Du durchsuchst gerade das Monatsarchiv für den Dezember 2010.
Saturday morning was one as I have had many times in this part of Poland. Getting up rather early, no breakfast and than … waiting in the cold for things to come. We were waiting in Szreniawa for the 09.05 steam train from Poznań to Wolsztyn. On this particular railway line the last regular steam trains of Europe are running on a daily basis. And that fact attracts lots of photographers (and in summer also lots of “normal” tourists, i.e. people who are not hard core steam train fans). Since the steam locomotives are not in a perfect condition the engines are replaced by diesel locomotives. But today everything was running according to the plan, after 20 minutes waiting the train rolled into the small station for a brief stop. We followed the steam train down to Wolsztyn, the former german Wollstein, and had a brief look in the locomotive depot. It was already around noon and we still hadn’t eaten anything apart from a dutch snack, so it was about time to eat something.
The class OL49 hauled train leaves Szreniawa
The same train at the semaphore in Rakoniewice
OL49 7 with its two coaches in Rakoniewice
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The lunch was taken in a restaurant where I usually have dinner with other railway photographers. Though the official name of the restaurant is “Smakocz” we call it “The Police Station”, the latter is adjacent to the restaurant. The waitress remembered me and asked immediately how many buns we wanted to have with our scrambled eggs.
Around 13:00 we left Wolsztyn, because we still had one place to visit before we were to make the last kilometers back to Berlin. On the south eastern skirts of the small city of Swiebodzin a priest had a giant statue of Jesus erected (see also here). He has saved money for years and years in order to build it. The statue is said to be even larger than the one in Rio de Janeiro. Since the statue is brand new we were eager to see it. It is huge and one can argue about how beautiful it is. The size of the building crane gives kind of an impression how large the statue really is. I am sure it will become a big tourist attraction.
Larry shows that the statue really isn’t THAT big (variation on the Pisa theme)
The statue with the building crane behind it
A detail of the statue
Very practical, there is a shopping mall including parking place in front of the statue
From Swiebodzin it is just a small ride back to Berlin. We got briefly stuck in a traffic jam near Rzepin, due to the construction of the last part of the A2 highway towards the german-polish border. We were lucky, we only stood for 15 minutes. The traffic jam from the border towards Rzepin was way worse, over 10 kilometers of traffic jam … So next time I will enter Poland I will avoid this road.
At the end of the afternoon we got back to Berlin, safe and sound. We had had a terrific journey through Poland and Lithuania!
In the Gromada hotel in Łomża we had seen on a city map that there is a jewish cemetery in the eastern part of the city. On Friday morning we said goodbye to our hotel, of which we liked the elevator best. Never been in such a fast elevator in Eastern Europe before. The cemetery we visited is the old cemetery in Łomża, there is also a new cemetery which we didn’t visit.
The old jewish cemetary in Łomża
Only on a few tombstones the texts were still readable
Tombstone covered with snow
Impression of the old cemetery in Łomża
We had quite some kilometers ahead of us for this Friday. We had decided to skip the visit to Łódz and to travel to Poznań instead. Thus we could make a lot of kilometers on Friday, do a couple of things on Saturday and still be back in Berlin on time to have dinner with some friends. Furthermore Larry would still have to drive back to the Netherlands of Sunday, so he was keen on making not too many kilometers on Saturday.
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Our Friday route
We got pretty fast in Warsaw, because route 8 from Białystok was perfectly clean. The route has some new by passes which the navigation system didn’t know about. It was funny to see how we were going cross country according the Garmin map on board.
Driving cross country according to the Garmin map
To my surprise there was a narrow gauge steam locomotive standing along the road in Warszawa Maki, for the fans of steam trains, click here for a website.
In Warsaw we got stuck in the Friday afternoon traffic jam, that cost us some time. What was worse was that I made my only map reading mistake here … Instead of taking route 2 + 14 towards the A2 high way we took route 8 further south. Somehow I had in mind that a section of the A2 is crossing route 8. Well, as I discovered it doesn’t. Hence we were forced to take a detour via Rawa Mazowiecka. To make it worse it started snowing again when we were driving on route 72 towards Łódz and the direct road towards the highway was blocked due to reconstruction work.
Once we reached the highway our fate took a better turn. It had stopped snowing and we reached Poznań pretty fast. The last bit of todays journey we didn’t use the navigation system, for it would have sent us through the entire old city – and that would have cost a bit more time. Instead we used the highway as far as possible.
We soon had found our hotel. The night before I had already booked a room in the Orbis Hotel in Poznań. It was a special offer that was worth its price! We had the most spacious room of the entire trip! Furthermore we had a good parking place for the car as well. The only two things we didn’t book was internet (Zł 39,- per day) and breakfast (because that costs Zł 44,-!). Since we had driven 514 kilometers we first took a nap before we went into the old town.
The hotel is perfectly located so it takes less than 10 minutes to walk to the old town of Poznań. The Stary Rynek looked great with all the snow. Larry quickly discovered a jewish restaurant, Cymes, close to the old market square and after a short look at the menu we decided to have our dinner here. It was to be the best meal of the entire trip! If you go there, I can recommend the Szmulganz! A tiny remark is that the food is definitively not kosher, but within the menu map there is a nice explanation for that.
Of course we had brought our cameras and tripods with us, so after our delicious dinner we made a tour through the old town. Below are some impressions of Poznań in the snow.
The tower of the Fara church and the former Jesuit College
Detail of the Jesuit College, seen in the Gołębia Street
The Town Hall at Stary Rynek (Old Market)
The cathedral at the “Dominsel” (the “cathedral island”)
It was only slowing lightly when we had breakfast in our hotel. The navigation system brought us smoothly out of town and everything looked like a brilliant start of our journey homewards. But after about an hour it started snowing more and more severely. Due to the stormy wind from the east the snow was dancing on the streets – in the open areas the snow didn’t cover the streets. But in the woods and in villages it didn’t take long before the snow was piled over 30 centimeters high.
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Clickable map of today’s route
In Lithuania many villages are located off the main roads. Due to the heavy snow we could hardly see through what landscape we were driving. But shortly before the Lithuanian-Polish border we saw what we had hoped to find: a typical wooden church.
The yellow wooden church in Šventežeris (Lithuania)
The main street in Šventežeris
After we had passed the border, which is due to Schengen no longer in use, we drove on route 16 through the Wigry National Park. I missed a road sign warning travelers for wolfs! The road itself was spectacular enough, in this case I was glad we reached Augustow safely.
On route 16 on the way to Augustow
In Augustow we had scrambled eggs for lunch; we briefly discussed what to do, because it was pretty clear that our original plan to visit two Tatar villages near Białystok was due to the weather and hence road condition out of the question. We would try to get as far as we could by daylight towards Warsaw.
Around dusk we arrived in Łomża. We easily found an hotel which has great communist charm (experienced Poland travelers will know what I mean: the interior, the heating system …). After a nap we made a stroll through the city. It became pretty clear why Łomża is not mentioned in the Lonely Planet. There are apart from two churched no things to see or to do. The city doesn’t have more than 2 restaurants, one of them being closed (and the only one open is in hour hotel). In the evening we saw that the roads have been cleaned rather well, so things look good for tomorrow.
After we had visited the Vilnius University we walked by the presidential palace which is situated in the middle of the Old Town. Then Larry and I went different ways. Larry went to see the Vilna Gaon Jewish Museum and after that the KGB Museum, officially known as the Museum of Genocide Victims (one can argue about that name, though …). I had other plans. Wednesday, the first of December was a splendid, cold and sunny winterday – and the winter light was inviting me back to Trakai. In the morning we had already briefly visited the railway station in order to verify the time table. Around 13:00 I made my way to the station again, now to by tickets and to catch the 13:30 to Trakai. Of course I first went to the wrong hall, there they only sold long distance tickets. I ran over to the second hall to obtain my return ticket. The lady at the desk started to ask all kinds of questions which I didn’t understand. It turned out I had to buy tickets for particular trains (the train number is printed on the ticket), but with the help of the good old paper and pencil we managed everything perfectly well.
As most people know I love traveling by train. The ride to Trakai only took about half an hour but it was worth it. I enjoyed the hilly environment of Vilnius, I saw a nice railway bridge, an interesting wooden (!) signal box painted yellow and red – and lots of long, long freight trains. Even though the train was heated I was cold, the reason being that the windows still let the ice cold wind through. Even though all windows were additionally sealed with taped …
Around 14:00 I arrived in Trakai. I marched through the city, knowing that the light would start fading away in about an hour. On the way to the castle I could satisfy me need of pictures of wooden houses in the snow. The castle was beautifully lit by the last glances of sunlight of the day, making the red bricks glow dark red. The lake, that wasn’t frozen when we were here two days ago was now almost entirely covered with ice. It must have been pretty cold in the country site! A coffee and a chocolate cake made me revive from the cold and at 16:38 I was leaving Trakai – happy that I had used the wonderful winter light for some pictures.
Back in Vilnius I saw the night train from Kaliningrad to Moscow, the Jantar Express. I couldn’t go to the platform where the train stopped, because there was a border control within the railway station (the train is running from the russia exclave Kaliningrad to the russian mother country, passing the Schengen area). Then it got too cold and I got back to the hotel, eager to hear Larry’s stories about the museums.
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The route I took by train (clickable map)
A local train at the station of Vilnius
Wooden house in Trakai
Another wooden house with icicles
Winter street in Trakai
The Trakai castle, but now with day light
The castle from another point of view
I like the castle in Trakai (even though this is a replica, built by the Russians after WWII)
The bridge connection the castle with the peninsula on which Trakai is situated
Sunset impression in Trakai
Two days are never enough to discover a new place. We did Vilnius high speed yesterday already, so today we had just a few white spots on our map left. One of the nice discoveries we made was the Republic of Uzupio (see also here), which one can find in the eastern part of town. It is a republic with its own anthem, for different flags (one for each season) and an army that consists of 12 people. After a brief stroll through this bohemian part of town we were heading for the university. The university is located in the northern part of town and has no official entrance. The buildings are scattered around 12 different squares. We just tried our luck and opened a gate at Pilies Street and were lucky that we indeed had found one of the hidden gates to the university premises. The location is beautiful, and there are lots of beautiful views to discover here!
Street near the Gate of Dawn
The main street in the Old Town
Houses that haven’t been restored yet
The entrance to the Republic of Uzupio (the Republic starts behind the bridge over the river Vilna)
Statue, seen at the river Vilna (it is said to have a link with the Republic of Uzupio)
At the university I
At the university II
