The Elblag Canal

Trip Start Jun 17, 2008
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Trip End Dec 17, 2008


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Where I stayed
Campingplatz Elblag
(Elblag hotels)

Flag of Poland  , Lake District,
Monday, July 21, 2008

As we enter the Polish border, we actually get pulled over to show our passports (although they dont actually look at them!!) - its good to know someone's doing their job at border control, which is more than we can say about the other 6 countries we've gone through & could be smuggling anything in the back of Winnie for all they care! So first stop in Poland is Elbag! We had another pretty long journey to get to Elblag from Trakai, about 300 miles so was a good 6 hour drive - poor Winnie (and Paul) deserved a rest!The campsite was very welcoming, although could not speak much English they were very trying, and in a great location right on the canal!
 
The main reason for going to Elblag was to go on the world famous canal, which runs from Ostreada to Elblag. So we thought book it for tomorrow then head to Gdansk the next day, which is only a short drive away, but oh no they were fully booked - great A boat about to be lifted up the hill!
A boat about to be lifted up the hill!
 ! Anyway, just meant we had an extra day in Elblag and went the following day - give us chance to rest and sort all the exciting stuff like washing out (which I really struggled to communicate with the campsite owners asking if they had dryers - gave up in the end - how do you explain a dryer??)!!So we headed into the centre of Elblag to have a look round & grab something to eat - then the heavens opened (again!!). This was a big storm, everyone diving for cover, and it lasted well over an hour - joy! We didn't hang around too long in the centre, as to be honest there's not much to do, so we grabbed some food, got Paul a jacket to shelter from the rain & headed back! We did really struggle with our English here, as everything was in Polish or German, and trying to remember any German from the 1 year I studied it at school was pretty hard - let's hope it gets better or God knows what food we will be ordering!
 
We were looking forward to going on the canal, as the difference with this canal is that the water stops on five different occasions and the boat gets lifted onto a train track to take you up/ down the hill until you reach the water again and get placed back in. This was used as a transport route at one stage, but is now mainly used for tourists sampling this unique experience. It's a funny contraption, but one well worth doing! Not the fastest mode of transport ever as what takes a 1 hours drive takes about 5 hours on the boat, so don't go if you're in a rush! We were joined on our boat by a bunch of school children, who kept saying 'Hello' to everyone they went past which got quite irritating towards the end!!All in all well worth a visit & thanks to Palin for pointing it out to us!
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