Poland

2014 – News No 7

Into Poland.

Our first stop in Poland was at Zakopane – a favourite ski resort for the Poles and a popular summer destination too; we had expected to stop 2 or 3 days visiting the mountains, but as we had just spent 3 days just 30 miles away in the mountains in Slovakia, we took a brief look at the town, drew some zlotys from the hole in the wall and continued on through some very distinct villages where, even now, almost all the houses are made of wood. In one such village – particularly noted in our guide book

We were very surprised, on rounding a corner, to see the first stone buildng we had seen for miles, not at all what we expected in such a small village in the mountains.

Later on we found that it is obviously possible to buy yourself a new wooden house, which is made up at the works, then dismantelled and re-erected on site

Our next destination was to get our ViaToll box – being over 3.5 tonnes we have to comply with the Polish electronic tolling system. This time we did not go to a border control point, but to a garage we had identified from the toll company's website. It looked remarkably ordinary for a garage to be able to provide the full service, but they proved to be a good deal quicker and more efficient than the (presumably government) staff we encountered at the border last year.

Then we travelled on into the Pleniny national park, where we stayed overnight by a reservoir

We took a raft ride down the Dunajec river, which forms the border between Poland and Slovakia; fortunately it turned out to be quite a gentle ride, although we did get a few splashings on the faster-flowing streches of the river!

In Krakow we were lucky to find, first, a guarded car park (actually a minibus park) very near the centre, then we happened upon a free walking tour which was very interesting, so we stayed with it till the end, despite the unseasonally cold weather. Naturally the guide was open to contributions when the tour was completed, which we were happy to make, as he was so good. We now understand, among othet things, why they say that Krakow is the soul of Poland.

We heard some of the story of this chap, who attended Krakow (underground) university. [This was 1939]

Apparently, when Poles refer to The Pope, this is the man they are talking about, not the current incumbent of the Vatican.

The main square in Krakow is vast

This is only half of it, this is the other half

and this is the building which goes across the middle

All these buildngs are so huge, that on first impression the square doesn't seem as large as the reputation which precedes it. However, as soon as you start to walk around it you begin to realise just how big it really is.

We have got used to having trams around the roads in the 'old' eastern Europe, but usually there is some separation either by obvious designated parts of the road, or made effective by traffic lights.

In Krakow, however, the trams just seem to run with the rest of the traffic, leading to me saying on one occasion to Frances “ you're alright after this tram”! Here is one waiting to turn right, and clearly indicating his (or her) intention while waiting for a suitable break in the traffic.

As you can see, it rained while we were there. In fact, it rained a lot. For four days! Fortunately the weather has now chnaged again – it's been 23 today (nearly as warm as UK!) and we have four days of sunshine promised, going up to 27 deg. That will be quite enough thanks!!

On our way out of Krakow we encountered this fellow again

Immortalised in stone already.

And we have seen his picture on nearly every church we have passed! His birthplace was in southern Poland and they obviously think a lot of him in these parts.

We visited the Weiliczka salt mine – a remarkable and vast museum, even though we get to see only 3% of the mine. There are huge numbers of visitors, and a well-run system of tours is organised. The most often run foreign-language tour is in English, so we were accompanied by about 35 people, all of whom seemed to have English as their second language.

There is a very large underground chapel, with reliefs carved, not by sculptors but by miners. It is not easy to get good photos underground, but these give some idea.

Like all miners, the men who worked there, especially in past times, had good reason to do a lot of praying!

We then visited Auchwitz. There are no photos. But it was astonishing to see the way some people were behaving – you would have thought they were getting their photo in front of the Eiffel Tower or something.

While we were there we came across a serious motorhoming couple - while we travel around Europe, they travel around the world. Their motorhome is on a Queensland registration plate.

We are now in Wroclaw (pronounced ???????) and will be travelling on a circuitous route to Berlin.

Oh, I nearly forgot, guess who we saw on one of our lunch stops?...........