Touring through Poland
After touring around the Northern part of Poland, we started heading south with Poznan being the destination for the evening. We were hoping to spend more time in the area where my father was raised, however the village and other small town pretty much shut down on the weekends, and the few hotels we stopped at were booked. Go figure.
We decided to head to Poznan to see if we could find a hotel for the evening. Luckily, we did manage to find a hotel with a room, albeit more than we wanted to spend, but it worked out.
Once we checked in we headed to the old square which was darling, and any indication of what we would be seeing as we traverse this country, we would probably want to move here. As it was under German rule for a couple of centuries the architecture is very much like one would see if traveling to a small town in Germany. The city itself was decimated during WW2, like many cities in Poland and was therefore reconstructed back to the original architecture. It is also a university town so there are lots of pubs/restaurants, and activity in the evening. As World Cup was still on, many of the restaurants had large televisions for viewing the matches. After snapping photos, we settled on a restaurant in the square which had a large television to watch a match.
The next day we drove to Wroclaw (when German it was called Breslau), and this town was prettier than the last. We arrived in the afternoon and decided we would do 2 nights here and we are glad we did. We were close to the main square which is one of the prettiest squares in Poland. Believe Krakow is the oldest.
The two days were us slowly meandering through the town enjoying the architecture, sightseeing, and just relaxing.
We really enjoyed our time in this city and would definitely recommend spending some time here.
After a couple of days in Wroclaw, we drove down to Katowice for the night as we were headed to the southern part of Poland, a town which borders the Czech Republic.
Before Katowice we took a slight detour and drove to see the Church of Bones, something Mark read about and wanted to see. Since most of Poland was up to me for planning, I threw him a bone.
About 2 hours later we arrived at the Church only to find out one cannot take photos. It’s a timed entry and only allowed to be inside for 10 minutes. It was as creepy as one would expect, with skulls, bones were decorated through the church. 10 minutes is all one actually needs to see this church. We purchased postcards some to send and one for just for us to keep. We did manage to get a photo of the outside of the church, and stopped in the small town for lunch before heading on to Katowice.
Katowice was similar to Poznan but much smaller. Again, another university town with a nice walking street where folks could enjoy a meal or drink. As we arrived later in this town we didn’t see much, however what we did see we really enjoyed.
The next morning we got up and drove to Zakopane, which is in the southern part of Poland and known for it’s skiing and ski-jumping activities in the winter time. It is your typical mountainous resort. Very beautiful with the mountains in the background, and the small resort town in the middle of the area. There is a walking street where no cars are allowed, however, you do so many horse and buggies.
We arrived to a very grey, bleak, rainy day. We made the most of it, and apparently all the other bus loads of tourists were doing the same.
Early evening for us to watch another match England vs. Croatia, with Croatia winning 2-1.
We woke up early to a beautiful sunny day. This is what one wants to see when you visit mountains. We wandered through the small resort town, minus the hordes of tourists. They don’t show up until mid-morning. We took the funicular up to the mountain to view the area, and one never gets bored of seeing these views. After our relaxing coffee, taking photos, and reminding ourselves how lucky we were, we decided it was time to leave the area, and head back down. The beauty of getting early is that you miss all the tourists, so there were only 5 of us in the car going up and down. By the time we came down the line to get on the funicular was quite long.
BTW, if you take the cable car up to the other part of the mountain, you can straddle both Poland and Slovakia.
Wandered through the town before heading out to go to Krakow.
I would recommend anyone traveling to Zakopane to spend a couple of nights to truly enjoy the area and enjoy the peace and quiet once all the tour buses head back to Krakow.