Poland and Slovakia.

The border between Lithuania and Poland is reputed to be difficult. However we got thru in 45 minutes without having to pay for a visa (as Lonely Planet warned we would). There were however at least 600 TIR trucks (a 4km queue) waiting on the road in Lithuania, you just drive past them!

One disagreeable feature of many of Poland's major roads are the deep ruts worn in the tarmac by the heavy trucks. At the extreme this makes steering redundant, but it also makes changing lanes quite exciting!

We stopped in Warsaw for a day and visited the "old town" but only because a friend of Pat was living there. For reasons we could not understand we were refused permission to park in several of the guarded parking areas in the suburbs.

Kraków however was both more welcoming and far more interesting. The "old town" is dotted with museums and littered with fine pavement cafés. Probably the most impressive museum we saw was the Collegium Maius (part of the University) where you can see the astronomic instruments used by Copernicus and the oldest globe (1510) in the world with North America marked (alas in the position occupied by Australia). Lost Wawel and the genuine fire eating dragon are both worth a visit.

Wild Camping in Kraków.

We camped a few hundred meters to the west of the "old town" in Kraków in the guarded car park just outside the National Museum (N50.05998° E19.92376°)

Whilst parked here we met Dr. Grzegorz Kowalski who owns a Gaz 69 4x4 truck and we spent a very interesting evening discussing off-road vehicles and campervans in particular whilst eating traditional Polish food. Many thanks.

The crossing from Poland to Slovakia (also said to slow) took less than ten minuets! Undoubtedly Bratislava was the highlight of Slovakia for us.

The "old town" whilst considerably smaller than Kraków, had a very relaxed atmosphere, with many street cafes (and a Tesco supermarket).

We were lucky to be there during a small music festival and as a result there were musicians performing in many of the small squares in the old town making for a very pleasant evening.

Wild Camping in Bratislava.

We camped in a splendid free car park just opposite the "old town" across the Danube. (N48.13691° E17.10819°).

Finding this car park is a little tricky. Although it is very close to the junction between the D61 (east - west) and the 2/D2 (north - south) and almost under the 2/D2 bridge over the Danube you can not access it from either this junction or from the 2/D2.

Getting to the "old town" from the car park is via the lower pedestrian deck of the bridge and takes less than five minutes.