ManVanNoPlan Visits Krakow, a Salt Mine, Auschwitz & Wroclaw
ManVanNoPlan Visits Krakow, a Salt Mine, Auschwitz & Wroclaw
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Day 44 – Thursday 17th of August
Mszczonów to Krakow (50.047940, 19.880431) (172 Miles)
We were awake at 6am and instead of turning over as we usually do at this time of the morning, we got up to face the day. Our Lithuanian companions set off at 6.30am with a cheery wave to us and we set off just after 7am.
Today’s destination is Krakow which is a three and a half hour drive away, but first we headed for a Biedronka supermarket to top up on groceries to see us through our stay in Krakow. Biedronka is our supermarket of choice in Poland and are everywhere as it’s the largest retail chain in Poland, with 3,283 stores located in over 1,100 towns, which is good going as they have only been in existence for 27 years. Their stores are very distinctive as they all feature a ladybird logo as you can see below.
The weather today was not the usual blue skies and boiling hot but instead grey clouds covered the sky but that didn’t really affect the temperature as it was still very warm and humid. At least my old bald head won’t be getting burned today.
After leaving Biedronka I stopped for diesel and managed to find the first garage where the payment screen did not translate into any other language than Polish. Thankfully a lorry driver exited the next door cafe with his coffee and roll and he was pressed into service to help us.
It took half an hour to get back on the Warsaw to Krakow motorway we started off on yesterday, and rather than the usual wheat fields what we saw was mile after mile of apple trees with different coloured apples and by the look of it there was a bountiful crop in prospect.
The motorway was the typical Polish offering of dead straight roadway which is both very efficient and slightly boring to drive. Two thirds of the way I had to pull into a rest area to have a break and a cuppa before continuing towards Krakow. Just before the city we were diverted off the motorway as a section was still being finished off and we now drove on ordinary roads into Krakow, then, in the suburbs, it all kicked off!
The road into the city through the outer suburbs is being upgraded and is a mess and pretty narrow but Google Maps decided that I should turn sharp right, maybe to avoid the miles of roadworks, who knows! This would have been a wonderful shortcut if one problem hadn’t occurred as soon as I made the turn. It was a single lane road and also one way, and I was now driving the wrong way down it! In the following picture you can see the no entry sign which I didn’t until I was committed to turn!
After a hundred yards or so the roadworks stopped and it opened up to two lanes again. Then the fun started. Three cars came towards me and the first was driven by a woman who got very very irate that a British motorhome was driving towards her. We both stopped and there ensured a stand off. She could have gone round me but refused to do so and eventually no amount of gesturing on my part for her to go round me was working so The Navigator was dispatched out to convince her to go round, but to no avail and the woman unleashed what was probably a torrent of abuse at her. The two cars that were behind the woman lost patience with her and they passed me with no issue and, as I couldn’t move, she eventually had to as well.
I drove on another fifty yards and turned, picked up The Navigator and as I drove down in the correct direction Google told me to turn right as if nothing had just happened, no apology, nothing! All of this was captured on my dash cam but my language is probably too ripe to post the clip on here!
After another half an hour negotiating the fairly narrow streets I eventually found the campsite we were aiming for, Camping Adam – and it was full!
The receptionist gave me a slip of paper with the details of another site about a mile away and we eventually settled in there and had lunch sitting outside. I duly fell asleep after my early rise and the earlier drama, while The Navigator got to grips with the site’s washing machine! A massive thunderstorm blew over and forced us indoors.
The same weather is forecast tomorrow so we will be up sharpish and on the bus into the Old Town of Krakow.
Day 45 – Friday 18th of August
Krakow (0 Miles)
Day 1
“Kraków, a southern Poland city near the border of the Czech Republic, is known for its well-preserved medieval core and Jewish quarter. Its old town is ringed by Planty Park and remnants of the city’s medieval walls and is centered on the stately, expansive Rynek Glówny (market square). This plaza is the site of the Cloth Hall, a Renaissance-era trading outpost, and St. Mary’s Basilica, a 14th-century Gothic church.”
“Kraków is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River, (as is Warsaw) the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 and has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, economic, cultural and artistic life. Cited as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, its Old Town with Wawel Royal Castle was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, one of the world’s first sites granted the status.”
“In 1978, Karol Wojtyla, archbishop of Kraków, was elevated to the papacy as Pope John Paul II – the first Slavic pope ever, and the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. Also that year, UNESCO approved the first ever sites for its new World Heritage List, including the entire Old Town and historic centre”
Having been to the beautiful cities of Gdansk, Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius and Warsaw, we will see if Krakow lives up to all the hype today…
Spoiler alert – it does – with bells on!
When we go into a new city on public transport there is always an element of trepidation with doubts about being on the correct bus, and if it’s going into the city or heading out into the countryside. Today we have to get a bus from near the campsite for four stops then change onto a tram for three stops to get near Krakow’s Old Town. Regular readers will know that I’m a toyboy by a few months and we are still the right side of seventy, until next year anyway. However, for the benefit of any Polish transport employees who may read this, we have added not only an hour to our clocks to be in Europe, but also a year to our ages to enjoy your free public transport for the over seventies.
Public transport in Poland is plentiful and runs on time so we were in the centre of Krakow before we knew it. After a short walk we were in the medieval old town which is centred on the stately, expansive Rynek Glówny (market square) but first a bit about Krakow.
Thankfully, unlike many of Europe’s great cities, Krakow was largely spared the devastating bombing raids that laid waste to large parts of Dresden, London, Berlin, and other cities so there are many old and historically interesting buildings to be seen everywhere. Like most tourists we were drawn to the main market square first and it is incredible. We have seen a few old town squares on our travels and this one is the best by far.
“Kraków’s Rynek Główny (Central Square) is the nerve centre of the city’s medieval Old Town. Forever a hive of activity, this 40,000 square foot medley of café’s, museums, clubs, pubs, music bars, souvenir shops, historical landmarks, hotels and hostels, is punctuated with some of the most magnificent middle age architecture the city has to offer. At its centre the elongated medieval Sukiennice Cloth Hall is a reminder of Kraków’s historical place as a hub of trade and commerce in Eastern Europe. Today, the hall houses the stalls of local tradesmen selling handicrafts and cloth products that echo the oriental imports that were once toted under its roof. The Sukiennice runs neatly through the entire length of the square from north to south, having the effect of dividing the Rynek into two equally sized sections.”
We spent most of the morning wandering around the square, including all the craft stalls and there were many unusual and interesting products on sale – at touristy prices it must be said, although Polish touristy prices are still less than equivalent European cities.
The next port of call was to see the impressive remnants of the city walls, which make an interesting backdrop for a local artist’s paintings. We walked through another imposing square called Maly Rynek which was only a few yards from the main square, it had nothing going on and only a handful of tourists walking through it.
Oops, I forgot to mention that on the way to the city walls we had our first Bubble Tea which I had seen a lot of in the Philippines, but never got round to trying it out there. Earlier in this trip I said to The Navigator that she must try raw herring, being such a pescatarian, so she said she would if I had a Bubble Tea. She upheld her side of the bet and now I had done the same. It’s a very odd thing but very fruity and refreshing. It won’t be my last!
By now it was time for lunch and we studied the menus in both squares but nothing grabbed our attention until we stumbled upon a restaurant whose name I forget in a street I forget, but it was near the main square, but far enough away to have a ‘Zestaw Dnia’ which is ‘set of the day’ for anyone who doesn’t speak Polish…
For 33 Zloty (£6.32) you could have two courses, soup and a main, so The Navigator had the sorrel soup, which I thought was a brave choice, followed by the cod. I chose the tomato soup, which was more like minestrone, and the pork schnitzel which was unlike any pork schnitzel I’ve ever had before. Great food and value which is typical of Poland away from the tourist traps.
We carried on walking ‘with no particular place to go’ admiring the impressive buildings every where you looked and found the impressive Grunwald Statue. “The Battle of Grunwald, fought between the joint armies of Poland and Lithuania against the Teutonic Knights on July 15, 1410, is considered to be one of the greatest battles ever to take place in medieval Europe. A defining moment in Polish history, the battle was immortalised in Kraków with the unveiling of this weighty monument in front of an estimated 160,000 people on the 500th anniversary of the event in 1910. The original masterpiece was, not surprisingly, destroyed by the occupying Nazis during WWII and the copy that now stands in its place dates from 1976, having been faithfully reproduced using sketches and models of the original. At the top on his horse is the King of Poland Władysław Jagiełło, his sword pointing downwards in his right hand. At the front is his cousin the Lithuanian prince Vytautas (Vitold), who is flanked on either side by victorious soldiers from the joint army. The dead man at the front is Urlich von Jungingen, the Teutonic Order’s Grand Master, who lost his life during the battle.”
At the end of this street stood a lovely looking white church and The Navigator correctly observed we hadn’t been in any of Krakow’s impressive churches today so why don’t we have a look in this one, to get out of the scorching heat if nothing else!
Wow. What a building. St. Florian’s Church was built between 1185 and 1216 but was burnt down many times in the 12th, 16th and 17th centuries. What we didn’t know when we entered it, that from 17 September 1949 to September 1951, Father Karol Wojtyła, who later became Pope John Paul II, worked there as a vicar. As Pope, in 1999 he elevated the Church to a minor basilica. He also visited the Church on his papal pilgrimage to Poland on 18 September 2002. Apart from a nun and an old lady praying none of the hoards of tourists in the nearby old town took the time to see the magnificent interior.
The modern day temple that people were worshiping however was the nearby, the Galeria Krakowska, a massive retail mall with 250 assorted stores and restaurants on three levels. I must admit it was impressive and can see why it was so busy. We found our favourite dispenser of black, or English tea, Tchibo, so treated ourselves to two cuppas as we were beginning to flag a bit by this time.
On our way back to the tram stop to head back to Bessie, we found another square, this one almost deserted then took a diversion through the main square as we heard live music which was in celebration of forty five years of being a UNESCO World Heritage site. The four women singing in harmony were very good and we lingered for a while until we saw black clouds coming over and headed for the tram. It did rain later in the evening, but it didn’t come to much.
Day 46 – Saturday 19th of August
Krakow (0 Miles)
Day 2
Another morning of blue skies and warm weather for our second day in Krakow while Storm Betty, the second named storm of August hits the west of the UK.
We decided that today was not going to be as full-on as yesterday and only a select few landmarks would be visited so we were in no hurry to go into Krakow early. Since landing at the Hook of Holland on the 4th of July we could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of meaningful conversations in English we’ve had with other Brits. Today we can add Katherine and James to that select band of people we have met on our travels.
The Navigator was in the front of the van tidying up after breakfast and I was still in bed when I heard a voice saying, “you must be The Navigator!” And that was how we met Katherine who amazingly is one of the subscribers to our blog and we are now subscribers to her interesting blog as well, www.clunegapyears.com We chatted for ages, and yes I did get up and dressed for the occasion. Katherine and James are heading to the Baltic States and hope they enjoy the experience as much as we did.
Day two is always easier visiting a city as you don’t have to concentrate on the logistics of getting there as the bus and tram details were committed to memory yesterday. The main place we wanted to see today was the incredibly imposing Wawel Royal Castle so we got off the team at Jubilat, within easy walking distance.
The castle has had a long and interesting past and you can read about it HERE.
We walked along the pathway from the tram stop which gave great views of the castle and the river Vistula with the tourist boats lined up ready to take their passengers on a river cruise.
On the other bank of the river we could see in the distance a London Eye type wheel and a tethered balloon which ascended to 150m to give the thirty people in the gondola a great view over the city.
As we came closer to the parapets above us, a sizeable throng of people were crowding around a large metal statue of a dragon. Parents were lifting young children onto the rock plinth to have their pictures taken and some children were obviously terrified, especially when flames shot out of the dragon’s mouth with a roar every so often.
Entrance to the castle grounds are free but you pay to gain entry to the main building and cathedral, or to give it its Polish name, Katedra Wawelska, billed as a Gothic cathedral, national sancutary and the coronation site of the Polish monarchs of old. The incline is fairly steep but the view was well worth the effort.
From the ramparts you pass into a large open space but the local police who patrol on segways, keep you from straying onto the inviting grass. At this point I will mention two things, the heat and the crowds of both tourists and Poles. You will always see The Navigator with a backpack and two of the items she carries on days like this are drinks for both of us. They didn’t last long today, so more drinks were purchased in a conveniently located Post Office and we edged around the buildings trying to keep in the shade. Yesterday I made the schoolboy error of going into the city without my hat, but today, even with my hat on I could feel the intense heat frying my brains!
A management decision was made to forgo the undoubted pleasures of the interior and the exhibitions of the castle as the crowds would not have made it a pleasurable experience so we stayed outside. What was a treat however was to see the colourful flower beds that bordered the grassy area, not just here, but in nearly all the major buildings and parks we have visited in Poland, the flower displays have been superb.
By this time it was after one o’clock, although neither of us wanted a meal as such, so we headed back for the main square where yesterday we had seen people eat a snack that looked interesting. We found the stall selling what turned out to be called Pajda, which means “thick slice” – of country bread, upon which is smeared lard, garlic, onions, and spicy sausage.
It would have been easy to head to a fast food place, but this was another hearty Polish delicacy we have tried. At The Navigator’s insistence we retraced our steps of yesterday to ‘Crazy Bubble’ to have another two bubble teas. It’s an expensive way to rehydrate, but they are so refreshing, it was worth it.
By mid afternoon we were flagging and the fact that we had passed some interesting churches and other buildings without the notion to enter any of them told us that we needed to relax for a while in the shade and fortunately the Old Town is ringed by trees and gardens so we headed there to sit in the shade for half an hour or so.
After that we decided to call it a day and head for the tram stop by way of the main Market Square for one last time. As we approached it from a different angle this time along side the imposing St Mary’s Basilica, we noticed a well dressed woman standing outside the smaller more intimate looking Church of St Barbara and what made me do a double take was that she had two white doves in a wicker basket at her feed so we presumed there was a wedding in progress.
We lingered and sure enough a few minutes later the congregation came outside and formed a pathway for the bride and groom to come out for the obligatory confetti and the releasing of the doves and I’m not quite sure the bride released hers properly as it flapped its wings a good few times before it eventually flew off. With one last walk through the impressive main square we headed for the tram…
Back at Bessie I unfurled the awning and we sat out in the shade for the rest of the evening before The Navigator made use of the site’s washing machine and we packed everything away as we are moving on tomorrow, but only about half an hour this time.
Day 47 – Sunday 20th of August
Krakow to Wieliczka Salt Mine (49.985412, 20.055971) (18 Miles)
Then
To Auschwitz (50.027166, 19.199071) (45 Miles)
Sunday is considered a day of rest for some, but not for us today as we are heading to the Wieliczka Salt Mines, a major tourist attraction where over two million people a year visit. Our oldest daughter, Jill had visited it a few years and had recommended we visit it. I had always associated salt mines with Siberia, but here we are…
Katherine and James were on an 8am tour but we picked a 12.30pm time so we had an early lunch in Bessie before setting off. Although there are supposed to be 800+ steps in the mine to be negotiated, it will be a relief to be out of this incredible heat for a few hours.
Once you are inside and ready to go the guide takes you down an impressive wooden staircase six steps on each flight all the way down 380 steps to the first level and on from there. The tour takes 2-3 hours over a distance of 3.5km to a maximum depth of 135 metres and the temperature underground is a manageable 17-18 degrees.
One of the most impressive things in the mine was the amount of wood used in propping up the ceilings. There must be tens of thousands trees used over the centuries and they are all sizeable so must have been difficult to put in place.
All the way round there are carvings made of salt by the workers and specialist carvers.
“Back in the mists of time, brine – salt water drawn from springs – used to be boiled in small clay vessels, on modest hearths. In this simple way, salt was obtained already in the Neolithic times. The oldest salt working tools in Central Europe, discovered in the village of Barycz, near Wieliczka, come from this period.”
In the centuries that followed, the secret of evaporated salt production was passed down from generation to generation – and the people involved were a specialised professional group. The salt obtained served as a preservative for meat and fish, and with time it became a means of payment in trade with those who did not possess this valuable raw material.
There were also representations of what working in the mine must have been like through the ages too.
The pièce de résistance however is the St Kinga’s Chapel which is located 101 metres underground and is one of the biggest attractions in the entire mine. The chamber is about 12 metres high, 18 metres wide and 54 metres long. The floor was carved in a uniform salt mass, and the ceiling is decorated with intricate salt crystal chandeliers.
Over 700 years the mine developed into a industry the brought wealth to the region and Poland as a nation. You can read all about the development of the mine HERE.
It was a fascinating tour, led by a knowledgeable guide who made it an interesting few hours.
Before leaving the mine we had lunch in the restaurant 125 metres underground which was incredible value for money. As I quoted, the route is approximately 3.5km long (which is only 1% of the total tunnel distance underground) and from the restaurant area we walked along corridors to get a lift back up to the surface. That walk seemed more than 3.5km itself but we were flagging by this time.
Back at Bessie we rehydrated and set off for tomorrow’s destination, Auschwitz, a name synonymous with the most evil acts of barbarism that man has committed throughout history. PS – Don’t judge my parking. I was told to park over these three parking bays…
The drive to Auschwitz was through some very pleasant countryside and I actually got to turn the steering wheel and negotiate hills and valleys on a normal road rather than the dead straight motorways we’ve been used to recently.
The journey was just under ninety minutes with a pit stop at a BP garage to top up the LPG tanks for the first time on the trip. We also passed ENERGYLANDIA which is the largest amusement park in Poland, offering 123 attractions located on an area of 70 hectares, including some huge roller coasters.
We arrived near the Auschwitz Museum to find the overnight car park I was aiming for closed, but soon found another for £ 10 a night, with electricity, and in full view of the security hut, so we booked in for two nights.
I went online to book the tickets to find that they advise you book two months in advance and I was trying to book for the next day! Long story short, there were no English language tours available so I had to book two tickets for a guided tour in Spanish at 2.45pm!
Day 48 – Monday 21st of August
Auschwitz (0 Miles)
Another blistering hot day so we did not venture outside in the morning and I took advantage of the electricity to work on the next blog. On the Auschwitz website it advises you to turn up at least half an hour before your tour is meant to start so we went to walk part of the way to time how long it would take to walk to the museum entrance. That accomplished, we went into a nearby Biedronka for a few things, mostly drinks before heading back to Bessie.
We duly turned up half an hour early, passed the first security point then sat and waited. At 2.45 the Spanish tour passed through the next check point and followed the guide to the area where we were given our headsets. There were five tours departing at 2.45pm but we were told we couldn’t swap onto the English tour, but eventually at the last minute The Navigator managed to get the headset re-tuned onto the English frequency and the English speaking guide told us to join her group.
There were twenty odd in our group and the funny thing was that English speakers were in the minority! Our guide was a young Polish woman who was very calm and serene in her delivery and was always telling us to “walk slowly behind her.”
Our road trip has been both planned and flexible enough to incorporate new places to visit, like the Salt Mine which we didn’t know about when we left home. That said, when I outlined the proposed route to The Navigator before we left home, her initial reaction was that she would stay in the van and I could visit Auschwitz on my own. We watched two other motorhoming couples on YouTube who have visited here in the last year and watching their videos gave her the confidence to go in with me.
There is no point in me describing in detail what we saw there, safe to say it was a harrowing experience, which as many people as possible should visit to remember the atrocities committed in this camp, so that it should never happen again.
And finally, we were walked through the only remaining gas chamber at Auschwitz 1.
There was some shade as you went in and out of the buildings in Auschwitz 1, but the temperature was now in the mid-nineties and we were now heading, after a fifteen minute rest, onto a transfer bus to Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
“Birkenau was the largest of the more than 40 camps and sub-camps that made up the Auschwitz complex. During its three years of operation, it had a range of functions. When construction began in October 1941, it was supposed to be a camp for 125,000 prisoners of war. It opened as a branch of Auschwitz in March 1942, and served at the same time as a centre for the extermination of Jews.
The majority—probably about 90%—of the victims of Auschwitz Concentration Camp died in Birkenau. This means approximately a million people. The majority, more than nine out of every ten, were Jews. A large proportion of the more than 70,000 Poles who died or were killed in the Auschwitz complex perished in Birkenau. So did approximately 20,000 Roma and Sinti, in addition to Soviet POWs and prisoners of other nationalities.”
There was no shade and the heat was intense, and that, combined with walking on uneven hard gravel was taking its toll, and after three hours of walking we were glad to be on the bus back.
The walk to Bessie was torture and she had been baking in the sun all day too, so it was like a sauna inside. Our two days in Warsaw were probably slightly hotter than today, but only by a fraction, and overnight it was roasting in the van.
It has been a fascinating time in Krakow, as well as the back to back visits to the Salt Mine and Auschwitz and we are exhausted, but have an almost four hour drive tomorrow to Wroclaw, said by some to be the prettiest city in Poland.
Day 49 – Tuesday 22nd of August
Auschwitz to Wroclaw (51.116241, 17.091558) (145 Miles)
No sightseeing today thankfully, instead we are driving west for the best part of four hours to Poland’s third largest city, Wroclaw. A lot of my recognition of European place names has to do with my interest in geography, history and European football teams but as Śląsk Wrocław are fourth from bottom of the Polish league I had never heard of Wroclaw before, but some online research led us to visit it.
Known affectionately as The Venice of Poland, Wrocław offers all the buzz and history of Kraków with an extra splash of Silesian charm and hospitality. There’s plenty to see and do in Wrocław, whether you want to go on a hunt for the 600 bronze dwarves dotted around the city, relax in a grassy park by the Oder River, or simply admire the pastel toned buildings of the beautiful old town square.
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“Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, roughly 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the Sudeten Mountains to the south.
The history of the city dates back over 1,000 years, at various times, it has been part of the Kingdom of Poland, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburg monarchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Prussia and Germany but it became part of Poland again in 1945 as part of the so-called Recovered Territories, the result of extensive territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II.”
We were up fairly early, and already at 8am as we left the temperature was in the eighties and heading upwards. Thankfully the car park we have been on had a few electricity points which allowed us to keep a fan on in Bessie which helped, although it’s only recycling warm air really.
First stop today was an Aldi to stock up on some groceries and drinks for the next few days before heading out of Oświęcim, the town that contains Auschwitz towards Katowice, where we originally planned to visit. However my research showed Katowice to be a more modern city so it was being bypassed. We had driven on normal roads with the occasional stretch of dual-carriageway until we reached the outskirts of Katowice where we joined the three lane A4 / E40 motorway. We passed a massive Auchan supermarket and equally massive Leyroy Merlin DIY store, both owned by the French Mulliez family, who also own Decathlon!
We made good time until my Google Navigator took us off the motorway and into the large town of Gliwice andvout into the countryside on normal roads. The satnav is permanently set to avoid toll roads and this must have been the reason for taking us off the motorway heading directly for Wroclaw. As we were in no real hurry it wasn’t a problem and it allowed us to see more of the real Polish scenery, towns and villages we passed through. I made a pitstop for diesel at 6.24 Zloty (£ 1.19) which seems to be far better than back home at present.
After three hours of driving with the cab air conditioning keeping us cool, I was getting tired so we pulled into a rest area for a break and had lunch. This was enough to keep me refreshed and attentive for the final hour into Wroclaw where we found the large campsite we were on without any issues. I say campsite, but it is a huge grassy area where you can park anywhere near to an electricity bollard, where one again I had to get an adaptor from the reception to hook up.
I’ve mentioned before how few Brits we’ve met on this road trip but this morning we got chatting to a British couple parked near us in their campervan. We talked for a while and had a peek inside each other’s vans and discussed all things touring and routes taken and still to go.
There is a massive area of sporting venues next to the site including football pitches, tennis courts, an athletic stadium and a stadium for the city’s speedway team, who were practising from the noise coming from the stadium’ direction.
Once we were set up, the chairs came out to sit outside in the shade created by Bessie where I promptly fell asleep! It was still hot but a breeze was blowing gently which made the conditions bearable. Our German neighbour, with the precision you expect from that nationality, said it would rain in half an hour and right on cue the thunder and lightning preceeded the rain putting paid to the barbecue that we were looking forward to.
Day 50 – Wednesday 23rd of August
Wroclaw (0 Miles)
Day 1
Hands up. Who has heard of Wroclaw? Not many I bet.
On this trip we’ve raved about Gdansk, Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Warsaw and lately Krakow, but this city is absolutely incredibly beautiful and will give any of the above a run for their Zloty or Euros!
“During World War II, Wroclaw was the German city of Breslau. It saw heavy fighting and widespread destruction as it came under heavy Soviet bombardment before Germany’s surrender. In August 1944, Adolf Hitler declared the city of Breslau to be a fortress, ordering that it must be defended at all costs. The siege of Breslau, was a three-month-long siege, lasting to the end of World War II in Europe. The city became part of Poland when borders were redrawn after the war, with the defeated Germany forced to give up territory.”
Walking around the city today, you would not realise any of the above happened, it has some of the best buildings we’ve seen anywhere and the Poles must be congratulated for their skill and effort to restore and improve the city.
We took the nearby tram into the city centre for free again as over 65s do not pay anything on public transport here. Our Day 1 tactics in any city are just to wander and see what we can find, but especially the main square. We had a good idea what we wanted to see as we had watched an excellent YouTube video which listed the top attractions, one of which was a church which had a wooden bridge joining the twin spires of Mary Magdalene church, called the Penitent Bridge at a height of 45 metres.
Now The Navigator is not one for heights, and to date we have resisted the temptation to climb any church spire with a viewing platform, but for some reason she wanted to go up this one. It was only £ 2 for a seniors ticket, so it would not be a great loss if she got cold feet, as she did at the top of a cliff-top lighthouse in Hirtshalls in Denmark last year.
When the concrete steps turned into metal grill steps and you could see down through, she got a bit concerned but soldiered on with quite a few, “are we nearly there yet” questions asked of me. I had no problems with the height, just the effort to get up there so regular stops were taken to catch my breath. Thankfully there were not a lot of other people climbing the spire this morning so we didn’t feel rushed on the climb or on the bridge itself. The view was worth the effort and we picked out some of the locations we would be visiting later.
Back on terra firma, we had a look around the church, which did not really compare with others we had seen on this trip before we found the main square, or Rynek as it’s known in Poland and this one has the distinction of being the third largest in Poland with only Kraków and Olecko bigger. However, the Gothic Town Hall with its 66m tower is the biggest building of this kind in Poland and underneath it is Piwnica Świdnicka, one of the oldest restaurants in Europe.
PS – More on these small metal sculptures later…
We did a few laps of the square trying to take in all the detail on the colurful buildings that surround the square and it is simply stunning…
Some factoids on the Wroclaw Rynek…
– Rynek is a place of Chirstmas Fairs, New Year’s Eve celebrations, religious, academic and military events.
– Rynek was a big 2012 EURO fan zone, with as much as 30 thousand people to watch Poland play.
– Rynek is 213m long and 178m wide.
– Rynek is surrounded by 60 tenement houses.
– Rynek is surrounded by 11 streets.
– Rynek had 200 thousand people during the New Year’s Eve in 2013.
We had been looking for somewhere cheap and cheerful to have lunch and chose a Turkish restaurant in the square for a filling snack. After lunch we strolled down to see the river Oder, Poland’s second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. We sat on a shady park bench for a while and watched the tour boats of all sizes go up and down the river.
There were many little islands and bridges in this area and it was a popular location for setting off on a river cruise. There were a couple of impressive looking churches on the outside but they failed to live up to expectations on the inside.
It was mid afternoon by this time and I was in need of a cuppa so we chose a riverside garden behind an Italian restaurant and I had my usual black tea and The Navigator had an iced coffee to accompany a slice of apple tart. The hydrangeas were impressive and full of bees and a beekeeper appeared in full kit but we never saw where the hives were.
Given the heat and another day of walking about we were both feeling better than many days at this time of day but decided to head for the tram back to the campsite. We did get on the correct tram, the No 17, but in the complete wrong direction so after a few miles of realising this we got off and waited on a No 17 going in the correct direction!
We had a new van beside us when we got back to the campsite, or rather an estate car converted to sleep in, with a tent on the roof where the two boys slept. They were German and all four spoke good English and we chatted to them as we sat outside until almost eight o’clock when the sun started to go down.
Day 51 – Thursday 24th of August
Wroclaw (0 Miles)
Day 2
Modes of transport so far on this trip have been motorhome, train, tram, bus, bicycle, and today we add a boat to that list. The Oder river flows through The centre of Wroclaw and is referred by some as the ‘Venice of the North, which is a bit harsh on Amsterdam and Bruges!
That said, there are currently from 118 to 130 bridges and footbridges in the city, not just over the Oder but also the Oława River, Ślęza River, Widawa River, Bystrzyca River, several dozen of smaller and larger rivers, brooks, plenty of drainage ditches and the City Moat which gives the opportunity to get about on a boat.
You can hire a kayak, boat or take an organised cruise which is what we did after arriving in the city centre on the tram. There were a total of three passengers on said boat when we set off on our 45 minute cruise. Our “captain” was a young student type who chatted away on his mobile for ages before casting off. Once under way he put earphones in and did not utter a single word of welcome or commentary. We passed some very impressive buildings, but had no idea what they were so accepted that we’d have to do our own research later.
It was pleasant being on the river as the cooling breeze was a relief from the heat of another day in the nineties but the trip came up short of our expectations. After the cruise was over we wandered about some lovely riverside areas killing time before heading to the market for lunch. The market hall was completed in 1908 when the city was still part of the German Empire and at the time the hall was renowned for its then-innovative application of reinforced concrete trusses, which was unique in Europe at the time.
We had nipped in to see the market hall as our tram had stopped there before we had our boat trip. As markets go it was pretty standard apart from the flower sellers who all had impressive displays of flowers and at very reasonable prices. It was on this early morning visit that we saw a couple of restaurants with menus featuring our Polish favourites at great prices so decided that is where we would eat.
We pointed at a few things and asked what they were before choosing and the server told us whether it was chicken or pork as that is what everything seemed to be. Our two courses and a Pepsi came to £ 8.88 and they were delicious. We later met the German family next to us at the campsite and recommended this place to them too.
From the market hall we walked the short distance into the centre of the city and passed the church where yesterday we climbed up to the bridge between the spires and today there was a flea market on in the little square beside it. After another lap of the beautiful main square we headed off in a direction we had not been to yesterday but the heat was beginning to slow us down. We came across the statue of Papa Gnome which has the distinction of being the first of the entire Wrocław gnome phenomenon. He was first, and he’s still the largest, boosted even higher atop a giant toe. There are hundreds of little gnome brass statues all over the city and children love spotting them.
I mentioned earlier that I would saw more about Wrocław’s dwarfs or gnomes which are small figurines (20-30 cm) that first appeared in the streets of Wrocław in 2005. Since then, their numbers have been continually growing, and today they are considered a tourist attraction: those who would like to combine sight-seeing in Wrocław with “Hunting for dwarfs” can get special brochures with a map or Apps showing the location of the 400+ dwarfs in the city.
Before heading back on the tram we had our afternoon tea at a Tchibo in a huge and impressive mall, or gallery as they call them here. Back at the van I sat outside with my laptop and finished off the latest blog ready to go out tomorrow.
We have loved Wroclaw and when we do the final appraisal of all the towns and cities we have visited it will be high on the list, if not at the top! We move on tomorrow for a relaxing weekend in the mountains to recharge our batteries before heading back into Germany to visit some more big cities and do touristy things.
Day 52 – Friday 25th of August
Wroclaw to near Karpacz (50.793708, 15.769574) (85 Miles)
Throughout this whole road trip through the Netherlands, Northern Germany, Poland and the three Baltic States, Bessie has not had to contend with many hills, far less mountains, but today she may have to contend with both as we are heading southwest from Wroclaw to a region around the small ski-resort of Karpacz in the Karkonosze Mountains.
Who knew Poland has ski-resorts?
The mountains form a natural border between Poland and the Czech Republic, aka Chechnya. Although we will be in a National Park we will resist the temptation to go mountaineering or hiking, instead the plan is to relax and do nothing, as from Vilnius we have had back to back visits to Krakow, the Salt Mine, Auschwitz and Wroclaw so some relaxation is called for before we head back into Germany to visit some cities we have never been to before.
Wroclaw is a big city, the third largest in Poland, so getting out of it took more than half an hour, but once that was achieved we were soon back on, first dual-carriageways, then country roads. I had a campsite in mind but before that we had two places to visit en-route. We were stopping in an unremarkable city called Swidnica, first at a Biedronka to buy some groceries for the weekend and then we were visiting an incredible building near the city centre.
A piano tuner was working on a grand piano on a stage and I was told there was going to be a concerto performed that evening of music from the Baroque era, which in these surroundings, will be a magical experience.
We continued our journey from Swidnica through a changing landscape from pancake flat agricultural fields to rolling wooded hills to, in the last few miles, into an Alpine like area of very distinctive wooden ski chalet houses and tourist hotels. The properties we have seen in Poland have not really had their own style as you would see in other regions of Europe, but this area around Karpacz was very distinctive and different from what we’ve seen to date.
The last six hundred yards or so to the Camping 66 campsite was along a narrow single-track road where we met a campervan heading towards us but thankfully he was able to reverse past the entrance to the campsite to allow me to turn in. We’ve never booked ahead on this trip to allow us to be flexible and my initial thought was that this strategy might have backfired as the young receptionist took ages to confirm she had an available pitch for the next two nights.
This region is not on a direct route from Wroclaw to Dresden in Germany, our next destination, but was close enough to give us a two day break without sightseeing or driving so we immediately got the table and chairs out and started to relax in the afternoon sunshine. We could see some quite high mountains not too far away with a ski-lift and slopes to ski down between the trees and sitting in the warm sunshine it was hard to imagine deep snow here, but obviously it must be the case.
The forecast was not great for the weekend with rain on the way so we decided to make the most of it being dry and warm by having another barbecue.
Day 53 – Saturday 26th of August
near Karpacz (0 Miles)
The rest of the campers were Polish, Czech and German with one solitary British van, us, but everyone who passed Bessie was friendly and said hello. The main buildings were well laid out with a bar / restaurant in one wooden building and the toilet / shower / camp kitchen in another with a covered outside seating area between them which was very popular.
The Navigator made use of the cheapest washing machine of this trip (£ 2) so she was hoping the clothes would dry quickly as although today was still warm, but the blue skies of yesterday had given way to grey clouds with rain forecast for overnight. The fifth blog of this trip was posted online this morning and I finished typing up the next blog ready to marry up with the pictures taken in the last week which is never easy as there are always more pictures than space to include them.
The rest of the day was spent sitting out enjoying the views and relaxing. This is the first day we can remember on this trip that we have not been sightseeing or walking and the only time we left the vicinity of Bessie was to have a stroll around the site. Not only does the site accept motorhomes, camper and and tents, but they supply different forms of accommodation like wooden chalets, big green Army tents, and the Polish equivalent of wooden gypsy caravans. There was a pool for children, a fire to sit around and other things to keep you amused like an outdoor chess set.
This was our last planned overnight stay in Poland so we decided to use up some Zlotys by having a meal in the restaurant. Thankfully they had a menu translated into English and as it wasn’t an extensive menu it had enough for us to find something we each could choose. The Navigator, predictably, chose the fish dish which was her first trout of the trip, and I had turkey fillets coated in an almond crust, like the amazing chicken we had in Pärnu, Estonia and a couple of local lagers washed it all down. What we didn’t know at this stage was the role that trout would have in the next few days…..
We have stayed in nine different locations in Poland, from the northern Baltic coast to the mountainous south with the beautiful cities of Gdansk, Warsaw, Krakow and Wroclaw in between, along with the Wieliczka Salt Mine and Auschwitz. Poland has been a revelation and we have loved every second of our time here and would urge everyone with a motorhome / campervan to consider touring here in the future. If you don’t want to drive this distance consider flying to the four cities I mentioned, as they are as beautiful as any other city in Europe, and much cheaper for food and drink!
Today we are leaving Poland and heading back into Germany to visit some towns, cities and areas of countryside we have not been to before…
This map shows the approximate route we have taken on this blog as part of our 2023 Road Trip…
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COMING SOON ON THE NEXT BLOG...
The next blog will be another action packed episode as we head back into Germany to some more beautiful cities and tourist attractions…
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