by Jill & Bob Dickinson
Vilnius to Paris
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania and a fine city. In our hotel we had participants of Mrs. World 2010, which impressed the men of our group. I believe they are concerned with issues such as human trafficking, women affected by war, etc. and not just beauty contestants!
There were lots of tethered cows which surprised me as there is plenty of grassland available if there were some electric fences to contain the animals! We carried on driving across Lithuania and wheat harvesting, until we reached the Polish Border. No great dramas to cross the border, just wave to the Policeman, who is standing outside an abandoned customs building and find a currency exchange booth to swap your Lits for Polish Zlotys.
We reached Warsaw late afternoon, and noticed all the buildings had been built since 1945. Warsaw was 85% demolished by the Nazis when they put down a Jewish uprising in 1944. After a rest day, seeing the sights, we carried on driving on good motorways to Auschwitz Concentration Camp - now a memorial/museum. The Nazis exterminated about 1.3 million people at this camp - mainly Jews, but also some Russian soldiers and some Roma gypsies. A depressing place, showing the horrors of war. After a night in Krakow, we visited the famous Krakow salt mines. They have been excavating rock salt from this site since the 12th century. The mine is now a well groomed tourist attraction with underground shops, statues and chapels.
And so to Prague. Many people have told us what a beautiful city it is. We found the cobbled streets, narrow lanes and quirky corners the roads took to be enchanting. We visited the biggest palace in Europe there along with many other tourists!
Once in Germany, the ordered way of farms was evident, and the roads all first class. By chance we passed a museum we went back to and found an amazing array of cars, planes, clothing, toys, military vehicles, a couple of traction engines. One of our group was ecstatic as he is building a museum and found many excellent books and ideas to help him.
Our guide Greg is involved in the Car Rally scene, sponsoring the NZ driver Haydon Paddon who happened to be competing in the World Rally Car series in Trier, Germany. So we had good tickets to watch the event. Sebastian Loeb was competing, wow they go fast!
A final 400km to Paris was reasonably uneventful, through the beautiful French countryside. That night we had our last meal together and Greg had prepared a slide display of events, happenings and places, presenting each of us with a Certificate of Completion. A great night with the 2 wives who were not on the trip. The last gathering was to be in front of the Eiffel Tower, 8am the next morning. Lots of photos were taken and farewells said. The gendarmes didn’t move us along surprisingly!
A great adventure from Beijing to Paris: 11 countries, 32 hotels, 12,500 kms in 50 days. What a wonderful experience!
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Past club trips 
