Cultural: Road Trip, part 1

My husband needed, well, wanted, to go to the other side of Poland to see a piece of machinery.  However, he had a hard time knowing that it was a 5 hour drive one way.

We had discussed going before the summer was out to take my sewing machine to the service center in order to show them a problem I was having with it. It sewed fine - but there was a problem. Obviously it was too complicated for my Polish and/or their understanding of the problem. I had explained it in emails at various times but nothing had been done about it at other times when the machine had been back for fine tuning. It is still under warranty and I wanted it taken care of before the warranty was over. The problem? it was a long distance.

However, this service place was on the way to this place my husband wanted to go. He proposed we do the two things together.

So we went.  We spent the day in the Maverick.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you some pictures of our road trip.  I'll explain what is unique about this picture in the caption. Sometimes it's nice to see pictures of a country in order to get a good feel for the countryside, houses, etc.

I took most of these pictures from inside the vehicle, so there is sometimes a reflection of the windshield/windows. Sorry about that. I've not figured out how to eliminate that.

We left at 6:15 am. We caught the freeway halfway through Warsaw. It took us about 35 min. or so to get to the freeway from our house as we had to cross from the east side of Warsaw to the west side where it starts. They are still building the freeway over on our side.  Since it is light at 3 something in the morning, starting at 6 am wasn't a real hardship.

While we were in the Warsaw area, I set up my telephone as a hot spot to use as a source of internet so I could watch some baseball on my tablet.  About 15 min outside of Warsaw, however, the internet got sketchy - too slow to watch baseball. I put it away.

We stopped for lunch at one of these stops. The freeway we were on was a toll road for the majority of it, so there were limited choices as to places to eat.

The freeway is pretty new - thought you'd like to see it and the trees.  I love the fact that we have a lot of trees here in Poland.

They built a "Jesus statue" here in Poland .This is the back side of it--all we could see of it from the freeway as we drove on by. More about it here.

This picture picks up after we left the sewing machine repair place. We stayed on the freeway a lot - and the freeway, while fast, doesn't give you a lot of chances for great pictures! This bridge was picturesque. We waited in a line with a stoplight so we could take our turn to go across.

The field of rapeseed, from which they make canola oil. 

During this season of strawberries, this a common sight. People often sell strawberries out of the back of their car. Here a man just bought some.

It's green - very pretty now.

We are off the beaten path now - more in a village area.

Road construction  on the autostrada.

My husband said these pipes are holding hot air from a heating plant.

This is a modern type house - looks like a duplex or two houses together.

Older building.

It isn't unusual in the village area to plant the whole yard in flowers or veggies.

An area where they are clearing the forest.

Someone has a business digging and lifting. Almost every place has a fence, though away from the city sometimes the fences are more decorative than actual protection against thieves.

I wondered what it would be like to live in the house straight ahead. It is literally at a 3way intersection.

Just beautiful! There's something about water that is so relaxing.

No words necessary.

When you get away from the big cities, seeing these older places like this is not unusual.

By law we have to have our headlights on all the time when we drive - day or night, in town or out of town.

A playground. When we arrived in Poland in 1994, no place had playgrounds that were any good--they were all dilapidated. Since then they have put in new ones all over Poland - and they are so nice now!

A typical Catholic cemetery. They are also almost all fenced in.

Close to our destination, there was this little house that looked so village-like.

This kind of place is not uncommon even in our part of Poland. 

We finally arrived at our destination!  Mike went inside this gate, while I stayed outside in the vehicle.  I eventually went in to check on him and to see what was up.  

This is the end of part 1, though, as 20 pictures is about all anyone wants to look at at one time.

To be continued.  Check for part 2 tomorrow.