Bautzen Germany, Lodz Poland

Travelled: 489km from Bastei Germany to Lodz Poland
Visited: Bautzen Germany, Lodz Poland
Stay: Lodz paid 35 zloty/24hr,  no services. In centre of town, noisy N51.77743 E19.46079

It was a bigger day than planned.  Having arrived in Bautzen around 9 am we had a quick breakfast and walked to the medieval centre. It is a charming walled town above the Spree Valley. We crossed the river past the water tower and entered through the stone gateway.  There were many beautiful colourful buildings one of which was the baroque town hall situated in the main square.  With a map from the tourist office we proceeded to look at other significant buildings including St.Peters Cathedral and the crooked Reichenturm tower.

We were then on the road again and decided to get some more kms under the wheels. The motorways have been of exceptional quality in Germany and Poland is no exception and both are free.  We had a brief stop for lunch and continued on our way, arriving in Lodz just on 5pm.    

Traffic was reasonable for a large city and we found the camping-car infos spot quiet easily.  On our approach to the centrum most buildings required lots of attention or just pulling down. There was even an old power station in amongst  the houses, now disused. Lodz was known for its textile manufacturing and the buildings closer into town reflected the wealth that this generated.

After parking Bluey and having to haggle with the old girl in the booth about the wrong change given,  we went to walk along Piotrkowska street the most and nicest one here. There were several bronze statues of their most prominent citizens and even a section that had 'Hollywood' stars.

We picked out a semi local restaurant, a beer hall. Enjoying the best that Poland and Germany could offer. Mark had the schnitzel and I the dumplings.

Then it was of the Manufaktura, a huge cultural,  business and amusement centre that was revitalised from a previous textile factory.  Lodz also had a sad history which is reflected in the Radegast train station. It was here that 200,000 Jews that were confined here in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto were transported to the gas chambers. The tourist information gave us lots of pamphlets of places of interest of which we may explored further if we weren't leaving tomorrow.