We’d just had a great drive through six pretty places in southern Poland as part of our road trip around north-eastern Europe. Now we were driving our motorhome Vanni on an easterly route, with the historic city of Lublin being our next stop.
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| Gates and towers of Lublin, Poland |
We drove into Lublin and found the old town surrounded by an impressive fortified wall and gates, and looked forward to seeing inside it. But we'd had a bad GPS moment getting to Lublin.
Our GPS took us onto a minor road that had a low tunnel. Luckily, we stopped before we went through as it would have been a disaster in our big motorhome. We had to retrace our route and drive another 30 minutes back to the main road, before carrying on to find Lublin. It was worth it though, because we discovered that Lublin is lovely.
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| Marg in Market Square in the old town of Lublin, Poland |
Once inside Lublin’s fortified wall and gates, we walked the interesting cobbled streets. Lublin dates back to the 6th century and has a lot of historic architecture. We wandered around for ages enjoying its ambience, and seeing most of its famous sights such as the old town, Market Square, the Dominican Church, and the medieval Lublin Castle.
The Castle, with its neo-Gothic architecture, was very interesting. Sitting just outside the Old Town area, it is one of the oldest ex-royal residences in Poland.
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| Stunning frescoes in Holy Trinity Chapel, Lublin Castle, Lublin, Poland |
Within the castle is a huge tower or keep (see centre of the first photo in this blog above). Close to the tower is the Holy Trinity Chapel, and while the outside of this Chapel is attractive but straightforward, the inside is stunning. It is beautifully decorated with hand-painted 15th century frescoes.
Painted using flax and straw added to dyed and wet mortar, the frescoes depict scenes from the life of Mary and Christ. The artwork was amazing and has been wonderfully preserved.
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| Wooden Orthodox Church of St Michael, Bielsk Podlaski, Poland |
Leaving Lublin, we drove north to the town of Bielsk Podlaski where an interesting bright blue wooden church caught our eye. It turned out to be the Orthodox Church of St. Michael.
The town of Bielsk Podlaski dates back to the 12th century, but there wasn’t much else to keep us there. A few interesting sights other than the bright blue church, were another Orthodox church (but not blue), some interesting historic wooden houses, the site of a medieval fortification called Castle Hill, and a couple of Catholic churches.
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| Contemporary Orthodox Holy Trinity Church in Hajnówka, Poland |
Soon after, we arrived in the town of Hajnówka and spotted the very contemporary Orthodox Holy Trinity Church - such a contrast to the historic blue church in Bielsk Podlaski.
We attempted to pronounce the town names properly, but struggled with the Polish language. We can usually understand a Latin-root language when written and sometimes when spoken, but Polish stumped us. Some driving examples are: uwaga (caution); koniec (end, e.g. end of bends in the road); wypadki (accidents); policja (police); auto serwice (car service). We’re working on it!
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| Leigh in Białowieża Forest (UNESCO), Poland |
Leaving Bielsk Podlaski, we drove east through lovely scenery to reach the Białowieża Forest which is on the border of Poland and Belarus. This forest is the last primeval forest in Europe and part of an immense woodland that once stretched across the European Plain. It’s now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The village of Białowieża is on the edge of the forest in one of the most remote parts of Europe. We found a small and very peaceful campground there having only the sounds of birds, frogs, and an occasional car.
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| Marg ready for bird-spotting in Białowieża Forest (UNESCO), Poland |
At 4:30 am the next morning, because you can only enter the Forest with a licensed guide, we set off with guide Arek and four Englishmen who were all bird or fauna enthusiasts.
Arek was incredibly knowledgeable about the living forest. We thoroughly enjoyed our 3-hour forest walk and felt the early start was worth it. We saw and heard a new range of birds, and spotted some little voles, squirrels and frogs. It was fantastic – except for the huge mosquito swarms - thank goodness for an effective insect repellent as they absolutely love eating Marg.
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| Bison in the Białowieża Forest (UNESCO), Poland |
So later, we cycled through the edge of the forest to the Breeding Centre to see them. They are majestic and absolutely massive - we felt privileged seeing them even though they weren’t in the wild.
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| Orthodox St. Nicholas Church, Białowieża, Poland |
A few days later, we cycled around the small village of Białowieża (pop. 2,000), then passed the Orthodox St. Nicholas Church built under the reign of Alexander III of Russia. From 1888 to 1917 the village belonged to the tsar of Russia and there is an interesting building complex once owned by the tsars, that is now a hotel and restaurant.
We really enjoyed our time in this forest area, and after a lovely peaceful break, we headed north.
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| Marg in front of quaint wooden houses in Narew, Poland |
Around 40-minutes later, we drove onto a small side-road that took us to the 16th century village of Narew. It’s a rural village of around 1,400 people, that has a very small centre, three interesting and large churches, and many quaint wooden houses.
After trying to find a place to buy food, we found nothing open and so after a look around, we carried on north with our next stop being the town of Białystok.
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| Leigh outside Branicki Palace, Białystok, Poland |
The main attraction in Białystok is Branickis' Palace. The Palace was a home of the wealthy and influential noble family of Branicki, who used to own the whole city of Bialystok.
We found parking, then walked around the Palace and its lovely gardens. We also walked around the Białystok old town square with its many cafés, then after a delicious ice-cream, we moved on. We thought that Białystok was very lovely. This whole region is very green and, known as the Green Lungs of Poland.
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| Nesting storks in Tykocin, Poland |
Leaving Białystok, we drove to the small villages of Tykocin and Kiermusy, which are known as ‘stork-villages’. The storks, after migrating from southern Africa, build their nests in Poland.
The nests are the most amazing structures of twigs built on the top of power poles and chimneys, or on specially built stands made by the locals who believe that a stork nest brings luck, and protects the house against fires and lightning strikes.
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| Main street of Suwałki, Poland |
Next, we drove to Augustów and looked in vain for a campground, then 30 minutes later, we reached town of Suwałki. It has and interesting main street, a central square, and lots of austere Soviet style apartments.
We found a cosy little family-run campground there and spent the evening chatting to a South African/Aussie couple who had been travelling in their 4-wheel drive motorhome for 8 years!
The next morning, we drove out of Poland and will return later in the trip. Our next stop is Lithuania, but you can read about that in our next blog.
This blog describes part of our 6-month motorhome trip around northern and eastern Europe, which began in Prague