Kazimierz Dolny

This weekend we went to Kazimierz Dolny, a city to the South-East of Warsaw near the Ukrainian border. We travelled via bus with Lisa’s friend Karen, Karen’s cousin, and her cousin’s husband for a very nice weekend out in this small town.

Lisa and Karen had been before but the rest of us didn’t really know what to expect. We got to the city around lunch time and had a nice meal, then decided to explore the downtown and sites to be seen nearby before heading over to the castle (more on this later). We saw a lovely old church from the 1600’s, hiked up to see the hill of three crosses and a fantastic view of the city and all along the river, then over to a ruined castle and a tower. A long day of walking and hiking around, we ended with a long walk to the ferry, went across the river, and then another long walk and small hike up to another ruined castle.

We had made reservations prior to coming and had split the group for accomodations: Carroll and David stayed at the Zamek (castle) and Lisa, myself, and Karen stayed at the Dwor (manor hourse) right nearby. Being tired from the day full walks and hikes, we were glad to finally put our things down in our rooms and to enjoy a nice evening meal and long conversation afterwards with deliciously cold beer. While we were drinking the staff left and we ended up being the only ones left in the ruined castle! Karen, Lisa, and I eventually took our leave of the castle and made our way through the pitch black night to the Dwor, then quickly were off to sleep.

The next day we awoke, showered, collected our things and went over to the Zamek for a delicious Polish breakfast (bread, butter, tomato and cucumber slices, and a giant pot of coffee!). Afterwards we checked out and took a look at the museum part outside of the Zamek showing old-time machines that the people used for farming and making clothes as well as old boats they once used. With that we hiked down a different (and shorter!) path back to the ferry and made our way down the long walk back to the center of Kazimierz Dolny.

At this point David and Carroll decided to take a boat ride down the river, while Karen, Lisa, and I went off to hike through a gorge. The walk was gorgeous as the branches of trees arc over the path we walked and the foliage a beautiful green, a ray of sun light occasionaly breaking through the canopy. We walked to the top of the gorge where it flattened out to a hilltop, then made our way back down to the city. Altogether again, we had a lovely meal at U Fryzera (which translates to a barber shop, which was a part of their theme I guess). We got to the bus just fine and on our way back to Warsaw managed to get lost (well there was an accident and the bus driver was told by another to go on a detour that got us lost and had the driver asking people passing by how to get to Warsaw) but ended up having not lost much time.

A very nice trip, wonderful company, and completely refereshing. It was nice to take a break from the computer for a couple days and to go exploring. Now back again, I am happy to return to my work with a fresh energy and a calm mind.