I decided to have a rest from cities today and spent a fair part of the day driving north-east,heading for Poland’s exit. It was an enjoyable drive, a sunny day ,with good roads at which a steady 90kpm could be maintained ,except going through towns and villages, where there is a mandatory 50kpm limit. In Poland people mostly seem to drive very sensibly: I’ve just seen 2 or 3 idiots overtaking at dangerous speed. Speed limits seem to be taken by the majority to be advisory, rather than compulsory, and the driving speed tends to be appropriate for the road conditions, rather than slavishly constrained by the speed limit, which in my view is sensible. Though there are quite a view speed cameras, my satnav gives warning of them.Even so, there are usually signs warning of their presence anyway. What there is a definite absence of is any traffic police. In the more authoritarian countries of the Balkans,and Bulgaria,Romania,and to an extent,Hungary,they are all over the place.I don’t know whether this is because Poland is a naturally more libertarian country ,or whether the police just have some proper work to do.
Poland apparently still has about 16% of its population working in agriculture(UK 1.5%.France and Germany 4%,EU average 4.8%), but it seems to be a very modern intensive agriculture now, and the rural villages look well off, with new agricultural machinery for sale in small town industrial estates.It looks as if the economy is doing well,judging by the standard of the vehicles on the roads,the houses,which are generally smart,the modern light industrial belts on the edges of every town,and the road infrastructure which is at least on a par with the UK,and certainly better than Italy’s.My visit here has also been easy because everyone I have spoken to speaks very good English, which was not necessarily the case in Hungary,Slovakia and the Czech republic.
Driving north east from Torun it’s a patchwork of mostly flat but gently undulating countryside,with huge tracts of bright green young corn,and yellow oilseed rape,forming a pattern with areas of darker green woods and forest.The forest sometimes is just a couple of fields away, but often you get a view across this landscape for miles.
My destination was the Masurian Lakes region of northeast Poland.This is an area of scenic beauty with a mosaic of hundreds of lakes of all sizes, dotted through a largely forested area. It is a very popular holiday destination,with the lakes hosting all kinds of watersports, together with cycling,walking and camping,and probably hunting.
I only had to deviate 20km from my route to visit my “dark tourism” destination of the day, the Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair) which was Hitler’s bunker and command and control centre for the Eastern front in WW2.It was the location of the failed assassination attempt on Hitler by Colonel Claus von Stauffenburg in 1944, which was featured in the film Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise.
The Wolfsschanze is at a place called Gierloz, about 8km east of the town of Ketrzyn, formerly the East Prussian town of Rastenburg.I had always wondered about why it was built here, in what is now Poland, but even before the German conquest of Poland in 1939 it was well inside East Prussia ,as well as the whole Masurian lakes area,and East Prussia generally was one of the most heavily fortified areas of Germany at that period.
Poland apparently still has about 16% of its population working in agriculture(UK 1.5%.France and Germany 4%,EU average 4.8%), but it seems to be a very modern intensive agriculture now, and the rural villages look well off, with new agricultural machinery for sale in small town industrial estates.It looks as if the economy is doing well,judging by the standard of the vehicles on the roads,the houses,which are generally smart,the modern light industrial belts on the edges of every town,and the road infrastructure which is at least on a par with the UK,and certainly better than Italy’s.My visit here has also been easy because everyone I have spoken to speaks very good English, which was not necessarily the case in Hungary,Slovakia and the Czech republic.
Driving north east from Torun it’s a patchwork of mostly flat but gently undulating countryside,with huge tracts of bright green young corn,and yellow oilseed rape,forming a pattern with areas of darker green woods and forest.The forest sometimes is just a couple of fields away, but often you get a view across this landscape for miles.
My destination was the Masurian Lakes region of northeast Poland.This is an area of scenic beauty with a mosaic of hundreds of lakes of all sizes, dotted through a largely forested area. It is a very popular holiday destination,with the lakes hosting all kinds of watersports, together with cycling,walking and camping,and probably hunting.
I only had to deviate 20km from my route to visit my “dark tourism” destination of the day, the Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair) which was Hitler’s bunker and command and control centre for the Eastern front in WW2.It was the location of the failed assassination attempt on Hitler by Colonel Claus von Stauffenburg in 1944, which was featured in the film Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise.
The Wolfsschanze is at a place called Gierloz, about 8km east of the town of Ketrzyn, formerly the East Prussian town of Rastenburg.I had always wondered about why it was built here, in what is now Poland, but even before the German conquest of Poland in 1939 it was well inside East Prussia ,as well as the whole Masurian lakes area,and East Prussia generally was one of the most heavily fortified areas of Germany at that period.
 Hitler's command Bunker  The interpretation of the site is a bit basic |  One of many bunkers at the Wolfsschanze,being reclaimed by the forest  |
The price ,in Zlotys, of the various vehicle rides
Marina on Lake Kisajno The Germans had a go at destroying the place shortly before the Russians overran it, and some bunkers are in bits, others look more or less intact, including Hitler’s bunker.The shell of the brick-built operations room ,where Von Stauffenburg’s bomb went off, still exists too. But after years of being ignored, the forest has overrun the place, giving quite an eerie feel,maybe like lost Aztec temples in the jungle.One good thing has come of them,because they are now home to huge colonies of at least 4 species of bat.In the film Valkyrie,the base is depicted as being in the middle of a midge infested pine forest,but it’s actually quite a pleasant deciduous forest with beech and birch.For the people who aren't in a contemplative mood when they come out of the bunker area, you can take rides in a number of WW2 German vehicles sitting in the carpark,originals or replicas I'm not sure.
I moved on 30km down the road to a campsite/marina/cabin location on the shore of lake Kisajno, by the town of Gizycko, which is a large irregular shaped lake 10km x 10km at its widest,and there are a large number of yachts in the marina.I’m about 30km from the Russian border here (that’s the border of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad,that city being formerly the East Prussian capital Konigsberg.)
The yacht club had a cheerful bar which extended out onto a wooden deck by the waterside, and which served food ,which made for a relaxing location in which to pass the evening.
I moved on 30km down the road to a campsite/marina/cabin location on the shore of lake Kisajno, by the town of Gizycko, which is a large irregular shaped lake 10km x 10km at its widest,and there are a large number of yachts in the marina.I’m about 30km from the Russian border here (that’s the border of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad,that city being formerly the East Prussian capital Konigsberg.)
The yacht club had a cheerful bar which extended out onto a wooden deck by the waterside, and which served food ,which made for a relaxing location in which to pass the evening.
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