Vacations in Poland

Borek

Comfortable place in the country - village Cieplice Dolne, far from city noise, city smells and traffic.





No traffic, but farm sounds and animals around. Smells happen as well, that's what agritourism is about.





Picturesque views, villages, roads and forests.





For those following PF photography thread: do you have a sense of déjà vu like I did?



Rich and abundant nature all around.





Log cabin anyone? House we lived in is a log cabin as well, although it was refurbished 2 years ago and to some extent lost its original nature.



But we are here to bike!



Shortest summary: we did 700 km on bikes in 11 days, 86.08 km on the last day (and it wasn't the longest trip). Honestly, on the last day and through the last 15 kilometers I was going in circles, just to get past 700 We've been to Krzeszów (NW corner of the map), then clockwise: Tarnogród, Cewków (barely readable, left to Stary Dzików), Sieniawa, Jarosław, Przeworsk and Leżajsk and many places between.



This is historically rich area - Przeworsk was granted town charter in 1393, almost exactly 100 years before Columb sailed to America. Leżajsk in 1397. Jarosław - in 1375 or earlier. Poles, Ukrainians and Jews - all left their marks. This is view from the town square in Leżajsk.



Sieniawa became a city in 1676. Sieniawa Palace was built around 1700, it took current form in 1881/3.



For obvious reasons two of these pictures were not taken by me...

Andre

Thanks, Borek, Lovely pictures. I'd hoped, no I was sure, you'd post those.

turbo

What a great vacation! Thanks for the pictures.

Evo

Great pictures of your trip Borek, thank you!

I assume the lovely lady is your wife?

waht

Fajne wakacje.

Borek

Thank you all

The one on the left. There are two lovely ladies on the pictures, but in fact last three days I have spent with five lovely ladies. Four of them work together, but its the fifth one (carrying a kitten in a basket in case you wonder) that is definitely the lovliest:



Her eye is swollen as she was biten by a mosquito.

tribdog

phew, I thought you were beating your kid again. looks like a mosquito got her on the ankle too.

Borek

Both ankles and somewhere on the hands. And she is not mine, she is a granddaughter of the house owner. It happens that her mother (daughter of the owner) works with my wife, that's why we get there and not somewhere else.

tribdog

Oh, so you were giving someone else's kid a black eye. That's okay then.

Evo

She looks like she's covered in bites, poor thing.

tribdog

bites, or bruises. That's enough about the kid, Borek beat up.
I think it is so amazing and interesting to see places where things were happening hundreds and hundreds of years ago. We just don't have cool stuff like castles over here. I've seen the Indian stuff and it just doesn't hold a candle to European building

Borek

Few bites are not enough to stop her, she is like a mercury - shining, fast and agile

turbo

Reminds me of my neighbor's grand-daughters, aged 3 and (just) 5. They live with him and his wife and their daughter. If it's nice out, they are riding their bikes, playing in the dirt, or maybe playing in the play-house he built for them. If it's raining out they are riding their bikes, playing in the mud or in the play-house. They're not big on dolls - they love toy tractors, backhoes...anything that moves dirt. Bug-bites?!!! I spit on your wimpy bugs!!

They like to visit and get apples from my trees, and they LOVE it when I let them dig their own beets and carrots from my garden for the family's supper. Those girls are going to be gardening fools. Today their grandfather brought me a big bag of smaller bulbs of Russian garlic for us to use in pickles and salsas this summer so that we can save the big ones that we grew to plant as this winter's sowing.

Borek

Four more that you can find interesting.

Patchwork road. We have also seen checkerboard road, but we had no camera with us then. In general many secondary roads are in poor condition, although it changes rapidly thanks to EU funds.


Old and new - that's what you can see in many places. Sometimes grandparents live in the log cabin, as they don't want to move to the new house. New one is built just a feet from the old one to save on space. In this particular place there is a small shrine ahead of the green house - that's rather unusual, there are lots of road shrines, but they are rarely on the yards.


Surprise surprise! This is a milk can. When I was a kid they could be seen in every village in the country ahead of each house, as they were collected twice a day (morning and evening) after cows were milked. I thought this procedure was abandoned with raising hygienic standards, but it looks at least in some places it is still working the old way.


Well, this one is not necesarilly interesting, but still amusing. It looks OK, but it doesn't sound good. I have tried to play it on a recorder and the last swallow sits too high

Evo

Great pictures again Borek!! Thank you for the background on each one, it makes them all the more interesting.

LowlyPion

Maybe the 4th swallow is just learning to write music?

Great pictures though. Looks like a step back in time.

Thanks for sharing.

Borek

Memories of the past...





More or less this picture perfectly summarizes situation in Poland:



Abundant nature, old infrastructure, growing industry, hurdles ahead