In May 2023 began my girl friend her sabbatical half-year. I decided to pause my freelancer carrier for this time too and accompany her by her holiday activities. In the most of this time we planed to make some journeys. Because the May 2023 was quite cold and rainy in the middle and north Europe, we preferred to drive for the first time to the warm Croatia. Unfortunately, we had to abruptly cancel this first trip due to the death of my mother. I needed over one month to manage all things, which had to do with the death of my mother, including the selling my birth house in Oberglogau / Upper Silesia. For this reason I drove many times to Poland and on the way there I tried to visit some interesting towns in north Bohemia and Silesia.
Despite of this fatality in the family I decided to proceed with our travel plans. From end of June to the beginning of September we conducted our longest journey along the south and east coast of the Baltic Sea. Except of small areas in the Germany state Schleswig-Holstein we traveled only through the territories of the former Eastern block countries. Our trip should actually end in Saint Petersburg. Unfortunately, due to the tension between Russia and the western countries as a result of the war in Ukraine we decided not to cross the boundary of Russia.
At the and of the sabbatical and as its highlight we planed an organized journey to Gabon in Africa. Regrettably, short before we wanted to make the flight and travel bookings the message about a military coup in Gabon arrived us. The boundary of Gabon was temporary closed for the foreigners. As replacement we made short trips to Lago Maggiore in Italy and Freiburg i.Br. in Germany.
The omission of our travel to Gabon had two consequences for us. First, we stood the whole sabbatical half-year in Europe. Second, we traveled only with our car; no any flights were involved. Merely at the end of our Baltic Sea journey, we took a car ferry from Liepaja in Latvia to Travemünde in Germany.
Our prime accommodations were holiday flats. Sometimes in bigger cities we stood in hotels too. In the German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern we visited our friends and spent some nights by them. During the Baltic Sea tour we took our tent and other camping equipment with us, but unfortunately, we couldn't make so much camping there as we planned. The reason was the unusual cold and rainy summer in this area in year 2023. Only at the end of our trip in Estland the weather improved, so that we were able to make some camping there.

Please click on the photo above to see the travel report from my sabbatical journey.

Thanks this travel I became more acquainted with my home continent Europe. Especially big parts of the Baltic Sea area and Croatia until this year were completely unknown for me. In the past I concentrated more on visiting the remote destinations, because traveling there is mostly more strenuous and thus more suitable to make it in young age. Also, it was the first time for me to drive so long distances with my car. I expect, that this kind of traveling will get more and more important with age. So the experiences we made during this sabbatical half-year are valuable for the future.
There were some unexpected events during our sabbatical time, e.g. the death of my mother, the military coup in Gabon or the cold summer, which forced us to change either our travel routes or our travel style (less camping). Nevertheless it was a great time. I'm especially glad to visit eastern parts of the Baltic Sea area, because it is quite far away from our home in south-west Germany, so that it will be probably the first and the last time, we travelled there.
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