Our first stop in Spain was San Sebastian (Basque name – Donostia). With some prior knowledge of the town from a trip earlier this year  (Rupert) and knowledge of the Spanish language (Sylwia), we were onto a winner!

San Sebastian welcomed us with open arms but no parking spaces for our vehicle, sadly. After trawling the mean streets of this Basque town we were very much ready for pinxtos! Pinxtos are small finger-food tapas-style snacks, popular in the Basque country and served in bars whilst hanging out with friends and family. Good accompaniment to drinks and perfect for lining your stomach!

We were also lucky enough to bump into Ida and Peter who just got engaged! (we call ourselves the engagement fairies of course). Combine a newly engaged couple with some pinxtos = perfect night out 🙂 We even tried to find some dancing but as it was a Sunday night, San Sebastian wasn’t the best place to be.

Thoroughly well fed and watered (with fire water), nursing a bit of a hangover, we headed in the general direction of Bilbao.

Spain’s northern shore is gorgeous, the colour of the ocean is stunning, views breathtaking and big rocks sticking out of the ocean very picturesque/frightening . And no camping. No camping with any spaces for us three, anyway (Salsa, too, of course). It was nearing the sundown and with no fixed plans we tried out a few coastal paths and stumbled on the most perfect camping sauvage (wild camping) spot to date.

It was so peaceful and relaxing, most close to nature (sic!) we’ve been so far. Bilbao was beckoning but this place will forever occupy a bit of our wild souls.

We’ve taken a while to write this post as we couldn’t really think of many things we hadn’t known before and learnt about the country of  Liberté, égalité, fraternité but here it goes.

1. Hands down best pastry in the world
2. Coffee is not even comparable to what we drank on a daily basis in Italy (and took it for granted)
3. Dordogne valley is mini England. There are coach-loads of English people coming to cute little French towns and buying up the property
4. Very good travelling village/small town markets
5. Cheese and wine are on point (also, don’t wait a week until you have them unless you want to risk serious overindulgence)
6. Despite the terror threats and warnings, we actually didn’t see much gendarmerie on the streets. Not sure if that was intentional camouflage or not…
7. West coast of France is beautiful, crowded and only accessible by bike. Next time we visit we’ll bring a trolley for our kites and boards
8. There is an abundance of camping sites from very basic ones (area naturelle, camping a la ferme) to huge ones
9. Bordeaux is the best French city we’ve seen, with burgeoning art scene, good restaurants, lots of space, cute districts and great location (close to surf). We will be back
10. Bunting makes everything look cuter (including shabby towns)

Au revoir France, you’ve been good. Time to hit Spain!

Having heard a fair bit about Bordeaux (all of which was good), we were headed there for a city break. Bordeaux turned out to be a darling of the French cities. It rained on our first day so we hit the museums.

First was the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. Not a huge collection, yet well presented and carefully curated following a historical timeline with thoughtful explanations giving background to the paintings.

The next was Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez. Situated in a chateu in a lovely district of old houses made out of sandstone and twisty and turny streets. The building and surrounding gardens proved a great setting for two large exhibitions – one on Graffiti art from 1985 till 21^st Century and second one on Baccarat Crystals.

With the weather decidedly improving, Bordeaux was a lovely stopover, lots to do, good food, happy people, a lot of open space and the proximity to the ocean surf!

Speaking of which, we both had somewhere to be and something to do so we headed to the seaside. Seeing the ocean after a few land-locked months felt amazing. That, accompanied by beautiful weather, good waves and excellent burger (burger of the trip award) made up a lovely afternoon. Sadly, the coast was very busy and we started to experience the high-season burn…where everywhere is packed with families and the traffic is horrendous.

But we are on our way to find the abandoned beaches, sunny cliffs and space. And we are determined to find them!

Having arrived in France (again), and realizing the rain followed us there, we found a nearby hotel, where we celebrated the return to the land of wine and fromage with a Michelin-starred meal and champagne (when in France…)

The experience was lovely, the hangover the next day was not. Armed with our prowess of finding quaint, close to nature campsites, we set off yet again.

Bingo! At the Lac de Sioulet. Another day, another gorgeous part of the world, where time seemed to have stopped, where the days are meant for hiking, paddling and losing fins…

On our way to the Dordogne we stumbled upon another winner – Lac de Vassiviere This turned out to be one of our favourite places in the world (sans hot water). In France, campings in the very much definition of ’wild’ are called ‘Aire Naturelle’ and the local information centres have a list of all of them – totally recommended.

Dordogne valley has many an attraction and following advice found in Rough Guides, we chose to visit the Gardens du Marquesac. Stunning gardens and a castle on a hill with some spectacular views and pretty magical spots.

Our friends’ wedding was fast approaching and we headed to Excideuil, where we rented a room above the Kitsch Kafe, as a base for the festivities. We stayed there for nearly a week hanging out with friends, celebrating the union of our friends, having a ball and totally relaxing in this rural, tiny, yet very cute little town.

After giving Murphy a well-deserved scrub and hoover in a nearby town Perigreux in an industrial size carwash (oh the joys of van ownership), it was time to continue on our voyage, via a fleeting visit to an impressive chateau rented by some of our friends in the Dordogne. We have nearly reached the Atlantic coast!

We haven’t planned to visit Switzerland on our travels but our travels took us so close to it (Lake Annecy), we asked ourselves – why not?!

Crossing the Swiss border included a mere wave to the border guards (and scrambling back stage, hiding the cat). Our drive took us along Lake Geneva which is most impressive – like an inland sea. Too bad we couldn’t see any decent beaches as we’d jump right in.

We started the Swiss part of our trip by visiting Hermance – a lovely, typically Swiss village just outside Geneva (which was descoped btw, as advised by a few Swiss folk we talked to). Hermance was beautiful, yet quite sleepy and with a few hours of daylight left we decided to press on.

Surrounded by countryside straight out of a Milka advert, we found a place to stay for the night outside Montreux, which just hosted the Jazz festival. Waking up at the feet of the mountains never gets boring. It was quite a fresh morning and we both enjoyed a nice cup of coffee with a gorgeous view of the Swiss Alps as a backdrop.

What happened next could only be described as heavens opening; we got trapped in torrential rain in the Bristol hotel on the promenade (could be worse) and demanded breakfast. It looked like the rain wasn’t going anywhere that day so our drive around Lake Geneva (unplanned but pretty cool) continued.

Following We popped into Lausanne’s Fondation de l’Hermitage for an exhibition that contained a few gems of modern art, including Basquiat, Louise Borgeouis, Kit Haring, etc. Very impressive location for a gallery and great exhibition of a private (aka rare) collection. If you’re nearby – it offers a well curated intro to the 20^th Century Modern Art. More info on the exhibition and the foundation here: http://www.fondation-hermitage.ch/actualite/

Completely wet but with a head full of art it was time for us to decide what’s next?

Sorry, Switzerland, but the rain wasn’t what we ordered – it felt like an escape from this biblical rainfall and return to France was on the cards.

After trawling through the Italian Riviera, looking (unsuccessfuly) for a parking spot, we were faced with a decision: continue on the gorgeous, but heaving with people French Riviera or head somewhere more tranquil, and in some shape or form towards Dordogne, where our friends, KP and Sheena, were getting married. The choice was obvious.

The drive to Gorges du Verdon was long and very windy. The area is vast and we entered it fairly late in the day, not having done much research on where to stay. We also kept stopping at viewpoints and to walk down to the gorges to admire their astounding beauty. The sunset was upon us (and a spectacular one at that!) and we decided to press on towards a lake. For us, it’s always better staying somewhere near the water when there might be a possibility to jump on our many boards or use our many many kites. 🙂

With a little scouting and navigation effort, we landed at a perfect camping a la ferme (those are campings in France on a farm), where the owner showed us a shady spot in the forest, 10m from the lake. The Lac de St Croix is artificial, quite long and very blue – similar colour to the Alpine lakes. We stayed a couple of days to drink in the scenery, do a fair bit of hiking and paddling.

On the leaving day, the farmer had a good ol chinwag with Rupert (whose French skills have carried us a long way in the favour of the old MacDonald), gave us some of his local produce which included delicious yellow courgettes. They turned out to taste exactly like green ones but with a more flowery, lemony taste (tasted very nicely grilled).

Next stop – Annecy and the famous lake. We spent a day walking around this gorgeous Alpine town, having crepes and drinking grand crème (black coffee with a dash of cream). Lots of people meant it wasn’t as tranquil as the postcards would suggest. However, this pitstop meant we were getting close to Switzerland…which wasn’t in our original plan but…

It was the first time for both of us visiting Italy and here are the 10 things we learnt about the country:

1. Italians love talking. God knows what about but it sure does sound exciting. This includes radio and tv channels – there’s essentially a lot of chat everywhere.
2. You can’t get food between 2-7pm. You’re left to forage berries and grass.
3. The same applies to breakfast that’s not coffee and cake.
4. Everything shuts for the hottest part of the day. I mean everything. Including people.
5. Despite the popular opinion food isn’t groundbreaking everywhere, a bit of disappointment really. In fact in some tourist spots it’s diabolical (we’re looking at you, Verona)
6. Every corner it’s so picturesque you turn could it into a photo postcard.
7. Italians are obsessed with shoes. Everyone is constantly checking out window displays of shoe shops and gasps in awe when they encounter a new model.
8. The national unisex drink is aperol spritz
9. Coffee are ice cream are distinct food groups and seem to account for about 50% of daily calories consumed
10. Bread. Comes with every meal and you pay 5 Euros for the privilege.

Having had some time to think through the next leg in more detail (up to now planning had been a rather ‘fly-by-wire’ type affair) we headed into Tuscany. Previous camping experiences had given us a few founding principles on how to find our ideal stopover:

1. Not a main campsite i.e. no flags at reception
2. Farm camping more soulful
3. The more remote and windier the access route the better

With this in mind we headed towards the tiny hilltop village of Grondola.

Remotest and windiest road driven so far – check! No flags – check!! Unable to find a sign (let alone flags) we managed to ground the van (note – first driving incident so far!!) in a driveway. Fortunately the owner turned out to be the camping owners brother and his English wife, and with a quick phone call and the aid of a sturdy wooden plank we were ungrounded and following our host Angela (also English) to their site on the other side of the village.

Getting grounded turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Campeggio Angela Musetti was empty and with glorious views across the valley below we decided to stay put for a few days. Plenty of hiking (one slight misdirection saw us off the trail and clambering across waterfalls – beautiful), reading, fitness and general chilling out followed. It’s said that Tuscany is all about the villages and this one didn’t disappoint. A fruitless search for the Cinque Terra ferry in La Spezia (boats cancelled due to rough seas…in the Med, really?!) we had a slightly underwhelming lunch and stroll before retreating to our campeggio in the hills.

Check out these guys who we found in nearby Pontremoli:

A 4-night layover had us totally recouped and a little sad we headed for the seaside town of Levanto hoping for some beach time and possibly surf. Once again we underestimated the popularity of the Italian Riviera in high season choosing instead to drive through and admire the town from the cliff tops either side. The extremely windy and at times heart-stopping drive west from here treated us to breathtaking views of the Mediterranean coastline

Arriving in Genoa at rush hour, we headed initially for the ‘revamped and buzzy’ (ref. Rough Guides) Porto Antica that was in actually decidedly touristy and quiet. The old town was a unique experience for us both – not somewhere you would want to get lost after dark, but the narrow cobbled streets shaded by tall buildings either side have a medieval/other worldly charm about them.

Varazze, another candidate for med surfing, was seething with Milanese who have their second homes here and we paused only to refuel ourselves.

Pontremoli was the most picturesque of the villages we encountered on this long drive. With superyachts and boats aplenty moored in the bay, this is very much the domain of the super rich but also teeming with tourists puts this on the list to visit off-season.

Bidding farewell to Italy stopped for lunch at Chateau  in Eze with splendid views

Dipping down for a brief driveby into Monaco we bid farewell to the Med and headed inland for our first stopover in France.

Brescia was a much needed breath of fresh air for us. What a gorgeous, livable city! We started the day with a run around the castle and after an incredible continental breakfast (thank you, eggs), furnished with guidebooks, maps and other tips from the most helpful hotel receptionists, we boarded the local metro and set off to discover Brescia on foot. It’s fairly manageable when you’re used to walking up and down a lot of inclines and stairs. We had a lovely afternoon walking around little streets, popping into churches and courtyards and looking at the Roman ruins. We fell in love with the city and its people (who let us peep into an old building that was a fully fledged working Town Hall!).

If we had to live in Italy – Brescia would be our hometown. Alas, it was time to leave for another destination – hello Milano.

In Milano, we managed to find a lovely air bnb bang on in the centre of the shopping district – think Bond Street in London for the price of…a night at a campsite. This cute little apartment was nestled inbetween D&G and Dior at the top floor with a miniscule terrace and all mod cons. Having moved in and already feeling pretty Milanese, we went out to taste the city. We went to the Obika opposite Duomo for aperitivo and had pizza at the Luno’s nearby. Looking for the IT place in Milano we stumbled across a very cool place called Spoon and then the heat drove us to have some sushi nearby.

We needed a good night sleep after that. A full day on Sunday awaited…As per recommendation (thank you, Nicole!), we headed off first thing to book tickets for Da Vinci’s Last Supper then walked Milan…a great, very cosmopolitan city but, hey, London’s better 😉

Ahh the fair city of Verona… For this stopover, we decided to stay in a city camping.

Benefits:

• close to everything
• very cheap
• no dealing with camping staff who want to know EVERYTHING

Disadvantages (top ones):

• no facilities bar a hose
• high concentration of other campers (although to be fair they were in the same predicament so not too pesky)
• cockroaches!

Our sightseeing started at approximately 5:30am as we thought we’d beat the crowds and get to see the beautiful morning sunrise light…Verona was incredibly beautiful, with gorgeous piazzas, views over the river Adige, remains of the old Roman theatre + archeological museum, churches and basilicas. You may have heard that Italians don’t hold back on churches but the ones we’ve seen in Verona were hands down the most beautiful. The Basilica of San Zeno and the Church of Santa Anastasia deserve a special mention.

So the early start had some obvious benefits as at one point it felt like we had the city to ourselves. The drawback was waiting at 7.55am at the door of a café to get a breakfast that involved eggs (very hard to find in any Italian city!). The town started to fill up with coaches of tourists in the late morning but we were determined to see Casa di Guiletta (not the real one but the pretend real one…) which was terribly busy and really spoilt the mood. To add to that, we had one of the worst meals in the history of food at the Piazza delle Erbe (shame on you, you know who you are). Top tip: in Italy, do not eat at any of the food outlets near the main attractions. After that monumental fiasco, we could not have been consoled even with pastries from the local patisserie so we boarded Murphy in a huff and headed for the sanctity of the countryside.

In an incredible strike of luck, we stumbled across an agri-camping in a vineyard, a stone’s throw away from Lake Garda. We stayed there for a few nights, taking in the lovely views, enjoying a great pool and our outdoor gym comprised of lanes upon lane of vineyards and orchards.

We headed for Lake Garda one fine morning but unable to find anywhere that we liked, we went on to walk around Limoncino  – which (as you may gather from the name) used to be famous for its farming of lemons. Lake Garda was very touristy so it was time to go back to the mountains. We enjoyed a day of driving through windy roads of Dolomites for the rest of the day, drinking in the incredible views (including snow) but found ourselves somewhere very high up with the mercury showing only 17C…with rain. That sounded too much like England so we pushed on past another of the big Italian lakes – Iseo (and caught a final glimpse of the floating piers installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude). In the evening, we found ourselves in Brescia, where our guidebook recommended a family-run hotel with an incredible view of the castle and top facilities – we were sold. Another day, another city. Such is the life of a traveller.

Running away from the crowds, we headed towards the National Park of the Belunessi Dolomites. The entrance to this area was absolutely spectacular. Dolomites peaks rise up very quickly and very high and are dotted with emerald-blue rivers and lakes. Paradise.

One of our favourite finds so far was the small town of Belluno, where we stayed for a night. It had the perfect balance of buzz and tranquility, which we were after – especially after encountering hoards of tourists at the seaside…

The town was a dream to walk around and discover. What made it even sweeter was finding an excellent authentic Italian trattoria. It’s sad to say it was the first decent Italian meal we managed to get (more on that in another post but – sic!). It was also the night that Italy lost to Germany in the footbal (don’t hate the player, hate the game).

Having struck Bond Voyage gold – finally getting somewhere soulful and close to nature, we ventured deeper into ‘bat’ country (mountains) and found a quaint little campsite by the Lago di Corlo Veneto. We also learnt we need to:

1. Stay way away from the crowds
2. Not frequent famous spots.

This posed some challenges to us – equipped with guidebooks and trip-advisoresque websites, where could we find such places?! Needless to say, a certain amount of luck is also involved, however, it seems to work out well around 75% of the time. If it doesn’t, we bite our lips and move on with a speed of a pastry disappearing in Rupert’s mouth.

The few days’ stay by the lake was everything. The peace and quiet, the tranquil mountain views, paddling on the lake, gentle hikes to the town and fabulous weather. We felt inspired and had plenty of time for reading, good deep conversations, we were getting into our groove. Even the cat seemed somewhat less crazy. 🙂 What could go possibly wrong? Well…we learnt that our solar battery power, without direct sunlight, only lasts <1 day. This means no power for our little fridge (!!!) and no lights…we couldn’t stay any longer L. The solar panel is also a little obscured by the surfboards on the roof…we had to think of a fix. We googled van conversion places in Italy…long shot but there was one in Vincenza, not far from Verona. Verona – could be nice, we thought. After all, it’s where the Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet takes place. Without leaving too much time to think it through we were on the road there to try and convince the conversion place to help us with an external power source.

The place was called C-lover and was staffed with the most helpful guys who explained how van electrics work and what we needed. Then…they said they wouldn’t be able to do the work for another 3 weeks…gah! We kept pleading and, with a little help from a little green dress (or perhaps because they also were kitesurfers?!), we managed to convince them to install an external power source so we can plug Murphy into the mains when available. After an hour or so, our van was bolstered up and with renewed hope we headed to Verona.

We bid farewell to the (adopted) Motherland with a degree of sadness. Four months isn’t enough to linger in all of the beautiful places we have encountered so far. We hit the road, excited about the treasures that lay ahead, and settled in for a long (if leisurely) haul south to Italy.

Austria’s Alps beautiful slopes soon banished any sense of melancholy. We had planned to pass straight through, but catching a glimpse the lake of Wortersee from the main road (and after a brief run in with the local constabulary for an incorrectly displayed vignette :/) we decided to stop and, at least, scout it out….which quickly morphed into an unplanned 2-day stopover! Crystal-clear emerald lakes fringed with villas, private jetties and small marinas combined with mountainous backdrops – the raw jaw-dropping beauty and understated sophistication of this place didn’t let us leave in haste.

Exploring the medieval castle (complete with resident vultures), we took in the scenic panaromas and watched the paragliders’ spiral diving down from the launch sites high above. Rupert’s paraglider had been abandoned in the UK due to lack of space. Something of a sore point.

After a second day spent paddling the shoreline and another lakeside lunch at the “Baad Sag” beach club we decided to press on with the certain resolve that we will be back here.

Passing through Vienna, the burden of having to find a new place to stopover everyday was starting to bite. After Google maps directed us to several camping shops (facilities somewhat lacking) we found a city campsite on the fringe of the Austrian capital. The sub-par facilities were gratefully offset by a popup restaurant operating out of the film studio in the adjacent industrial estate, owned by two young chef brothers. A surprisingly delightful dinner of raspberry-infused gazpacho soup, melting beef carpaccio and deep-fried local cheeses (note: in the context of The Bond Voyage, cheese is definitely its own food-group) was not enough to sway us to stay another night and explore Vienna itself. That we will save for a weekend break. *note scribbled in our scrap book*

Slovenia, much like Austria, was something of a surprise – one night nestled between the mountains with a wealth of mountain biking and hiking. The disappointment of Poland’s Euro 2016 defeat at the hands of Portugal (especially after Poland went ahead after 90 seconds) gave us the excuse we needed to pass on staying longer.

Now 10 days since we had been on the road, it was around this time that we decided that densely packed camping sites filled with huge motorhomes and speedo-wearing dads wasn’t what we had imagined, and not the experience / lasting memories that we are after (more on this later).

Feeling slightly saturated by mountains as our backdrop (how spoilt this sounds!) we set our sights on the Adriatic seaside town of Grado, Italy. Passing Roman ruins along the way we arrived excited to have our first glimpse of the sea since leaving the UK. Grado’s old-town is picturesque enough, although the main street is dominated by restaurants catering to the thousands of holiday-makers.

With the ‘autocamper’ parking areas resembling a trailer park (complete with hoards of bicycle-gang pesky kids), we again headed (somewhat trepidly) to the nearest beach-front campsite. An army of wall-to-wall motorhomes and excited mosquitos greeted us once again but we settled in. Despite the ongoing disappointment of campsite offerings (high season on the Italian coast is seething with people) the glassy sea offered spectacular scenery for an evening stroll and was very tranquil once the thousands of loungers on the beach had emptied.

After one tumultuous evening plagued by bike-riding children, manoeuvring caravans, ravenous mosquitos and the now obligatory near-naked middle aged men, we resolved to start afresh and seek out quieter, more remote areas.

Back to the mountains then 🙂

As we pass through each country on our Bond Voyage, we plan to post a list of reflections on that country. Nothing too serious, just a bit of banter.

Here’s one about Poland (slightly biased perhaps due to our family connections!):

1. People love to cut grass. Be it lawnmower or strimmer – you name it – the summer air is filled with mechanical buzz of people lovingly tending to their lawns.
2. You can actually watch the grass growing. Up to 1 cm a day. See point 1.
3. There are LOADS of churches. SJB’s hometown of Lomza actually has the highest number per capita in Poland.
4. They are still building more churches.
5. As a rule, the food is incredible. It’s an offence for a Pole if you don’t overeat at their table. It’s also very cheap and the portions are huge.
6. The summer weather is blissful and balmy 30 degree dry heat.
7. Roads can be terrible, as can driving etiquette.
8. The country is vast. If you think you can drive through it in a day, think twice and pack for a week.
9. There are actually long-haired hippies hidden in the south-eastern mountains – Bieszczady.
10. There’s loads to see and do – if you want to beat the British June blues, just book a flight and go… (driving from London takes about 2 days).

We descended onto Krakow for the weekend of – what turned out to be – Wianki music and Jewish Festivals. We took up an apartment in the Jewish quarter as a base for the weekend to relax and wash our muddy clothes (and faces).

Krakow was struck by a heatwave of 38 degrees Celsius that weekend and our pre-war apartment  turned into an oven. We found some pastimes, however, to relieve the diabolical heat.

First night we spent at Wianki festival – a “celebration of music”. Wianki in Polish means flower crowns and there were a lot of girls wearing them which added to the magic. We saw Fisz (Polish rapper), Swietliki and Grzegorz Turnau on 3 different stages in the old town. The atmosphere resembled that of a Notting Hill Festival.

We really had high hopes for Krakow but it somewhat disappointed us. It was very touristy and the whole city seemed geared towards that only, including the once-revered and cool Jewish Quarter. We did catch a great gig of a Yiddish music trio in the High Synagogue, though and gorged ourselves on Jewish delicacies (note: wasn’t as good as Jewish food in Kazimierz).

On Sunday we also visited Wawel – Royal Castle and a burial ground of Polish kings and onMonday visited the Salt mine in Wieliczka.

Both impressive though very busy and packed with tourists from all over the world. Most impressive was the underground cathedral cavern carved by the miners entirely out of the rock salt 100 metres underground. Yes. Really.

It was time to leave Poland and head for the Med.

The next chapter of The Bond Voyage was to head dead south – to the mountains of Poland. Quick hop I hear you say? On the map – yes, in reality – no. It took us the best part of the day to get to our first stop – Solina – with an artificial lake surrounded by the mountains and foothills of Bieszczady. It was a picturesque place but, having survived a storm and a spectacular light show overnight, we decided to press on. Plus, someone was blasting some incredibly offensive (to our ears) music and that sealed the deal.

We arrived in a place called Wetlina, a little mountainous village where the major Bieszczady walks and climbs start. We lucked out and secured a spot on a hippie campsite near a stream where we stayed for a couple of nights (one of them was the Midsummer). Can’t think of a better place to spend it really.

We ate some excellent local food at Chata Wedrowca and drank the local craft beers. Bliss.

The Bieszczady mountains were breathtaking. We left our green hearts there. We climbed a couple of peaks – Przelecz Orlowicza (1075m) and Smerek (1222m)…and that’s where the battery on our camera died. Link to the map.

It was time to move on to Beskidy where we spent a night in a campsite in Tylicz (with a pool!). We hit Krynica in the morning, a spa town with a huge park in the middle of the town and tried the local mineral waters (an acquired and somewhat “eggy” taste!). The sun was shining, we bought a kilo of huge local strawberries and with heavy hearts left for the Tatra mountains.

On another note, nearly 2 weeks on the road and we also examined contents of Rupert’s pocket. Here they are. Make your own judgment.

The drive through the mountains was breathtaking. We drove through Poland and Slovakia on fairly empty roads to Zakopane – the capital of the Polish mountains. Sylwia scored a car.

We stayed in the town centre for the first night but decided it was way too busy for our liking and decamped to a tiny family run campsite in a different part of town and took these pictures…

As you may imagine – we didn’t want to leave. Again! But it was time to head to Krakow for the Wianki festival and a well-earned stay in a city-centre apartment we booked for the weekend.

We’ve only been on the road for 5 days but we already feel we have seen and experienced loads. Weather has been dreamy (30+ degrees and sunny) so we packed away our thermals deep into the bowels of the van (hopefully never to be seen again!).

After leaving Lomza we headed dead south to a little historical town – Kazimierz Dolny nad Wisla. We set up camp just outside the centre and set off to experience the town and surrounding areas on foot. This area of Poland has had quite a sizeable Jewish population so we ate like Polish Kings in a Jewish restaurant called “U Fryzjera” (“At the Hairdresser’s” – note: masterclass in logo making!) and drank some refreshing tea at “U Dziwisza”. We climbed through the natural loess gorges up to the early medieval castle of King Kazimierz the Great.

We even squeezed in a very emotional Euro match (Poland-Germany) watched on a huge screen in the atmospheric town square with local supporters chanting “Polska! Polska! Bialo-czerwoni”. Needless to say, after a couple of beers, we joined in…

Originally, we planned to stay one night but it was truly too hard to leave. So instead we chilled our boots and left on Saturday, heading to Lublin via a spa town called Naleczow, where we took a bath in a pool of white clay (quite an experience, although total submersion definitely not recommended :/) and climbed a little hill to the surreal and dream-like little cafe called Kawiarnia Jasminowa (Jasmine Cafe). It was hidden through the jasmine trees in full bloom – talk about good timing! The smell was truly intoxicating and has beautifully complimented the home-made jasmine vodka…

Then it was time to go to Lublin – our third stop on this leg (the town is perfect for a city break if you’re looking for one!). We found a campsite outside of the town by a lake and took an opportunity to go paddle-boarding in the morning.

In Lublin we walked through the historical centre, meandering through the old shabby (but chic!) streets and having an occasional strawberry margarita in a bar or two… (strawberries are very much in season in Poland right now).

We also paid a visit to the museum situated at the site of former German concentration camp Majdanek where horrific crimes against humanity were committed. We decided not to take any pictures of that place because it got imprinted in our minds hard enough.

Next stop – Bieszczady Mountains…for the Midsummers…

PS. If you’re on Instagram you can follow Sylwia @missapplebaum for more photographic updates 🙂

The Bond Voyage’s first main event was to get married in a church in Sylwia’s hometown in Lomza. The party was kindly hosted by her parents. We had Rupert’s Mother, Jane and her partner Michael, and Ru’s brother Jeremy over from the UK. The rest of the guests were from Poland (but not just Polish – you know who you are 😉 ) friends and family who couldn’t have been with us at our civil wedding ceremony in September.

We had so much fun and danced so hard till the early hours that there are not many words we can use to fully describe this fantastic experience. So we won’t. We will use the choice pictures from the day, which were taken by our rock star photographer friend Pawel Wadolowski (thank you again!).