Day 4 - Poland is big!

We were out of our P4N at 6.30am just as some office workers were arriving. It was only 5 minutes to the motorway and another 5 to leave Germany and cross the Oder to enter Poland. We stopped at the first services to change some money to Zlotis. The motorways here are tolls and quite expensive - approximately £10 for the first stretch then £7. It rained a bit during the night and it got heavier as we drove on. However the road surface is good and the motorway is quiet so we are making good progress. The scenery is flat arable land, some woodland and there are a few solar panel fields but few wind farms, unlike Germany.

#2 daughter and husband are off to Essex to a big party tonight. One of her uni friends is 50, as is her husband who is CEO of a large up-market supermarket chain. As we are not available the boys are staying the night with friends, Thomas with Alex and James with Henry.

Nathaniel has his last night tonight as Lauren had laryngitis so the show the other boy was in was cancelled. He’s swapping so his family can see him tomorrow. This means Nathaniel and his mum get a free ticket to see it which saves her taking him to London.

We made good time so while on the move I searched for a P4N place to stop further east of Warsaw instead of west. The Polish driving is very aggressive (they might say positive). They lane jump at speed which seems to be the cause of the several accidents around major interchanges that we encountered. Nor do they “merge like a zip” at roadworks - it’s every driver for him/herself. The accidents and roadworks held us up at Lodz and Warsaw.

After driving for 7 hours through hail which had piled up by the roadside and occasional heavy rain, we are now parked up in sunshine at a village, Neigow, opposite a church, off the motorway E37. We had a wander to the church. There was a locked grill so we could only peep inside to see a black Madonna and child.

I’ve made an aubergine, mushroom and chick pea curry which we’ll have with Nan bread - after a G&T - we feel we deserve it after a long day with good progress. I’m outside in 28 degrees and feeling too hot. Maybe not the best day to cook a curry but we hope to make it to Lithuania tomorrow then we can relax and stay on a site if there’s room, it being the weekend.

Today we drove 328 miles.

The blip is the quiet motorway (it cost £23, well worth it) and the church interior.