New Country added to our European Roadtrip as we visit Poland

As Poland is our 30th Country visited in Europe and for those who might be reading this for the first time, perhaps we should re-introduce ourselves… So we’re the Thorley Family on a family roadtrip experiences that has now included 30 countries and just over 40,000 miles across Europe. So if you’ve not seen the other 472 travel articles, blogs and reviews, we hope you enjoy the rest of our site as we love sharing our experiences with others who love to travel in Europe.

So we’re now well into our latest journey into Eastern Europe… heading ever eastwards into Poland. We’d heard plenty about Poland from friends back in the UK who lived here at one point or another… but nothing quite compares you for the changes you see almost immediately…

Leaving the slick ‘AutoBahns’ of Germany (see the very top image on this page)… you suddenly feel like the van is experiencing some serious mechanical issues… with the girls literally jumping in/out of their seats with their teeth chattering…We’d realised the road system might not be quite the same but little did we realise that the slip roads would become cobbled streets only a few metres off the main highway into Poland….

We’ve used our NextBase DashCam across Europe to try and record some of the difference and we’ll be interested with the footage at the end of this journey as Poland’s roads have resembled that of Portugal at times. But for those who love a drive with a view!!!! if you’d like to see some footage then hop onto the above videos to see a dash cam view of Geirangerfjord in Norway or a dash through the mountains into Italy from France)

In fairness they also have helped when we’ve recorded incidents (just in case anyone tried to claim against us) Sometimes it’s the simple things when you’re travelling Europe. Just that peace of mind that helps take some of the anxiety away from certain drives

With both girls staring avidly out of the window at the open countryside and forests which passed by… They even took a moment to study road signs (wolves!) that perhaps aren’t as common in more western European countries… In truth, it’s exactly what we wanted to do. We didn’t want to try and shock them. We just wanted them to appreciate the diversity of living experiences across Europe. Not that Poland is any worse or better… but its just so different at times.

However there’s a real community everywhere and it’s so obvious that families work together to make life work. Every town/villager was full of people sitting together or kids playing together. We sadly didn’t have time this journey to head into more urban areas, but the countryside and villages/towns we passed certainly gave us ideas about what life might be like here. However ensuring we don’t judge it too early… we’ll delay any further judgement until we’ve spent more time in the country.

But today’s journey was all about heading into Poland towards Wroclaw and then turning south as we won’t be staying in Poland (this time), as we’re heading for Prague, Vienna and Budapest…. and we all can’t wait to see what they have in store!