Road Trip Poland to Czech Republic: Overlanding & Truck Camping In Europe

Am I missing a whole country here? In June of 2025 we shipped a Ross Monster Overland truck from Baltimore to Antwerp. From there we set off on an 11,000 kilometer journey visiting our roots in the Netherlands before heading north through mountains and along Norway's stunning coastal roads to Europe's northernmost drivable point. From there we turned south through Sweden, Finland, and the Baltics. Into Poland, the Czech Republic, and across Austria to Switzerland. And finally up to my sister's place near Frankfurt, Germany. That's where we'll park the truck until days at that camp spot. A little park head off the road in the beautiful forest here in Poland. And got some work done. Carol did a truck reset. So we're now getting back on the road. We're heading four hours south. Our first stop is going to be Auschwitz, the memorial there. It's just for Carol and I. We want to go there and absorb that. And it's not obviously a pleasant or fun story to report on. And then we're working our way east. We've got a plan for the next 10 days. We're going to take you to as many places as we can within the time we have. Because after 10 days we are going to be at my sister's place in Germany. We're leaving the truck for a couple months and heading back to the cabin to spend some time with the kids. And Pete is about to embark on another big journey with XO. And if we hadn't changed our ticket to go home a bit early, we would have missed him. We would have been, you know, flying in different directions. And that'd be like a half a year or more that we wouldn't have seen or had any time with Pete. So we just miss our kids. The truth is we love traveling, just the two of us. But we also miss hanging out with the kids. So we're going back to do a bit of that. And then we'll come back and get in the truck and carry on our European adventure. So we're just stuck in these tiny, tiny little side streets going 20 kilometers an hour. Sometimes GPS will just pick the fastest route. And it could even be a minute of time savings. What they need is an option for bigger vehicles. Just say, pick me, not the fastest route, but the best route for a larger vehicle, you know. That would be a handy feature. But for now they don't have it. So sometimes you just find yourself in these awkward places. Too tight for a big truck. I just hope that's not a, you know, tiny bridge. That's another thing is they need some kind of low bridge warning. Okay, you're good. 3.2 is just enough for me to crawl straight under that bridge. Didn't scrape, but it was tight. I'm hoping this road up here is a little bit bigger because there's got to be a better way. All the cars are looking at us like, what are you doing? What are you doing in here? Okay, this is, I bet you anything we could have just gone straight and then taken this main road and it might have been a half a minute or a minute longer, you know. So Apple and Google Maps people, that's a feature we need. So we're just set up here in a parking lot. They allow overnight camping in a hotel parking lot, which is just down the road from Auschwitz. When we went there, when we got there today, it was sold out. They stopped selling tickets at a certain time because it takes a while to go through. And we realized it's not just something really quick that you can kind of, you know, run through and get the idea. It really probably takes a full day. You start here at Auschwitz and then you drive over to the other place, which is the camp where we were. And I think to properly tell the story or get the story, I understand that we decided to stay a full day tomorrow. So we're camped overnight here. We're gonna head over, I think it opens at 645 tomorrow morning, get tickets, get parked, and then tour both buildings and both camps. This is camp one and then camp two. And whatever, we'll see what time we get through with all that and then we'll probably head out towards Slovakia or Czechia. As we walked through the gates of Auschwitz, the words, work set you free, hang above us, a chilling reminder of the cruel deception that greeted those who arrived here. What began as a former Polish army barracks became the largest of the Nazi concentration and extermination camps during World War II. Between 1940 and 1945, more than a million people were murdered here. Most of them Jews, but also many Poles, Roma, and prisoners from across Europe and Russia. Today, the quiet brick buildings and gravel paths of Auschwitz one stand in stark contrast to the horrors they once held. Walking these grounds, it's impossible not to feel the weight of history and the echoes of countless expanse of barbed wire, chimneys, and ruins that stretch toward the horizon. And they decided to purchase easily available wooden storages, the army used it also as stables, and they could bring many of wooden barracks that you can see behind me here. And all these little remains that you can see all around are the wooden barracks that were built here. So this is sector number one, you have sector number two, and then what would you... It was here that the scale of the genocide became almost beyond comprehension. 1942, we have the first gas chamber made in the cottage of the village, bunker number one, and then end of July, the second gas chamber. So we have gas chambers, and we have the And the train, of course, isn't coming here because there's nobody like you here. Seeing these photos and walking these grounds, the scale of horror is almost incomprehensible. Over time, the perpetrators refined their methods with ruthless efficiency, like a factory of death. Each barrack, each track, each building, tells a story of lives stolen and suffering beyond imagination. And yet, as we witness it today, we remember not only the tragedy, but our responsibility to never forget. Change and improve is that there's only one species on this planet that is capable of such rational actions, and we're looking at the child. This is a human process. This is a human... The perpetrators are learning in this case, and they're improving, and they're making bigger gas chambers. This is a human action. This is a human operation. And unfortunately, I will never have a visitor who will, or never had, who will come here and sees all this and says, so this can happen? In our world, nothing like that would ever happen. People don't hate each other. People don't say it, because unfortunately, all the ideologies that led to this are existing today. The truth of what happened here still speaks and reminds us of our duty to remember. Auschwitz-Birkenau stands as a solemn warning that we must never forget where hatred and dehumanization can lead. May this place forever remind us to choose empathy over hatred, truth over distortion, and remembrance over indifference. We wrapped up the tour at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and we're back in the truck, heading eastward. That was a lot to process. It's going to take a couple of days to unpack everything we experienced and learned there, and the lesson that they wanted to share with everybody who attends there. So, it gives us a bit of time to think that one through, but in the meantime, we're in Czech Republic. Actually, right at the moment, we're in Slovakia, so it's a small... We just took a small detour into Slovakia, and in half an hour or so, we'll be back in the Czech Republic. There's so much here that we'd want to see, but we are kind of information overloaded. History... I mean, coming to Europe, this part of Europe, there's history, hundreds and hundreds of years of history in every town, in every city, in every village, and it's a little bit overwhelming. There's just so much, and it's such important stuff, and even though we've been to a lot of places, we've driven by a lot more than we've been to, and it's going to be the same here. I'd love to go to Prague, but it's just too much of a detour right now. So, we'll be back, hopefully, and we can continue to explore this amazing part of the world. We've now crossed into the Czech Republic, driving through the beautiful countryside as the late afternoon sun casts a warm glow over the fields. It's getting close to evening, and we need to find a place to park for the night. After a bit of searching, we take a chance on a small parking lot beside an old church, and what looks like a chateau being carefully restored. It's quiet, peaceful, and the kind of place that invites you to slow down and take it all in. Tons of cats. Wow, look how many cats there are. Kind of interesting. It just came in the back way. We're going to church. I have no idea where we're going, but GPS is usually going to scenic route. Is it down that hill? No, could you imagine? No, that's his, those are stairs. All right, so that was interesting driving in. We went, I think, the back way, but it's a really pretty church, and then it has this, like, gorgeous brick and mortar wall going all the way around it, and then it looks like the town is, like, right down there, and it looks pretty. So, we're just pulling into this little spot. There's, like, a sketchy car sitting here, but we're just too tired to even worry about it, and it's probably nothing. The person's probably out hiking or doing whatever they're doing, but it's a pretty spot. I like the trees. It looks quiet. It's off the highway just by, like, what, two minutes or so? So, it's perfect. So, it's home for tonight. This is our little spot, and it's super quiet. I don't know. The people, there's been, like, five other reports on this spot, and they say it's really quiet at night. It's pretty level. The sun is setting, and it's gorgeous. We're all over the world. Pete Jr., driving down the west coast of Africa. Dan, alone on a remote island in Canada. Matt and Caroline, hiking up a mountain in central Oregon. And us, on an overland adventure across Europe. No matter where adventure takes us, the unexpected can happen. That's why we rely on Global Rescue. They provide medical and security evacuation from remote islands to mountain peaks. Global Rescue keeps us safe so we can focus on the journey, not the what-ifs. Protect your next adventure. Check out the link in the description or scan the QR code. Travel smart, travel safe, with Global Rescue. and I was just doing a bit of research on it, and a really neat story about this particular church. Someone who studied and preached here, I guess, back in the day, at the exact same time that Benjamin Franklin was trying to find a solution and understand lightning. He was trying to find a solution because lightning kept striking these churches and burning them down. And Benjamin Franklin, you know, famously flew a kite and had the key, and he proved that lightning could be redirected. Two years later, the guy here, and I'll put his name below, I can't pronounce it, something invented the lightning rod as well. He was two years, technically, after that experiment that Benjamin Franklin did. So, most of the world sees Benjamin Franklin as the inventor of the lightning rod, but most of Central Europe sees this guy as the inventor because he actually did put a rod up on the church and direct it down into the ground, and they're all around this church where he preached. So, it's kind of a neat story about, you know, lightning rods. Who would have thought? There's a lightning rod right on the cross there. Right. Leaving Lehovice, we drive through the gentle hills of South Moravia, where tidy farms, red roof villages, and endless vineyards roll towards the horizon. This is the heart of the Czech Republic. For more than a thousand years, these hills have watched empires rise and fall, from the Great Moravian Empire, to the Kingdom of Bohemia, through the Austro-Hungarian era, and finally, to the proud and independent Czech Republic we know today. Every village, every field feels rooted in that history, a testament to the people who have always cared deeply for their land, their faith, and their freedom. As the vineyards fade behind us, a border sign appears ahead, and just like that, we're at the Austrian border, carrying with us gratitude for the beauty, kindness, and history of this remarkable country. All right, I didn't recognize the sign, but I guess we're in Austria, or was it Germany? I honestly, I could not read the sign, and I wasn't expecting that we're crossing into a different country, but we just went through a border, they just checked our passports, but I'm gonna have to zoom out on the map and determine whether we crossed Republic, okay, so that's Austria. I don't know, I'm gonna have to do some research. I've never seen Austria spelled with an O, but am I missing a whole country here? Well, once we finally got the name sorted out, we began our quick crossing through Austria, a country we can't wait to explore more deeply another time. For now, the road carries us through gentle farmland, storybook villages, and rolling countryside. Before long, we're at the border with Germany, where we'll find a quiet place to camp for the night. So we're looking for water, and the only spot we could find was a camp spot, and it was way in here through this tiny little town, these tiny little streets, and we worked our way all the way up to the gate, and it was closed. Nobody there, no water, we're waterless. I need water. Yeah, we just, hopefully we'll find a river or lake. I've been looking, and so far nothing, or at least there's a river or a lake, but you can't get right up to it. Right, like that camp was on the lake, but it's usually pretty heavily populated around it, so we shall keep looking. Yeah, because the gas stations here, they have portable water fill-ups, but not like tap water. You need something with a hose thread. That's what I liked about, uh, is it Estonia? They had sweet, yeah, they were really good, and then, but same with all like Finland, Sweden, and Norway, it was super easy fill-ups. It's all geared for, uh, campers. But, uh, yeah, we'll carry on. It's good. It's very treed in, but it doesn't matter for tonight. This is pretty much the most level spot. I might just pull over a bit. Um, we'll just get out and look around. That was a long drive today, my goodness, and, um, a bit stressful. Going through those tiny little towns is not my favorite thing, but getting out in the forest is, so let's take a look and see where to park. A friendly German fellow camped behind us, came over full of stories and history about the area. I told him we didn't speak German, but he didn't let that slow him down. He had so much to share that even the translator couldn't keep up. Don't miss part two. Click the link to see us reach one of the most beautiful mountain villages ever. Huge thanks for subscribing and liking. It really means a lot, and a big shout out to our Patreon family for supporting the channel, and in the meantime, we'll see you down the road.