A Dash of Poland

Apologies for the continued issues we are having with the post notifications. Some of you may have received an email with links to the 3 posts we have done previously on this trip, but we suspect this has ended up in most peoples spam folder.

The main place we had earmarked to visit in Poland on this trip was the capital Warsaw, but as Poland is a pretty vast country we had hoped to have a stopover at another interesting town en-route.  Visiting Goslar had meant we were entering Poland further South than planned, and we were pleased to see the historical city of Wroclaw in south west Poland would be not far off our route to Warsaw.  We didn’t know much about the city other than it has a fine old historic centre, has a nicer riverfront running through it and is a university city.

Sadly, the weather took a turn for the worst and it was tipping it down with rain for most of our journey there.  We queued our way into the city mid afternoon, and headed to a central car park where we had read we could park for the night, however the first thing the parking attendant said to me was ‘no overnight parking’.  Hmmm. We thought having come all this way we should at least have a look around the old town even though it was still very wet, and the cold was chilling us to the bone.  The Market Square was very impressive even in the rain, but after a stroll around some of the other central streets we weren’t feeling it and decided to get back on the road and get a little bit closer to Warsaw. 

We ended up parking up for the night in a motorway rest area. There were quite a few lorries already parked up and we were a bit worried we’d be disturbed by vehicles pulling in to use the WCs all night, but we had a surprisingly quiet night.

Thankfully we woke to a bright sunny day, and we arrived in Warsaw early afternoon. We parked in campsite about 9km from the old town where there were buses that we could use to get into the central area as well as a cycle path.  We were a bit concerned when we pulled up to see there were quite a few police there, but the owner explained to me that they were a TV company filming a drama series.  Colin kept loitering around hoping they might ask him to be an extra, but they had no requirements for dodgy northern villains so he was out of luck.

We got the Bromptons out and cycled to the old town. There was a good cycle path all the way there and it took about 35 minutes. The weather was perfect and our first impressions were a bit wow.  We know the city had to be rebuilt after Hitler ordered it to be flattened, but they have done a great job at recreating the buildings. We had booked a city cycle tour for the following morning, so we had a wander around the back streets which were thronging with tourists and ended up in the Old Town Market Square in a tourist restaurant, for what was meant to be a light snack, but turned into two plates full of hearty dumplings.

Back at the campsite we had a noisier night with road noise than we’d had on the motorway.

The weather was perfect for the cycle tour.  There were just 6 of us and we were taken around key parts of the city over 3 hours to learn about how the occupation of Russia (twice) and the Nazis in World War 2 had impacted the people and the architecture of the city. Overall, it was a very interesting tour and as always with cycle tours we came away with a better appreciation of the layout of the city and its people.

The weather clouded over in the afternoon, and we visited the Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Known as POLIN – the Hebrew word for Poland). The impressive building is built on the site of the old Warsaw Ghetto and the exhibitions take you through the history of Jews around Europe and Poland. Before World War 2 the Jewish made up about 30% of Warsaw’s population. During the Holocaust the Nazis created the largest Jewish ghetto in Europe in Warsaw, treating the population brutally and eventually sending the majority to extermination camps. After an uprising in 1943 the Germans demolished the ghetto entirely. As always, the magnitude of the deaths and displacement of humans is shocking.

It had started to drizzle by the time we exited the museum, and we ended up in a modern shopping mall near the river.  It was the Europa League finals that evening, and we were on the lookout for a sports bar where we could come back in to watch the match in the evening.  However, by the time we’d cycled back to the campsite, showered and changed, it was still raining and with the prospect of a painful match between two dreadful teams (Spurs v Man United) we had a wave of apathy and ended up walking to a soulless local restaurant for dinner.

We did keep an eye on the score and although I’m obviously delighted Spurs won, it sounded like a pretty dire match. Needless to say I have had the expected endless abuse from Colin’s family and friends. At least we won one more trophy than the Arsenal mens team (congratulations to Arsenal ladies for showing them how to win a Champions League).

The following day we set off Lithuania bound – it’s already taken us 10 days to reach the Baltic States, so lots to pack in with hopefully shorter distances for the next few weeks.