Weekend breaks ideas -

Pieniny – Love at first sight!

Gosia — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 19:33:04 +0000

I’ve always avoided going to the same places. I love exploring new spots, and staying in a one I’ve seen just bores me. On the other hand, Pieniny is one of a few exceptions. I love them and every time I miss them enough, I jump into the car to see once again the characteristic pine tree at the top of Sokolica Mountain. Actually, I can’t explain why Pieniny are so special to me. Maybe it’s a matter of the diverse landscape of this place. The mountain trails are green here and aren’t as monotonous as in the Tatra Mountains. At the same time Pieniny is an excellent observation point for the Tatra Mountains. To this day I’m getting back to August mornings, when drinking my morning coffee I had such views in front of me. I love driving on local winding roads, looking for an opportunity to take nice photos. I also like to wake up early, watch sunrise and enjoy being the only person on a trail. Unfortunately, the tourist trails in Pieniny are quite popular. To reach the summit of Trzy Korony (Three Crowns) or Sokolica, you must often wait in a long queue. On the other hand, I like to contemplate the beauty of these mountains alone. I love Czorsztyn Lake, which isn’t actually a lake but an artificial retention reservoir. Everytime I’m here, I take a detour around it. Then I visit famous town – Czorsztyn, where you can see the remains of the former village of Maniowa, flooded with water for the purpose of building a retention reservoir. A characteristic wooden architecture from the turn of the 19th and 20th century, is located in the most beautiful place of Czorsztyn Lake. The panorama of the Tatras and Pieniny as well as the Castle in Czorsztyn and Niedzica is the best from here. Right next to it, you can visit Czorsztyn Castle, although it is quite ruined, it is still a great viewpoint. On the other side of the lake, there’s a much better preserved castle in Niedzica. The castle looks best from the dam. The dam is another attraction of Czorsztyn Lake. It plays a very important role in the water management of the area, as it creates a retention reservoir that regulates water level. Thus it protects adjacent areas from drought and flood. A pumped hydroelectric energy storage is also located here. It stores the surplus of produced electricity, pumping water from the lower to upper tank. On the other hand, during increased demand, this process is reversed to produce electricity. Since 2011 on the dam you can see an interesting 3D mural called ′′ The Power of Elements”. To see this three-dimensional picture, you have to stand in a strictly marked place. In fact, the main reason for my return to Pieniny is one beautiful trail leading through the most beautiful peaks of Pieniny: Trzy Korony (Three Crowns), Castle Mountain and Sokolica. Although the Three Crowns look best from the Slovak side, it’s worth climbing this summit because with any luck, you can see an amazing view of the Tatra Mountains from here. Last time I wasn’t so lucky, but on the other hand the persistent fog and clouds created an amazing atmosphere. The further route I take from the Three Crowns leads through the Castle Mountain and then to Sokolica. This trail is very diverse, leading through the forest and quite steep rocks, while the views along the way are amazing. The last point – Sokolica, in my humble opinion, is the most beautiful peak of Pieniny. There you can admire a beautiful view of the green hills and meandering Dunajec river. Additional charm of Sokolica is added by a dwarf pine, which is actually a symbol of this mountain. A trip to Pieniny can’t be completed without climbing the highest peak of Pieniny – Wysoka, which also belongs to the Crown of the Polish Mountains. This is the highest peak in Pieniny, with an amazing view of the rest of this range, Tatra Mountains and Babia Gora. Unfortunately, during my visit, the weather wasn’t very good and apart from dense fog I didn’t see virtually anything, but this unpredictiable character of the mountains attracts me the most. An additional attraction of this route is the Homole Gorge, which leads through a number of bridges and footbridges. Steep canyon walls, interestingly carved stones and water cascades, are the main reason to explore it. Being in Pieniny, it’s also worth visiting the famous spa – Szczawnica – Zdrój. This is a perfect place to relax after mountain climbing. On the other hand, if someone doesn’t have enough, they can always use a chair lift to the top of Palenica. From the summit there is a beautiful view of Szczawnica and its surroudnigs. Less than 3 km from Szczawnica, you can see Zaskalnik falls. It’s a popular place, especially in the summer you can meet many people cooling in cold water here. Pieniny is an amazing place worth visiting even for an longer weekend break. I am convinced that I will come back here again ?

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Podlasie – fabulous Eastern Poland, Day 2 – Girl on a Trail

Gosia — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 16:56:31 +0000

Heading from Bialowieza to northern Podlasie, it is worth visiting the ruins of the church of St. Anthony in the village of Jalowka. Arc vaults, high columns and huge windows, give the idea of the former glow of this place. The temple was ruined at the end of the war in 1944. At that time, the German army, for fear that this place was an excellent observation point, blew it up. In front of the ruins there’s a special altar where mass is celebrated every year on St. Anthony’s Day. Just 12 kilometers from the ruins of the church there’s a closed border crossing with Belarus, Zubki Bialystok – Brestowica. It’s close to the gravel road leading through villages located along the border with Belarus, and in some places such as the Mostowlany village, Belarus is literally at hand. Zubki Bialystok-Brestowica border is actually a closed railway crossing, hidden among the fields and hills. Although the passage no longer works, watch out for the green booth, which is located exactly in the place of the border. It is equipped with a laser sensor informing the Belarusian border guards about the illegal crossing of the border. Personally, I admit that I stayed away because my last trip to Belarus almost ended in deportation, but I’ll write about it another time 😉 However, if someone looks for excitement, violating this space may be an interesting experience 😉 Following further northward, it’s worth vsiting Tatars’ village – Kruszyniany. In the 17th century, this village was given the Tatars’ community as a gift from Jan III Sobieski – Polish king. Currently, you can see here the oldest green wooden mosque in Poland and a Muslim cemetery where all gravestones according to tradition are turned towards Mecca. My culmination point in Kruszyniany was a visit to the Tatarska Yurta restaurant, which specializes in Tatar cuisine. You can try here kryszonka – beef with stewed vegetables and potatoes, and cheburek – baked dumpling, stuffed with cabbage, plums and honey, it’s a real discovery! It’s worth visiting the restaurant at the full hour from 12 to 15, then you can try an excellent pierekaczewnik – multi-layer cake with perfectly seasoned turkey meat with onion. I also recommend homemade sea buckthorn compote, which is a rich source of vitamin C. An interesting place of a religious character is the Skit of Saint Anthony and Theodosius Pieczerski in Ordynki village. This place is unique as it used to be a hermitage. What’s more, is the only Orthodox hermitage in Poland. This is an atmospheric place, far from civilization, in the middle of meadows. During heavy rainfall, when the level of the river Narew rises, this place seems to be an isolated island. Another interesting place related to Orthodox religion is a church in Narwia which has characteristic blue colour. The Church in Narwia is actually a gateway to the so-called Land of Open Shutters. The Land of Open Shutters is a fairytale place located mainly in three tiny villages: Trzescianka, Soce and Puchly. The unique atmosphere of this area is created by an original colorful architecture, which resembels former Russian settlement. The main motive are obviously richly decorated shutters, but the facades of buildings have many more interesting details. Many houses use old wells. There’re also a lot of old shrines and crosses and stork nests. First of the towns – Trzescianka. It owes its characteristic layout, to Polish queen Bona, who decided to bring architectural order here. It is also worth visiting the green church of St. Michael the Archangel. On the other hand, in the next town – Puchly you can see beautiful blue church. Beautiful, decorated houses and well-groomed farms can be seen in Soce. Its architectural layout is quite surprising because this village extends along two parallel streets. Entrance to the village can be recognized by roadside crosses. As a farewell to the Land of Open Shutters and Podlasie it’s worth visiting two additional towns: Wojszki and Plutycze. They are officially not included in the Land of Open Shutters, but the colours and decorations of buildings are as fabulous as in the previous places.

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Podlasie – fabulous Eastern Poland, Day 1 – Girl on a Trail

Gosia — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 13:07:29 +0000

I have to admit, I made a cardinal mistake about my past travels. I had been planning a trip to Podlasie in Poland for a long time, but cheap flight steered me away from visiting this place. Only recently I managed to go there. What I can say, I am disappointed that Podlasie is such an underrated tourist region, although looking objectively I contributed a bit to it myself. This place surprised me with a homely atmosphere, rich history, culture and excellent cuisine. So far I’ve imagined Podlasie as a gray and gloomy place, somewhere on the border with Belarus, meanwhile I’m impressed with the amazing number of colours and atmospheric villages that maintained rustic character. So in order to clear myself of a charge, I decided to write this post 😉 It takes only 2 hours by car from Warsaw to reach the Herbal Corner in Koryciny. This is an atmospheric place which main theme is herbal tradition, cultivated for generations in Podlasie. In the Herbal Corner you can visit the Botanical Garden where you can see healing plants and the ones used in local cuisine, as well as read the history of herbal medicine. Smells and colors on site are insane. The amazing atmosphere of the place is created by a traditional architecture of homesteads where goats, chickens, sheep, geese and Scottish cows are bred. Organic vegetables are cultivated in the vegetable garden, which then are served in the local tavern. The tavern also uses herbs grown in the Herbal Corner and eggs and milk from the pen. Thanks to the natural ingredients, the food is incredibly aromatic. Here you can try potato cake, nettle soup or delicious lavender lemonade. At the local shop you can purchase interesting tea mixtures, spices and various preserves. Anyway, from here a company Dary Natury originates, which has been constantly operating right next to the Herbal Corner for 30 years. If someone likes this place, they can spend the night here in a traditional, cosy country house. Another point – a castle, called “the Crown of Podlasie”. It’s located on the edge of the forest surrounded by green fields. Perhaps there wouldn’t be anything unusual in this place if it wasn’t for the fact that it was built by Mr Jerzy himself. The builder can be met on the spot and he is happy to share interesting information about his work. At the top of the castle there’s a viewing terrace that looks like a crown. “The Crown of Podlasie “also has its own coat of arms, which is a mirror reflection of the one of the nearby town – Siemiatycze. Going just 8 kilometers from “The Crown of Podlasie ” you can visit the Holy Mountain of Grabarka – the main point of pilgrimage of Orthodox followers living in Poland. Every year on August 18th and 19th, thousands of pilgrims leave intentional or thanksgiving crosses on the hill. For this reason, the road to the Church of the Lord’s Transformation, located at the top of the hill, leads through the forest of crosses. There are also two other churches on Mount Grabarka, but they are not available for sightseeing. At the foot of the mountain there’s a spring from which water supposedly has healing properties. Another interesting spot on the way to Białowieża is Witch’s cottage. Although this place is mainly intended for children, it is worth visiting while being in the area of the town Hajnowka. The colorful cottage resembles one big, iced gingerbread, straight form fairy tales heard in childhood. For sure children can have great fun there. The highlight of the itinerary is the European Bison Show Reserve, located near Bialowieza. It was founded in 1929 in order to restore the bison population in Poland. The reserve did a great job considering that the last bison living naturally in the Bialowieza forest was killed in 1919. Systematic reintroduction has led to significant increase of wild living bison in Poland. After over 100 years, nowadays we have around 800 wild bison living in their natural habitat – Puszcza Bialowieska. Puszcza Bialowieska regularly appears in National Geographic publications (more information can be found here) as one of the most interesting places to see in Europe. No wonder, after all, the bison is the biggest land mammal on the old continent. If we add the wild nature of the Bialowieza Forest, it all makes a pretty interesting plan for the weekend 😉 Animals in the reserve are kept in large pens in semi-natural conditions, so even people who are not fans of this type of places will not feel guilty. In addition to bison you can also see here: elk, deer, wolves and lynx. An interesting place in Bialowieza is also a railway station built in the beginning of the 20th century. Interesting building, old wagons and locomotives, aren’t the only attraction of this place. You can also ride a special handcar or a rail bike here. To be continued…

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Ciechocinek – famous Polish spa

Gosia — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 19:51:53 +0000

Personally, Ciechocinek, until recently, seemed to be the place straight from the famous film “Back to the future”, but with one exception, to the communist past. Specific architecture, old clinics, pools are the typical things from the past times. This famous spa is about 200 km from Warsaw, so I decided to take a short trip to confront my ideas with reality. The vast majority of tourists are patients who have come here for treatment. Ciechocinek has a large reservoir of brine used in the nervous, circulatory or respiratory diseases treatment. The origin of the brine dates back to the 13th century. When Poland was under the occupation and the two largest salt mines – Bochnia and Wieliczka were located on the land under Austria – Hungary rule. Between 1824 and 1833, two graduation towers were built and in 1859 another third one. The whole graduation towers complex, has the total length of almost 2 km and the height of more than 15 m and is unique on the scale of Europe. The location of the graduation towers isn’t random. They are built perpendicularly to the wind, which increases the production of the brine. Brine is transported to a graduation towers by pipeline from a fountain called Mushroom. Pumps move water and salt solution to the top of the graduation towers, then the mixture flows down the blackthorn twigs to the lower tanks. Formerly brine was pumped by the special pumps which were driven by windmills, which are located at the top of the graduation towers. After that, the brine is transported by a pipeline to the nearby salt works, where salt is produced. Brine when going down the graduation towers evaporates and creates special microclimate similar to this from the sea. Thanks to this, walk around graduation towers is very good for respiratory problems, and the air here is crisp and clean. The fountain called Mushroom is a popular place of meeting. It is located in the centre of the spa, and also produces medicinal aerosol. While the entrance to the graduation towers area is paid, the air around the fountain can be inhaled free of charge. In addition to the graduation towers and the fountain, there’s another symbol of Ciechocinek – beautiful parks and flower carpets. In the northern part of the spa, next to the Mushroom fountain, is the huge park founded in 1875, with a funny fountain, an interesting concert hall and a pump room. The pump room is an interesting wooden building typical for spas, where you can drink slightly salty water called ” Krystynka”. Next to the park, there’s a path leading to the historic salt works. Inside, you can see the process of production of the salt. Special attention deserves the exposition of the old equipment used in the spa treatment. Personally, for me it looks like the torture chamber straight from the worst horror. What’s more interesting, this salt works operates to this today. The salt is produced here traditionally, in the boiling process. Ciechocinek is one of the oldest Polish spas, it was established in 1934, when in one of the local inns, the first baths were installed to use the medicated brine. Ciechocinek is one of the most popular spas and can be described as spa mecca. But to my amazement, many buildings here are abandoned and destroyed. I’m not gonna hide that I really like this kind of places. They often have an interesting history, they constantly change with the time passes, and visiting them is a pure exploration. That’s why I was really impressed by elaborately decorated, abandoned villas and hospitals. A very interesting building is also a wooden Orthodox Church. It was built in 1894 in a Caucasus style, mainly of wood without using nails. This is the only one example of this style in Europe! The church has also intensive blue walls and interesting decorations. Confronting my ideas about Ciechocinek with the reality, I have to say that in the air apart from the brine, I could feel the gentle breeze of communism, but I think that’s the charm of this place. The specific spa atmosphere, architecture and historic graduation towers are the main reasons why you should visit Ciechocinek. ” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]

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Sandomierz and the optimist’s stone!

Gosia — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 17:29:37 +0000

Sandomierz is a picturesque town located on the seven hills, surrounded by loess gorges. However, not only beautiful landscapes invite to this place. Strolling along the Old Town streets, you can get the impression as if the time here has stopped. Sandomierz charm lies in numerous monuments and townhouses. What’s more, it’s leisure atmosphere, makes it an ideal place for rest. Medieval Gate The entrance to the Old Town is the Opatowska Gate, from top of which you can admire a beautiful view of nearby townhouses and the panorama of the Vistula river. Besides amazing, medieval architecture in Sandomierz you can find a lot of parks. The perfect place for a walk is the natural reserve – “Pepper Mountains” which is located not so far from the Old Town. Another picture perfect place for a stroll is the unique –Loess Gorge of Queen Jadwiga. In the sloping Square… The most popular building in Sandomierz is gothic Town Hall. Located in the surroundings of colorful townhouses, it’s regarded as a one of the most beautiful squares in Poland. Just in front of the Town Hall, there’s a well and the monument of the Mother of God where you can see knights on sentry duty. For sure the white townhouse won’t escape your notice. Apart from its beautiful façade is also a place which leads to a different reality… The Undeground City At the back of the white townhouse, you can enter the underground city which is located just beneath the Sandomierz Old Town. Reportedly in the former times, underground passages led to the nearby village – Kobierniki, which is located 3 km away from Sandomierz. Nowadays the whole route has 500 m and leads through numerous chambers, cellars and pantries, which are located on different levels, even 12 meters below the ground. The Needles’s Eye Walking along the Zamkowa street you can see the only one saved gate, called The Needles’s Eye in view of its characteristic shape. The Castle on the Hill Going down the Zamkowa street, you’ll get to the Castle – Polish kings’ former residence. It’s located beautifully in the surroundings of vineyards and nearby St. Jacob’s Church. Scary Cathedral It’s well worth visiting the Basilica of the Nativity of the Blessed Mary which surprises by its richly adorned interior. If you’re sensitive, don’t raise your head, because on the walls you can see scary paintings, presenting the fates of the first martyrs. The Optimist’s Stone Sandomierz has gained popularity as a place of the unique stripped flint stone, called also the Optimist’s Stone. Local jewelry made of this stone you can buy in numerous places in Sandomierz, but the most fabulous piece is located at the Zamkowa street. There you can see the big 80- kg ring. These are only some of the endless list of attractions in Sandomierz 🙂 ” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]

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