Poland – Day 9

We had a long day today of travelling and not travelling. We started out with breakfast, of course, but then all gathered about 8 AM to say goodbye to Rzeszow and begin our long trek to Zakopane. Of course there were some stops along the way, too.

We took a different route to the south and east today. Our first  stop was the picturesque town of Strzyzow where we visited the market square. As with most towns, it was very picturesque.

Then it was on to Biecz. In the 14^thcentury,  Biecz was a rather large town—it had 3000 people. To compare, at that time the very large city of Krakow was a city of 10,000 people. So Biecz was large and important. Today it is a town of about 4700 people. While there we of course started at the rynek, as we usually do.  Then we walked a bit and found an old church with a very old wall near part of it. This was a defensive wall and was very thick and very high up. Some of it still exists. While there we also saw the church. It is a very nice church inside. Very ornate, typical of the churches we’ve seen. The people of Poland are deeply religious and it shows in the care they show for the churches and in the decorations they have. They obviously spend lots of time and money on their churches.  It was very nice and I took lots of pictures.

Back on the road, and eventually our next stop was Nowy Sacz. We drove through this good-sized town and did drive along and around it’s town square, but did not stop. The word “nowy” in Polish means new, so we journeyed on to the nearby town of Stary Sacz. Guess what  “stary” means!  So we stopped at this old town. Guess where we stopped? You got it, at the rynek!  There we went to the old church called St. Kinga, or in Polish, Kunegunda. It is a church and a convent and the tower is undergoing construction—a new copper roof is being put on. Someone came by and opened the church so we could look inside. Guess what? Another very ornate church, very pretty inside. It was very enjoyable.

Eventually we took our leave of Stary Sacz, heading to our next destination,  Niedzica. By this time, we were getting well into the foothills of the mountains. We even caught some glimpses of the mountains. They are spectacular, with high, snow-covered peaks. Unfortunately, it was quite cloudy and at times a bit foggy today, so the view was not exceedingly clear, but they were there for sure, nonetheless.

Eventually we arrived at Niedzica where we were scheduled for “late lunch.” True to form our 1:30 lunch took place closer to 2:30 or 3:00. However, it was worth waiting for. We all sat at one long table and had an excellent lunch. Our first course was zupa, and this one was called basznica [I have no idea how to spell that, but I’m sure my friend Ewa of the Polish spelling policja will set me straight on it]. It was sauerkraut in a very flavorful broth and had a bit of smoked rib in it. I think it was pork, but it lent a delicious flavor to the soup. There were also some ziemnaki in there, fitting because along the way we saw some farmers digging ziemnaki by hand. The soup was excellent, and I ate every drop.

Next was the main course. We had little pyzy and some exceedingly tender meat covered with a brown grzyby sauce. The grzyby were outstanding—I’d guess they were picked locally as this is the season. Their flavor was outstanding. Add to that the great flavor of the meat, and this was very good. To go with this we had a trio of salads. One was a carrot salad, finely shredded carrots with a sweet and acid type dressing, very good. Another was a cabbage based slaw, it was very good as well. Finally there was a third salad, but at this moment I can’t remember what was in it­—I’ll have to look at my pictures to remember. But I do know that I ate them all, they were all quite good.

Dinner was finished off by dessert, a braised pear covered with a tapioca pudding sauce—It was very good, absolutely delicious. After that we had some kawa c mlekom. And of course ciukier, as the kawa tends to be very strong.

After that, many of us went on a tour of the Niedzica castle. There were a lot of steps there and it was raining a bit, so some of our group decided to forego the trip to the cold castle and remain in the warm comfort of the restaurant. The tour was very good. This was actually a Hungarian castle. In its history, it belonged to Poland only one time. It’s a beautiful old castle built and expanded ever since the 1300s. Imagine how old parts of it is. It is undergoing some renovation at the current time, too. It was a neat tour. Eventually we made it back to the restaurant, rejoined our group, and hit the road yet again. The castle, by the way, overlooks the Dunajec River, and on the other side of the river somewhere are the ruins of a Polish castle, because at one time the Dunajec River was the border between Poland and Hungary (though not it is the Czech Republic across the border).

Eventually we hit the road again, winding through the mountains with more glimpses of the Tatras, first getting to Szaflary, then Maruszyna where one of our group found some distant relation. Now Maruszyna is probably not too big of a town, I would not know as we never got there. When we got close, our bus, which was also towing a trailer with our luggage, pulled to the side of the road. It was decided we could not get any further. For about an hour, maybe less, we sat and waited while several were off in search of their roots. When we eventually got back together, we attempted to turn the bus—with trailer—around. It was no easy task. Eventually the trailer was removed, and some people from the back of the bus moved to the front since the hitch kept hitting the ground. But eventually, due to great driving skills by our driver, Andrzej, we made it turned around.

After that—it was by now quite dark—we headed the last 20 km or so into Zakopane and checked into our hotel. As luck would have it, their restaurant  was closed for a private party tonight. But a few of us went to a nearby hotel and had some piwo and some food and a good time.

So, today was a very long day of travel, way too much bus time, but so it goes. Hopefully tomorrow we will have more time just to look around and shop and see the local sights—I think  that is true. And hopefully the weather will clear up a bit, but you know how easy it is to control the weather…..