Ricky – Page 28

Some final thoughts on our October trip around Poland

Wroclaw dwarf at the ATM © Sybille Yates

‘Did you enjoy your holiday in Poland?’, is a question we’ve been asked several times since our return to Prague just over six weeks ago, on Wednesday 21^st October. My reply is always a very positive ‘Yes’, with the notable exception of the problem we had with the ‘Carly’ when the immobilizer malfunctioned. I hope that some of our enjoyment comes through in my previous eleven blog posts 🙂

A number of people questioned in advance of our visit, whether we were wise to travel around Poland in mid-October, thinking we would experience bad weather. However, in the whole of the fifteen days we were away, we were only affected by rain twice – in the late afternoon and evening when we drove from Frombork to Malbork, and the bulk of the day when we sought to explore Wroclaw on foot.

During the first few days of our trip, when we enjoyed blue skies and bright sunshine during the day, it was inevitably quite cold overnight, with a touch of frost on occasions. But it was never severe and temperatures soon rose, once the sun came up.

There were two major pluses arising from visiting Poland in October. One was the wonderful array of autumn colours we saw as we travelled, which became more pronounced each successive day. The other was the cost of our hire boat on the Masurian Lakes, which was half what it would have been, had we hired it in July or August. But also, because we hired in the late-season, we then had the lakes virtually to ourselves.

The Masurian Lakes more than lived up to my expectations. What really impressed me was the excellent balance that the authorities seem to have achieved, between protecting the wonderful unspoilt environment with its variety of wild animals and birds, and allowing visitors to enjoy and explore the area. I would love to visit again in summer, but it would inevitably be far busier with many more visitors.

Although we travelled from the south of Poland, to the far north, and back again, we were still limited in the number of places that we had time to stop in and explore. And even in the places where we did stop, I often felt that we only scratched the surface of what there was to see and discover.

Speaking of the places in which we did spend some time, my own preference was for Wroclaw rather than Kraców, despite the rain that impinged on our enjoyment of the former. As Wroclaw is no more than five hours drive from Prague, it is certainly somewhere to which I would like to return, hopefully in better weather.

The inevitable question that has been asked is why didn’t we visit the capital, Warsaw. There is a very simple answer – I have to go there next year in late September, as the Warsaw Anglican congregation are kindly hosting the 2016 Eastern Archdeaconry Synod. I hope to encourage Sybille to come with me and we might then add on a few more days of annual leave, and discover a little more of Poland.

‘Did anything come as a surprise?’, is something I’ve also been asked. Probably the biggest surprise was discovering how widely English is spoken, with the exception of when we most needed it to be, when the ‘Carly’ broke down 🙁 Also, when we offered either English or German, English was nearly always preferred, with the notable exception of the marina at Mikolajki.

The only other surprise, though as a geographer by first degree I should have known, was discovering in reality, how big Poland actually is. Except when travelling on motorways, of which there are currently relatively few, it did take a lot longer than I originally anticipated, to get from A to B.

Of all the eleven blog posts that I’ve written about Poland, the one that has attracted the greatest number of comments has been the first one, regarding contrasts between the Czech Republic and Poland. I’m most grateful to everyone who did comment and it has been very reassuring to receive several affirmations within those comments, concurring with what I wrote.

Firstly, my thanks to Cynthia, an American expat living and working in the Czech Republic and who writes an excellent blog herself 🙂 , saying that she had exactly the same response from Czech people as we had, questioning why on earth she would want to spend time visiting Poland.

Secondly, I appreciated the various explanations, by both expats and native Czechs, as to why Czech people rarely visit Poland. That Czechs prefer the warm Adriatic sea to the cool Baltic sea. That they think it will be the same as the Czech Republic, therefore why would they want to see more of the same? That they have experienced poor Polish food imported into the Czech Republic and presume therefore that all Polish food is poor. That agnostic Czechs feel threatened by the power and influence of the Polish Roman Catholic Church!

My original observations were written and posted after only being in Poland for five days. But what we observed in the following days, only further confirmed what I originally wrote. I mentioned the high level of adherence and practice by Polish Roman Catholics, in contrast to to the Czech Republic. Both Sybille and I were amazed at the number of masses being celebrated at almost any urban Roman Catholic Church. The photograph on the left was one Sybille spotted in Wroclaw.

I also wrote that virtually the only area where I had observed any similarities between Poles and Czechs, was in their fashion sense. As in the Czech Republic, throughout our travels, we continued to see many men having long hair and tying it back in a pony tail. And it certainly seemed almost de rigueur, in virtually every bar-restaurant we patronised, for young female waitresses to wear short stretchy black miniskirts or mini-dresses 🙂

I finished that post by saying that since passing through the border area just north of Ostrava, we hadn’t seen a single Czech registered car! That continued to be true until three days before the end of our trip, when we were passed by a Czech registered car, just north of Wroclaw. But we didn’t see another until a few kilometres before the Polish-Czech border near the ski resort of Harrachov, on our drive back to Prague.

One major attraction that I omitted from my post about Wroclaw, were the dwarfs that can be found throughout the city. Apparently, there are now over three hundred of them! Our favourite of the ones we spotted, was the dwarf using the ATM, at the beginning of this post. Below is another.

Wroclaw

We spent the final two nights of our October Polish adventure, staying in the city of Wroclaw, and used the intervening day to discover some of the delights it has to offer. Until 1945, Wroclaw was part of Germany and known as Breslau. In the last few months of the Second World War, it suffered serious destruction, with the Nazi forces seeking to defend the city, only surrendering to the Soviet Red Army on 6^th May 1945, just two days before the official end of the war.

As Sybille had organised advance booking of our accommodation for the two previous nights, she declared it was my turn to both find and pay, for somewhere for us to stay in Wroclaw. So, whilst enjoying a mid-morning coffee, sitting in the central market square of Poznan, I got online and reserved us a room for two nights at the B&B Hotel Wroclaw Centrum. It was little more expensive and upmarket compared to where we had stayed in Malbork and Poznan, but I decided we deserved it for the last nights of our holiday. The hotel was located within easy walking distance of the historic city centre, had secure off-street parking for the ‘Carly’, and all the reviews said that its wifi was excellent 🙂 The reviews were correct!

Determined to avoid a repeat of the problems we’d had, trying to drive to our hostel in Poznan the previous afternoon, I’d found the street on which the B&B Hotel is located, using the city centre plan in our Polish guidebook, and worked out a route of how to get there. All went perfectly to plan, except that we found ourselves driving along on the opposite side of the street to the hotel, with a set of tramlines in-between, which it was impossible to drive across 🙁 Fortunately, we kept our sense of direction and managed to eventually find a legitimate way to drive back up the other side of the street and reach the hotel and its car park.

After checking into the hotel and getting our belongings from the car to our room, we set out to walk into the historic city centre and main market square, just as it was getting dark. The floodlit Gothic Town Hall looked magnificent, as you can see in the photograph at the top of this post. The square has numerous bars and restaurants. We eventually chose to eat at a Greek restaurant and shared an amazing seafood platter.

The weather next morning was cloudy and grey. By mid-morning, it started to rain and got progressively heavier as the day went on. This was great shame as there was much to see. The rain and lack of light, also made taking photographs more difficult. Those that follow, were taken before the rain really set in.

Buildings on one side of Wroclaw Market Square © Sybille Yates

Ornamental façade of the House of the seven Electors © Ricky Yates — Ornamental façade of the House of the Seven Electors © Ricky Yates

Various creatures on the gable end of a building in Wroclaw © Sybille Yates

Tower of the Church of St Elizabeth © Ricky Yates

Memorial to Dietrich Bonhoeffer © Sybille Yates

Near the Church of St Elizabeth, (which was unfortunately closed due to major restoration work taking place), we found this memorial to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran Pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident, who was born in Wroclaw in 1906.

Plaques below the memorial. In Polish on the left, in German on the right © Sybille Yates

In the afternoon rain, we walked from the city centre, to an island in the Odra/Oder river, to visit the Cathedral Church of St. John the Baptist.

Wroclaw Cathedral from a distance across the Odra/Oder river © Sybille Yates	Wroclaw Cathedral © Sybille Yates
Interior of Wroclaw Cathedral © Sybille Yates	Wroclaw Cathedral in 1945 © Sybille Yates

Whilst walking to the Cathedral, we spotted a statue of St. James. Within the Cathedral was a sign indicating it as being a point on the Via Regia, leading to Zgorzelic/Görlitz and the der Ökumenische Pilgerweg which Sybille had walked earlier in 2015.

Noticeboard in the Cathedral © Sybille Yates

Outside was a map, showing various waymarked pilgrimage routes. Notice how far it is to Santiago de Compostela!

Poznan

The Town Hall in Pozna? © Ricky Yates — The Town Hall in Poznan © Ricky Yates

We left Malbork in the late morning of Sunday 18^th October and, after crossing the Wisla/Vistula river, joined the major north-south motorway that comes from Gdansk and heads towards Warsaw. We then made speedy progress southwards, at the expense of a relatively modest toll. Having crossed the Wisla/Vistula river twice more, just south of Torun, we left the motorway and headed south-west to Poznan.

As well as booking us into a double room in the Tey Hostel, located right in the middle of the historic city centre of Poznan, Sybille had also downloaded a map to her tablet, to help us negotiate the narrow one-way streets and reach our destination. The advice of the hostel was to drive to the front door, unload, and pick up a parking permit for an off-street parking place, located a short distance away.

Unfortunately, when we reached Poznan, we discovered that several roads had either been changed to being one-way in the opposite direction, or were closed because of work to install underground cables, water pipes or sewers. We ended up getting completely lost and frustrated, despite thinking we had come well-prepared to find the hostel. After going around in circles for about forty-five minutes, Sybille spotted a ‘hostel’ sign.

The street ahead is closed! © Sybille Yates

We were actually in a spot where it was possible to at least temporarily park the car. So I stopped and Sybille ran off. I couldn’t drive any further forward because the road ahead was dug up and closed 🙁 When Sybille returned, around ten minutes later, she told me that the sign was for the wrong hostel, but she had found the right one, just around the corner. As it appeared safe to leave the ‘Carly’ where it was parked, at least for a short while, we unloaded all that we needed, and carried it to the hostel and put it in our room.

After this, I collected my parking permit from the hostel receptionist. She gave me a small map, on which she marked where the correct place was to park the ‘Carly’. ‘But which route do I take to get from where the ‘Carly’ is currently sitting, to the off street parking place?’, I asked. Even she wasn’t sure because of all the disruption caused by temporary road closures. But with a slight further deviation, her suggested route worked. Health warning – don’t try driving into the historic centre of Poznan if you want to maintain your sanity!

Despite these initial hassles, I very much enjoyed Poznan. Whilst it isn’t as grand as either Kraków or Wroclaw, it therefore means that it attracts far fewer tourists. Yet the central market square consists of a whole variety of attractive buildings, including the Town Hall above, which dates from the middle of the sixteenth century, and a row of arcaded buildings, adjoining the Town Hall, which you can see in the photograph below.

Arcaded buildings in the market square of Poznan © Sybille Yates

Inappropriate Communist era architecture in Poznan © Ricky Yates

Unfortunately, within the main market square, there are examples of inappropriate Communist era architecture, no doubt replacing buildings destroyed during the Second World War. We were interested to see that in front of these relatively new buildings, there was a statue of Sv. Jan Nepomuk, a very famous Czech saint.

The exteriors of many of the buildings that surround the central market square, are highly decorated. It was difficult to choose which ones to post here. As in the Czech Republic, there is sometimes a stark contrast between the exquisite artwork on the buildings, and the use made of the ground floor premises, such as in the fourth example below. From our observations over the two weeks of our travels, kebabs seem to be a very popular takeaway food in Poland 🙂

Exterior artwork in Poznan © Ricky Yates	Exterior artwork in Poznan © Ricky Yates
Exterior artwork in Poznan © Ricky Yates	Exterior artwork in Poznan © Ricky Yates

To the east of the historic city centre, on an island created by two branches of the Warta river, stands Poznan Cathedral, dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. A Church has stood on this site for over a thousand years. It has been rebuilt and remodelled several times since, and has been more recently restored to its earlier Gothic form, after suffering damage during the Second World War.

The exterior of Poznan Cathedral © Ricky Yates

The interior of Poznan Cathedral © Sybille Yates

Frombork and Malbork

On the morning of Saturday 17^th October, after our visit to the ‘Wolf’s Lair’ and the remains of the incomplete Masurian Canal, we then set out to drive westwards to continue our Polish adventure. Over the next few hours, using our recently purchased Polish road atlas, Sybille very successfully navigated us along a series of secondary roads, all the way to the Baltic Sea coast at Frombork.

The journey took us through a variety of small towns and villages, interspersed with areas of both agricultural land and forests. Some road surfaces were excellent, whilst others did leave something to be desired 🙂 No doubt helped by it being the weekend, traffic was fortunately quite light.

After about three hours of driving, we reached the slightly larger town of Braniewo, where we were only six kilometres from the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. Unless I do get to visit St. Petersburg, (which is on my ‘bucket list’), this may well be the closest that I will ever get to Russia! On the outskirts of Braniewo, we were held up for at least ten minutes at a railway level crossing, by a Russian freight train being manoeuvred onto the correct tracks for its onward journey to Kaliningrad.

The Baltic Sea at Frombork © Sybille Yates

After that, it was only a short onward journey to Frombork, where for the first time in my life, I saw the Baltic Sea. In many ways, I would liked to have spent more time in Frombork. But as we walked around the small harbour, spots of rain began to fall, so we decided to drive on to Malbork where Sybille had pre-booked us overnight accommodation.

As we drove, the weather deteriorated with the rain becoming much heavier, together with the daylight rapidly fading. When we reached Malbork, despite the darkness and the bad weather, we fortunately found our accommodation without too much difficulty. But the promised panoramic view of Malbork Castle, directly across the Nogat river from where we staying, was almost impossible to see, because of the mist and rain 🙁

After an enjoyable meal in a nearby restaurant, Sybille suggested that the rain had eased somewhat and that we should therefore go for a walk to see the castle. This atmospheric photograph is the only record we have of that evening. My memory is that of wearing the wrong shoes and ending up with two very wet feet!

Photographic panel showing Malbork Castle as it was in 1945 © Sybille Yates

The next morning, the rain had finally stopped but, as you can see in the photographs that follow, it was still quite misty. This photograph above shows was the castle looked like in 1945, badly damaged during the Second World War. Restoration work continues, but it is now back near to how it looked when built by the Teutonic Knights in the 13^th and 14^th centuries.

The moat at Malbork Castle © Sybille Yates

Some of the amazing architecture of Malbork Castle © Ricky Yates

Malbork Castle reflected in the Nogat river © Ricky Yates

Recovering the ‘Carly’, Hitler’s Führerhauptquartiere, and the canal that was never completed

Several people have asked how we got reunited with the ‘Carly’ after leaving it with a mechanic in Zambrów, and taking an expensive taxi journey, in order to reach Mikolajki and begin our boating holiday on the Masurian Lakes. So here is the promised explanation.

Having cruised back to Mikolajki on Tuesday 13^th October, we had planned to cruise on the following day, to the historic small town of Ryn. However, when the next morning dawned cloudy and quite windy, we decided to rethink our plans, especially as the day afterwards, Thursday 15^th, was promised to be fine and sunny with far less wind, a forecast that proved to be correct.

So instead that Wednesday morning, we went and spoke to Magda in the Marina Miko office, to ask if she would phone the mechanic in Zambrów, (we had his business card), and enquire about the well-being of the ‘Carly’. She duly did so and reported that the news was good – the ‘Carly’ was once more mobile.

We then asked about travelling from Mikolajki to Zambrów by train. Magda kindly informed us that, although there is a railway line through Mikolajki, there are no longer any trains 🙁 What about a bus? A quick bit of internet research revealed that the journey would take five and a half hours, with three changes of bus 🙁 So we were once more required to bite the bullet.

Magda rang the local taxi owner in Mikolajki. How much would it cost to drive me to Zambrów? The taxi owner quoted, ‘Five hundred zloty’. We immediately said that we only paid four hundred zloty for the journey in the other direction. The price immediately came down by one hundred zloty 🙂 Afterwards, Magda revealed that this taxi owner has a very good business in the summer months, of bringing boat hirers, especially Germans 🙂 , from Warsaw Airport to Marina Miko in Mikolajki. Not wanting to damage his profitable summer business, he reduced his price accordingly!

As promised, an hour later, the taxi driver arrived, and a further hour and a half afterwards, he delivered me to the mechanic’s workshop in Zambrów. Once more by gestures and sign language, it was explained to me that they had successfully bypassed the immobilizer, to ensure that it couldn’t malfunction again. The bill was 700 zloty/4500 Czech crowns. After a visit to an ATM to obtain the cash to settle my debts, I was able to drive the ‘Carly’ back to Mikolajki.

Although we had lost a day’s cruising, it did mean that on the morning of Saturday 17^th October, we were very easily able to transfer all our belongings from the good ship ‘Mamry’, straight back into the ‘Carly’, and set off to visit two places in this far corner of Poland, that I was keen to see.

Wolf's Lair © Ricky Yates — Wolf’s Lair © Ricky Yates

The 'Carly' at Wolf's Lair © Sybille Yates — The ‘Carly’ at Wolf’s Lair © Sybille Yates

Sign for the Wolfsschanze © Sybille Yates

The first of these was one of Adolf Hitler’s Führerhauptquartiere, commonly known as Wolfsschanze / Wolf’s Lair. Built in 1941, in advance of Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, it lies between Ketrzyn and Wegorzewo, (to where we had cruised and spent the night a few days previously), and is a massive series of fortified concrete buildings, hidden in the Masurian forests. Never discovered by the Allies, it was the scene of an unsuccessful attempt by Claus von Stauffenberg and others, to assassinate Hitler on 20^th July 1944.

With the advance of the Soviet Red Army in the Autumn of 1944, Hitler departed from the Wolf’s Lair for the final time on 20 November, when the Soviet advance reached Wegorzewo. Attempts were made to blow up the complex by the retreating Nazis, but much of it has survived. One unintended benefit is that parts of the complex have now become the ideal home of numerous bat colonies 🙂

The second thing I wanted to see was the Masurian Canal – an unsuccessful attempt to connect the Masurian Lakes with the Baltic Sea at Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg. It runs from the western side of Lake Mamry, to the Lava river, which in turn is navigable and connects with the Pregolya river, on which Kaliningrad is situated.

There is contradictory information on the internet regarding the first attempts at the construction of this canal. But it would appear that work came to a halt early in the twentieth century, because of the outbreak of the First World War. Then when work recommenced in the 1920s and 1930s, it also was eventually abandoned with the outbreak of the Second World War.

Remains of a lock on the Masurian Canal © Ricky Yates

With the Potsdam agreement of 1945, dividing East Prussia between Poland and the Soviet Union, nowadays one half of the canal lies in Poland, whilst the other half lies in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. Therefore, given the current political climate, the likelihood of work to complete and restore the canal, is exceedingly remote. However, as you can see below, the incomplete engineering works on the Polish side, are quite impressive.

Impressive disused lock on the Masurian Canal © Sybille Yates