Poland part 1 – The Masurian Lakes, Gdansk, Torun and Warsaw

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My time in Poland didn’t get off to the best of starts. The first place I had planned to stop off was the Masurian Lake District, which is not too far from the Lithuanian border. I managed to cross the border by train from Vilnius with no problems, but when I got to the first big city in Poland, Suwalki, I was told that the bus that I was expecting to catch didn’t actually run on a Monday, and in fact there were no buses until the following day. I had no choice but to find a hotel and spend the night in Suwalki, which although would definitely not win any beauty prizes, wasn’t that bad a city. I checked the bus timetable on line again at the hotel, which showed the bus should have been running, so there are definitely some flaws with the Polish bus website. The next morning I did manage to catch a bus to Giżycko (ghee-zhits-ko), which is the town I had been trying to get to the day before. Giżycko sits on the northern shore of Lake Niegocin, in the heart of the Masurian Lake District, and is more or less the tourist centre for the area. I had expected the area – which has over 100 lakes – to be some sort of Polish equivalent of the English Lake District, but I was actually a bit disappointed. The area is just really flat, with all of the lakes (and some of the towns) more or less resembling one another. There were not that many opportunities for walking either, as it is quite difficult to know what is public land and what is private land; furthermore relying on public transport did not make things any easier. Giżycko town itself was quite nice – there was an absolutely massive fort, which was mostly overgrown, and a lakeside beach full of family attractions. There were a couple of nice walks from the town, but it wasn’t exactly Windermere.
Travelling in rural areas without speaking Polish also made things a bit tricky – the staff at the tourist office spoke English, but few other people did. Information seemed to be for the most part in Polish or German, so I ended up having to rely on my 100 word German vocabulary, which is about 100 times better than my Polish. The guesthouse I stayed at was run by an elderly Polish lady who didn’t speak any other languages – it was a bit of a challenge communicating, but we got there in the end. Quite a quirky guesthouse actually. I can’t say I’ve ever stayed somewhere with a full size fridge in the bathroom. I didn’t spend as much time in the area as I thought I was going to – you really need a car (or boat) to fully enjoy the beauty of the area. So from the lakes it was a long bus ride (5 hours) to Gdansk on the Baltic coast.

Gdansk is a city that I found difficult to fault. It really was quite beautiful – definitely one of the best cities I’ve stopped off at so far this trip. Quite surprising really, as Gdansk is essentially a large industrial port, but the city centre felt a world apart from the factories and shipyards which dominate the suburbs. As Gdansk has for many centuries previously been part of Germany (then known as Danzig), it does have a very German feel, and although a lot of the buildings were damaged or destroyed in WW2, most of the old town has been restored to how it was pre-1939. That said, for some reason there are a few areas very close to the city centre which have been left derelict since the war. The main street that runs through the city, Dluga Street, contains most of the city’s most impressive sights, including the ornate Green and Golden Gates at either end. In the centre of the street lies the Town Hall, adjacent to the city’s symbol, the 17th century Neptune’s Fountain. This street, as well as the neighbouring street, all contain hundreds of impressive 5 or 6 storey merchants’ houses, most not converted into shops or restaurants. Gdansk is also the world’s amber capital, so there is no shortage of amber shops and stalls throughout the city. Not far from Dluga Street is one of the city’s many churches, St Mary’s, which claims to be the largest brick church in Europe, with a supposed capacity of circa 20,000 people. Seeing the 360 degree panoramic view from the top of the tower was definitely a highlight of Gdansk for me – however, it was a really long climb to get to the top! After 200 steps up a narrow spiral case, you then pass through the space between the exterior roof and interior ceiling of the church, before then climbing another 200 odd steps up the bell tower to a ridiculously overcrowded platform. But the view made it worth it in the end.

The city is dominated by waterways and shipping. The Motlawa river goes through the heart of the city before emptying into the Baltic, and although the modern port areas are far from glamorous, the historic quaysides in the centre were very attractive. It helped that a sailing regatta was taking place during my visit, so the quaysides were filled with all sorts of interesting sailing ships, including rather randomly a replica of HMS Bounty. A preserved medieval crane tower, dating back 400 or so years, still overlooks the old town quay. The riverfront was also brimming with musicians, some of whom were really good – every evening in the Green Gate a violin-harpsicordian duo had a large crowd surrounding them as they played.

Besides the charming old town, Gdansk is famous for a being the site of a couple of major historical events – firstly, the suburb of Westerplatte is where the first shots of WW2 took place, and secondly its shipyards gave rise to the Solidarity Movement. From the old town, there was a short cruise down the river going past both of these sites, strangely enough in a motorised wooden galleon with crew in costumes. Quite interesting going past endless shipyards (which are still in operation) before then stopping at Westerplatte, which sits on Gdansk Bay. Westerplatte was just a small peninsula with ruined Polish installations, with information boards explaining exactly what happened in September 1939. It seemed to be brim full with school children on a day trip; not sure they found it as interesting as I did. They would have probably preferred where I went after Westerplatte, which was the seaside town of Sopot, just to the north of Gdansk. Compared to some of the other Baltic resorts I've been to, Sopot was definitely more upmarket, with some quirky architecture and a gigantic pier right next to the beaches. Hitler spent a week's holiday here in 1939 whilst the Wehrmacht bombed Warsaw, which is unsurprisingly not something they go out of the way to promote, but Sopot was a nice place to relax, far from the hustle and bustle of busy Gdansk.

The most interesting sight I saw outside of the city was Marienburg Castle (Malbork Castle in Polish)– one of the largest castles in the world – which is located about an hour from Gdansk by train in the town of Malbork. This castle was built by the German Teutonic knights to covert the local pagans to Christianity, so was really different to any other castle I've ever been to, simply because of the central importance of religion. The whole of the upper castle housed only monks, so there was a real mixture of a castle and monastic feel. The castle was definitely more spectacular from the outside – inside I didn't find that interesting, probably because it was badly damaged in the war and hasn't been used for some centuries. That said, its sheer size and the elegance of some of the architecture does make it a must-see. As Malbork wasn't quite a full day trip, I had time to visit the nearby medieval city of Elblag, which was quite an attractive small city, but with a limited amount of things to see and do – I wouldn't have made the effort of coming had it not been so close to Malbork.

After a few days in the Gdansk area, I moved south towards Warsaw. Roughly midway between Gdansk and the capital is Torun, a charming medieval city, which turned out to be well worth the stopover. The Stare Miasto (old quarter) was really quite beautiful (and not overly damaged by the war), with towers and churches aplenty, and the ruins of yet another Teutonic castle to boot. The main square, with the impressive town hall, also bears a large statue of Nicholas Copernicus, who hailed from Torun (the house where they think he was born is now a museum). I think it would be fair to say that I rather liked the city. 1 day was enough to see its sights however, so from Torun it was 3 or so hours by train to the Polish capital.

Warsaw probably exceeded my expectations, as I really wasn't anticipating to like the city that much. Probably damaged more than any other city in Europe in the Second World War, hardly anything of historical or cultural value was left standing in 1945. That said, I was generally impressed with the regeneration. The first thing to strike me upon arriving in the city, apart from its size, was the international atmosphere of the city, more so than any other city in the Baltics so far, with international shops and organisations such as Carrefour, Tesco and M&S being some of the first things I noticed after leaving the station. The other thing that struck me straight away was a skyscraper called “The Palace of Culture and Science”, which is by far the tallest building in Warsaw, and which looked exactly the same as the Stalinist skyscraper in Riga – it is more or less a replica. The “Old Town” (ironically named) was actually quite picturesque, with a pretty main square complete with Royal Castle (rebuilt in the 1980s after being completely flattened). The narrow streets in this part of town did look as if they were much older than 60 years, so they clearly did a good job rebuilding the city. From the main square, the “Royal Road” links most of the city's main sights , including the Presidential Palace, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Lazienki Park. This park was probably the highlight of the city for me – a gigantic area of woodland dotted with royal palaces (which survived the war), with plenty of wildlife, especially red squirrels as well. That about sums up Warsaw – quite a nice city, but not as impressive and not much to do as Gdansk. After Warsaw, I am now heading to the south of Poland – first up are the cities of Lublin and Krakow, then the Polish Tatras mountains.

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Photos

Sailing past Gdansk shipyards
The sister galleon looks minute compared to this gigantic cargo ship

Comments

[Beata and Tomek]

Great Photos
Hi,I am so glad you liked Gdansk and my favorite castle in Poland;-)You will love Krakow even more - our beloved hometown;)If you are in Tatras stop in Zakopane;-) cheers, Beata