FRIDAY's FAV FIVE

Since yesterday evening I am back from my Northern Explorer roundtrip ! We drove around 5700 km (3540 miles) and I walked (!!) 177 km (109 m) during these 3 weeks ! I think I have walked enough for the rest of the year !!

This week we visited Warsow and Poznan (Poland) and then Berlin with a 2 h stop in Hannover (Germany)for lunch. Our tour leader called little stops "comfort stops" I found this a very nice expression and will go in the future to my comfort room !

Here are a few pictures of Warsowie, Poznan and Hannover. I feel a little overwhelmed of all what I had seen. It was such a nice and interesting trip and our group was perfect, always in harmony and no disputes at all.



Warsow had become a nice town, but was a bit impersonal




I really loved Poznan where we only spent two hours, but it was a lovely quaint town with lot of fairy tails. We had a good lunch there too.




of course Berlin was something very special ! A town which never sleeps, where past and present go well together without being oppressive, which hasn't been the case in Warsaw. Berlin is full of people of all nationalities. Although a very modern town with only a few old buildings left, as it had been destroyed nearly totally during the WWII, it is full of charm and life and doesn't look ugly at all as so many other towns with ultra modern buildings



And finally a "comfort" stop in Hannover, which was also a lively city, but I didn't see very much only the main place at the station. We hadn't much time as we had to drive to Amsterdam, but it still gave an overview of the city.

We finally arrived in Waterloo around 7 pm and this was the end of our tour. Yesterday morning we had a good bye breakfast and then everybody left in all directions, or to continue another trip or go home because the holidays were finished !

NORTHERN COUNTRIES - RIGA/Latvia-VILNIUS/Lithuania TOWARDS WASSAW/Poland

We stay two days in Warsaw so I had the opportunity to write a bit my "diary".



We stayed again in a beautiful hotel and for the first time in my life, I took a Rickshaw after having visited the very nice and romantic little town.



We were lucky there had been an international peace exhibition with painted bears from all countries in the world asking for peace ! It was really very nice to see what bears all countries had given for this exhibition, I am standing in front of the bear from Benin ! I should have taken Belgium but I liked the red bear.

The next day our bus took us from Riga to Vilnius in Lithuania. I have to say that the landscape in the Baltic countries were very boring. Flat like a pancake and plenty of firs and potato fields. I didn't even see a cow !



But there were also lakes with very nice touristic places. Nearly empty, because not that well known. We had our lunch break at a nice lake in the beautiful sunshine and since we had left Russia the temperatures became warmer and warmer. The place was so nice, I wished I could have stayed there.




Vilnius too was a beautiful town, bigger than Riga but also with a historical city center. We saw some Hare Krishna disciples, which reminded me the 70.

All these towns were very modern, no old rotten cars, elegant shops, and you could pay everywhere with your bank card. For us it was easy because these Baltic countries use Euros. We had thought all prices would be cheaper but besides food and restaurants it was nearly the same as at home.

Next time I will write a bit about Warsaw.