Yesterday we left the rain and Berlin behind and cruised down the autobahn (thankfully accident free) - and into Poland. Bump, bump, bump... the road was atrocious! We had 42 long, tedious kilometres of what can only be described as corrugated asphalt. Greg & I were trying to think of a comparison, the best we could come up with was the dirt road into Corroboree Billabong just after the wet season... to add insult to injury, the road on the way out of Poland was smooth and lovely. We were bumping along at 70kms and everyone going out was cruising at 120km!
Once the horrible bit of highway ended, I didn't mind driving - there was considerably less traffic and with a speed limit I felt more comfortable (although we were the only ones who seemed to be paying any attention to the speed limit!). However when we got into the city area it was a bit hectic and I was glad when a wrong turn (at Greg's insistence!) meant he could take over driving. The Lonely Planet guide had spoken about how beautiful Wraclaw is but obviously the beautiful part is right at the old city centre, as the outskirts are dour, grey and depressing. Our hostel is about 12 minutes walk to the old part of town, and it's fairly ugly around here. The Wratislavia Hostel where we are staying is very clean and tidy. We've booked a one bedroom apartment, which has a huge living area, a small kitchenette (although its so cheap to eat out here I can't imagine us bothering to cook), a bed room with a double bed and one single (Bella is on the sofa bed in the lounge room) and a very large bathroom. Greg jokes that it was originally a two bedroom apartment and they changed one room to a bathroom!
We went exploring the city and found somewhere to eat. It really is lovely in the old part of town. Like Berlin, Wraclaw was extensively bombed during the war and most of the old stuff is a facade, but they have done a great job of it! We bought Liam a gnome map for 6 zlotys (the exchange rate is 2.97 zlotys to the Aussie dollar, much better than the bloody euro rate!) as Wraclaw is a city of gnomes. They are everywhere! The map shows over 120, but apparently there are even more. Finding the gnomes is a lot of fun and Liam was reluctant to go back to the hostel last night with so many more gnomes to find!
Today we set off to do our CULTURAL duty to Wraclaw. We started with the Royal Palace which has been restored and turned into a history and art museum, with some royal apartments on display. We saw lots of grand buildings that were obviously palatial, so ignored what the map said, did a few more kms, and discovered that as grand as they were, they were just government offices. The smaller building with the nice garden we'd passed was actually the palace! After back tracking (but finding a gnome - bonus!) we went through the palace. It was quite sad as the rooms covered 1000 years of Wraclaw history, and there was very little to show. Hundreds of years of wars have been inflicted on or in Poland (its been tough being Polish) and pretty much anything that was preserved, was destroyed in WW2.
Our next stop was the Raclawice Panorama. The painting in the round was in the same vein as the one at Waterloo, but in much better condition, with an audio which explained what was what - very helpful. The Panorama was painted in 1894 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the victorious battle of Raclawice (never mind that they went on to be absolutely flogged afterwards - it's a memory of success and it's very important in Poland). Tickets to the Panorama also give you entry to the nearby National Museum, but I think the kids were a bit relieved to find it was closed, so we will go back tomorrow morning before we leave Wraclaw.
So it was onto lunch, and I'd read about the University Refectory in the local guide book. It's a buffet with a delicious range of Polish food, and you pay by weight - 3.75 zloty for 100 grams. It was so good that everyone wants to have lunch there again tomorrow! And now we know exactly where it is :-)
Our last stop for the day was the University itself - some of oldest buildings in Wraclaw (again, mostly heavily restored and rebuilt after WW2). Apparently there are some lovely rooms you can see but although we walked all around the campus we couldn't find the signs (or else they were in Polish and we couldn't read them!) - but by this time we were all running out of sightseeing energy, it was getting dark and cold and time to walk back to the hostel for a rest before dinner!
If you are wondering how we are coping with the cold, well to be honest it hasn't been that cold so far. In Wraclaw our daytime temps are 10 - 12 degrees during the day (but the wind chill makes it colder!) and 4 degrees overnight. Liam, Bella and I wear our thermal bottoms under our jeans everyday, but with our coats haven't had to use our thermal tops yet. Greg has been much tougher and has not pulled out his thermals at all yet, the kids say he has enough hair on his body to keep him warm (although he did comment on the cold as we walked back late this afternoon so maybe he is caving!).
By the way the same handy guide which has helped us find where to eat etc, has a big article on how dangerous driving is in Poland, that all Poles are crazy on the road and there are more automobile accidents here than anywhere else in Europe! So fingers crossed we make it safely to Krakow tomorrow and then onto Budapest!
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