Jane & Rog’s Eastwards Coddiwomple (1 Viewer)

[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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