East through Poland

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Friday 21st August
East through Poland
Another stunning day and the heat wave continues.
Breakfast was included in the tariff so we enjoyed a hearty meal which included scrambled eggs and Polish sausage.There was even a toaster although the bread wasn’t exactly cut for toasting!!But needs must and it has been a few days since we were able to make toast and spread on some jam!!
The stay here has been short but very enjoyable and comfortable and we would look this town up again if we ever make it back to Poland.
The goal today is Wadowice a town virtually east of where we stayed and the idea is to take a route that first heads east and then dives south a little before finally north to our destination.This way we would miss the combined cities of Katowice etc.
Our drive out of Polanica-Zdroj takes us through an avenue of trees which we have often come across on this part of the adventure across Europe so far.We think that the trees have been planted along the road side to offer shade from the hot sun and they do a good job at this.Well thats our theory anyway!!
There are a number of drivers taking risks this morning on what really is not a good road surface.The road has two distinct channels down it seemingly where trucks have left their impression when the road surface has been hot and tar melting.This makes driving a bit of a game as you don’t want to ride the ridges of the channels as they can throw you of course depending upon the speed you are doing.
The road outer edges of the road are well patched and there is no shoulder as such which you could use as an escape route safely.One wouldn’t even want to contemplate what would happen if we steered RR off the road!!So we keep our speed down which will probably mean the journey is going to take longer but better to arrive late than not at all !!
One of the features of the Polish road signs are that some of them like the one indicating a pedestrian crossing,is illuminated even during the day and it shows a person in three stages walking across the road.You could hardly miss it even from a distance.
Another of the features we are noticing also are the ‘monuments’of Christ on the cross which dot the side of the road every 10 or so kilometres often out in the countryside no where near a town.They don’t appear to be there because of perhaps a road crash that has taken lives but perhaps as something to do with a religious blessing for travellers.Anyway it it something to be checked out in Wikipedia or some such internet site to see if we can verify the reason for their prominence.
The countryside we are passing through is all set aside for crops and we haven’t passed a farm animal in the first couple of hours of driving.It was the same yesterday in the drive up to the border in the Czech Republic.They must some farm animals somewhere but just not near the roads we are driving along.
Our route so far is along road#46 and as we approach Nysa we pass two lakes,again something we haven’t seen a lot of since we arrived in Europe except when we were in the Netherlands and that was an inland sea.One of the lakes has a large embankment along the road we are driving and it soon becomes apparent why.The lake is being used as storage for a hydro power station.We haven’t seen the electric wind turbines in Poland that were evident in the Czech Republic and even more so further west in Germany and the Netherlands.
The road we need to travel on switches to #41 and we decided upon the next major town of Prudnik to be our lunch stop.After calling into a supermarket and buying rolls and a drink we had our picnic lunch on the grass in the main square of the town.
We must have really looked out of place as no one else was sitting on the grass and people passing by on the footpaths gave us a second look.Then we discovered why perhaps the locals don’t have picnics in their town square,they let their dogs roam it and don’t pick up the doggie doos!!!As we were finishing lunch Gretchen remarked on how she had thought there was a strange smell nearby and closer examination just beyond her stretched out leg told us what the smell was!!
The road continued further east from Prudnik as #40 and it was from Kedzierzyn-Kozle(what a mouthful!!) that we had planned to head south a little to avoid the trio of cities ahead.
However we were taking longer than we anticipated and my mutual agreement we changed plans and carried on with the idea of joining the A4(major highway) for a short distance and then carrying on through the outskirts of Gliwice towards Tychy.This change of plan would save kilometres and because of that,time.
It doesn’t pay sometimes to change plans when you are on the road unless you know there is going to be a holdup ahead!!And boy was there a holdup,not just one but two major ones that we couldn’t do anything about once we were stuck in the traffic.
First,a bus had broken down at a major intersection as we passed through Tychy and although when we finally got past it after 45 minutes of stop start motoring it appeared to be only blocking the right hand turning lane it seemed to be affecting all three lanes at a set of lights.Polish buses looked aged and it was probably the 30C+ heat that caused the breakdown.
Then as we approached Oswiecim on route #44 we encountered another hour of stop start driving because of a major road diversion and the heavy flow of traffic clogging up roundabouts through the town.
Had we stuck to the original plan we would have been at our destination 2 hours earlier as planned.
We also knew that our luck in finding our accommodation booked over the internet with a set of plans of roads to follow from Google Maps,would ahve to run out and today it did,well for a short while.
We drove down the road which the hotel was supposed to be on and when we reached the outskirts of town knew we had missed the place.So back we went this time spotting the large sign on the roadside that we had missed for some reason on the first driveby.Mind the hotel wasn’t anywhere the road we thought it was supposed to be but instead about 1km down what wasn’t much more than a farm road.
Upon driving into the grounds of the hotel it looked like the place was completely deserted except for one window on an upper level that was open.So we went in and eventually a guy came to the reception and immediately told us he had no rooms available.We got across to him that we had a booking made over the internet and he shuffled through his papers and found the email with our reservation.
It had been a long day and we didn’t feel like bringing the microwave in so we headed back to the town a couple of kilometres away to sus out a cafe for dinner and a cold beer.
We found a place in the square with very reasonably priced meals and a menu in English!!!no chicken livers for Gretchen tonight!!!
As we sat there drinking our local beer and enjoying dinner in the warm evening we noticed the large Catholic church on the other side of the square with people all stopping by a statue and taking photos.After dinner we thought we better investigate what the statue was all about only to find it was of the previous Pope and that he was born in the town of Wadowice.There were information boards detailing his 3 Papal visits to the town during his time as Pope.And we ahdn’t even realised that when we chose the hotel and town it was situated in from the internet that it was such an important place!!
We can have a sleep in tomorrow as we plan to visit Aucshwitz and by all accounts it is best to go in the afternoon when the crowds are less.

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Comments

[Martin & Marie]

Family
Been watching your travels closely. Kilkenny (Butlers) Castle in Ireland are my Ancestors and my other ancestors came from Tczew in Poland. (Kurowski Family) Happy travelling