The drive through Czech Republic

There was an option to spend almost 7 hours going through the toll free roads of Slovakia. Or we could take 4.5 hours through Czech. Naturally we took the Czech toll road.
Most countries in Europe use a “vignette” system where you can register the car for 1, 10, 30 days or a full year of unlimited toll use. There are cameras on the road to track by plate and hefty fines if you aren’t registered. They are also working to develop a EU (or maybe Schengen) wide automated rolling system which would be amazing. As you can imagine the political negotiations must be problematic.
In general the road were good. A lot of summer construction underway cause frustration but drivers are generally polite and it flows well, if slowly. The toll booths are horrible with 20-30 minute backups.
Czech had a lot of farmlands and open areas. The roads degraded a bit until we somehow snuck into Poland. We didn’t see the sign, and are really surprised there aren’t big “Welcome to ….” Signs and welcome centers but maybe that’s an American thing. Noticeable different when we enter Poland. Beautifully engineered bridges, higher quality roads.
Our BNB is right in the old town so trudging through city traffic took about 30 min for the last 10k. The BNB is really nice and sizable. Free parking and the car won’t move until we leave.

Witamy w Polsce! Welcome to Poland!Les mer