Picturesque cities such as Kraków and Gdańsk vie with energetic Warsaw for your urban attention. Elsewhere, woods, rivers, lakes and hills beckon for some fresh-air fun.
Our last day in Poland we spent in southwestern Poland in the former Sudety (Sudeten) on Nysa Kłodzka River (highway fee Oświęcim – Kłodzko 9,30 PLN). Town Kłodzko – a Polish frontier settlement existed there from the 6th to the 10th century. Kłodzko passed to Bohemia in 1327, then to...
Oświęcim (Auschwitz) is located in southern Poland, it lies at the confluence of the Vistula and Soła rivers. Oświęcim began in the 12th century and received municipal rights in the 13th century. It served as the capital of a sovereign duchy that in 1307 swore allegiance to Bohemia...
On the way to Krakow, we have stopped on the left bank of the Vistula River above the latter’s confluence with the San River. There lays the historical city of Sandomierz. First mentioned in 1097, Sandomierz gained early importance because of its geographic position astride the trade...
We spent Friday evening in the regional hub – Lublin. Founded as a stronghold in the late 9th century on the Bystrzyca River, the settlement grew up around the castle and received town rights in 1317. It served as a joint meeting ground for Poland and Lithuania, and in 1569 the Union of...
Another sad stop we made just southeast of Lublin in the infamous Majdanek (parking 15 PLN), the second-largest Nazi concentration camp in Europe, where some 360,000 people died during World War II. In October 1941 it received its first prisoners, mainly Soviet prisoners of war, virtually...
Our next stop was the Old City of Zamość, a fine example of an Italianate Renaissance town, which became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992. It was founded on the estates of Polish chancellor Jan Zamoyski (1542–1605) that lay on the trade route between the Black Sea and northern and...
Kazimierz Dolny, a picturesque town in the Vistula valley, its tradition as a summer resort, and an artists’ colony date back to the early 1900s. We have parked next to the river (parking 15 PLN) and walked to the main square, where we took lunch in Sarp Restaurant (Vegetable cream soup...
Today, we spent the afternoon and overnight at a terrifying and tragic place – Treblinka. It was a major Nazi German concentration camp and extermination camp, located 80 kilometers northeast of Warsaw on the main Warsaw-Bialystok railway line. There were actually two camps. The Nazis...
We took a two days weekend break at the regional hub – Białystok. Thought to have been founded by Gediminas, grand duke of Lithuania, about 1320, it was first chronicled in 1426 and received town rights in 1749. During the 18th century, it prospered under the wealthy Branicki family, who...
We spent three days at The Masurian Lake District. It is a great lake district in northeastern Poland which contains more than 2000 lakes. The district had been elected as one of the 28 finalists of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. The Lakeland extends roughly 290 km eastwards from the lower...