We have never been to Poland before. The only thing we know about the country is through Hollywood films, where they always show that it is sad, gray and always rainy.
People wear dark clothes and there is misery all over.
So what does reality look like in Poland?
We decide to spend our summer holidays going there and experiencing the country with our own eyes. However, the trip will also cross over the Czech Republic to Germany, where we plan to participate in the big abenteuer und allrad fair in Bad Kissingen.
There are like-minded fools to talk to and a huge fair that has everything between heaven and earth for the traveling public. We are also going to France for a short trip, as the kids will play with Elsinore Girl Guard for Le Mans' big presentation of the cars for the same race.
But now it is first and foremost about getting the car packed and facing Gedser. We take the ferry to Rostock and drive the short distance through Germany over to Poland.
We come over with the ferry and have just rearranged our luggage a bit, so we pull over to the side and start taking things out of the car. Just as we stand and pack, we are surrounded by mosquitoes, as if we are the last living creatures on the planet they can suck blood from.
We wave our arms and legs and it helps a little.
After a quarter of an hour and half a liter of blood poorer, the car has been changed and we are ready to drive on. We drive into Poland - the first thing that meets us are storks in the fields.
In the cities, nests are built on top of tall poles where they breed. It is perhaps just as much for practical reasons, so that the storks do not build unfortunate nesting sites themselves, on top of the residents' chimneys and short-circuit the city's electricity pylons.
Think that they are so close to Denmark anyway.
In a smaller village there is a market, we can't let it pass our noses, so we park the car and go for a walk in and see what they have to offer.
There are small stalls with things and cases, and a stall with flowers in particular catches Sus' attention.
Large hanging petunias for only DKK 9.
Big Christmas lights are lit in the eyes, but we can't really fill the car with flowers at the start of our trip. Had it been on the way home, we would probably have looked like a flower transport from Holland for Mother's Day.
No flowers this time, but some sweets, vegetables and honey are in the basket. We continue east, as we want to go to the Bialowieska Forest, where there are wild bison. It is completely over at the border with Belarus.
On the way we pass a disused church worthy of a horror film.
Due to fall hazards, we are not allowed to go in there. It would otherwise be interesting to take pictures and see if there was any inventory left.
But we respect the warning signs and stay well out on the road.
After driving in Poland for a few days, we can see that it is an ambitious project to reach all the way to the border with Belarus, when we also have to go to a fair in Germany and on to Le Mans in France.
We drop the bison for now, and choose not to drive all the way over to the eastern border.
Our GPS is leading us through a forest as we have set it to find unpaved roads.
After about an hour's drive, both the mobile and GPS signal are dead.
We are greeted by military buildings and barbed wire fences.
Patrolling guards with ferocious dogs signal that we are not entirely welcome - this is certainly not where we should set up camp.
We hurry on and after a while the GPS and phone signals return.
Fortunately, there is neither gray nor sad in Poland. We don't have rainy weather either. In fact, we have come across a big recovery, with a lot of new construction. Both houses and large construction works are being built.
In many places there are large signs with text stating that it is supported by the EU, so there is great progress.