t speak English. The guide was a local tartar, luckily there still wasn’t much beheading on offer. After a while of not understanding a word, we waved goodbye and skipped early.

Green​

From the mosque, even more ever north. Despite being more nervous of getting stoppedby the increasing number of border guards, police and military vehicles, we’ve not been collared again. The countryside here is great - smooth roads through deep forest. We landed at Camping U Tolka (///completed.compass.taxpayer) it’s between two lakes so Flynn is doubly happy.



The owner of Camping U Tolka was especially pleased that we speak a bit (r) and a lot (J) of french. He’s an ex Legionnaire. Wikipedia says Poles are one of the biggest national groups in La Legion.

Jane cooked chicken curry for dinner and we played Caïrn. The curry was a very welcome change to the relentless pork a lard. Not that I don’t like lard.

Burn

Think​

Codiwomple rating: Nearly accidentally drove into Belarus. This is double plus Codiwomple.

Ankle update: After yesterday’s uber scamper the flipper hinges seem intact so it’s got to be 10/10. Also - just incase you’re not keeping up - yesterday was the start of the fourth (and hence final) week with the Awful Brace.

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[Lenny HB]

I hate to hijack Jane and Rog’s thread, so here’s an abridged version (I can’t find the original thread)

….. one abiding memory will be Dawn Mousy and I, in our bright summery outfits, queuing up in a church in the South of France, really excited because we thought we were about to see The Shroud of Turin.

The church was packed to the rafters, as it would be if the Shroud of Turin was ‘on tour’! We joined the right flank of three queues, on the right side of the aisle - and we moved slowly up the queue of very sombre dressed worshippers. Nothing strange there we thought, only to be confronted at the
head of the queue with a coffin!

Me: “It’s a coffin!”

Dawn: “What - they keep the shroud in a coffin - how weird...!”

Me: No! We’ve just gate crashed a funeral!”

To this day we thank our lucky - whatever - that we didn’t join the central queue who were given holy oil to sprinkle on the coffin whilst offering up a prayer to the deceased!

In our defence, the photo on top the coffin was of a young motorbiker (hence the packed church) who we hope would have smiled at two hapless females, in the wrong place but for all the right reasons! ….

Again, my apologies Jane and Rog, but I hope it gave you a smile!

We are not the only ones then. In Portugal we walked into a barracks at the back of a palace there was a big wig solder lying in state, whoops.

 

[billym]

Yesterday’s map. We’re right next to Belorus. Yesterday the nice camp site lady and I were swapping languages to try and settle on a common one.

CSL: “German, Russian, Bylorussian, Polish of course, and a little German.”

Me (outfaced): Well, English, French and a little German, I suppose.

I didn’t mention my Latin O’ Level. It’s proved to be just about as useful as you might imagine.

View attachment 918784

We were there five years ago and had a bizarre day out on our bikes into Belarus. ( With a day visa ). I guess you can't do that anymore.

 

[nicholsong]

We were there five years ago and had a bizarre day out on our bikes into Belarus. ( With a day visa ). I guess you can't do that anymore.

Probably can, but getting back again might be a problem.

 

[Jane And Rog]

We were there five years ago and had a bizarre day out on our bikes into Belarus. ( With a day visa ). I guess you can't do that anymore.

The Lonely Plant guide gave me a link to the Belarus forest park site where you could arrange visas to cross the border by foot or bike. When I went to the visa page itself, I got a 404 page missing error.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Here’s yesterday’s map.

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[Jane And Rog]

I also discovered why Poland is so worried about the Belarus border. Belarus has opened travel agencies in the Middle East deliberately aiming at sending refugees across the border into the EU.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

I also discovered why Poland is so worried about the Belarus border. Belarus has opened travel agencies in the Middle East deliberately aiming at sending refugees across the border into the EU.

That’s outrageous

 

[Jane And Rog]

We are in a new country, and one we’ve never been to before. Lithuania!

Our first stop was Grūtas Park. This is a weird zoo / Soviet-era statue combo.

Although dogs were not allowed, the kiosk lady made a quick under-the-counter offer of €4 and Flynn was in like Flynn.

To start with, he was quite discombobulated - the zoo air was full of new animal smells and he wasn’t quite sure how big and bitey they might be. The tail was clamped firmly between the legs.

Terrified

Terrifying


The statues scattered through the zoo/park are of more famous Russian Communists (i.e. Lenin and Stalin) plus prominent Lithuanian Communists, who we’d never heard of.

There was also a little gallery of interesting wood-cuts and Soviet realist art.

This is the original Russian doll statue. Open it up and there are several smaller statues inside.

Flynn’s favourite part of the zoo was the chicken section. It stretched for metres, chicken cages on both sides, each housing a different breed of chicken. Just imagine yourself in the biggest Italian gelateria on the planet, and you’ll have some idea of his enthusiasm.

And for your second scoop, sir?

All in all, it was a worthwhile if surrealist experience. If you are keen on hallucinatory drugs, I strongly advise not partaking before visiting.

I think I’ll leave the final comment on Leninist Communism to Flynn.

A damning critique of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat


Next we tried to view an exciting crypt with glass coffins! But sadly the attached (overhead?) church, belonging to Liškiava Monastery, was hosting a wedding and visits were off.

We did see some lovely wooden houses on the way there though.

Our stop for the night is a car park under the bridge in Merkiné. It’s a lot nicer than it sounds!

We walked up to the café at the top of the hill for a pint with a very similar view, and then had a quick look around town.

Back at the van, I braved a swim in the river. It was lovely - cold to start with but lovely and bracing once I’d got used to it.

After a rest and a shower we ate out at the bbq restaurant at the top of the hill. It was very good, although Flynn did get a decent supper from the remains.

I don’t think I mentioned but today is Lithuanian Statehood day, which commemorates the coronation in 1253 of Mindaugas as the King of Lithuania.

The main sign of this was a small stage set up near to where we’d parked Denby. As we walked back from dinner the first of the folk bands was starting up.

The three of us (Flynn was fetched) watched for a while, but Flynn was totally uninterested in Lithuanian folk, and very interested indeed in small boys throwing stones in the river. He was so noisy about being interested in this that he had to be banished back to the van, while Rog & I carried on watching without him.

At 9pm on July 6th, Lithuanians all over the world are encouraged to sing the national anthem. We had to stay around to see this, and it was well worth it - very atmospheric.



Coddiwompling score: Eleventy-ten! Dead communists, emus and Lithuania Day by the river.

Ankle score: 5 days till brace removal day!!

 

[Lenny HB]

I've been to Vilnius a couple of times with work. Great little city, people friendly and of pubs with their own micro brewery.
Well worth a visit.

 

[Just smiffy]

What did Flynn think of the very big chickens….

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