The last section of the Republic of Poland put behind me, but surely, those twenty-three days of walking stay in my mind as a most charming experience.

 

 

I flew together with Daniel, my son, to Warszaw Lody Chopin Airport, took the train to Lublin after a delicious meal in the train station Warszawa Centralna. Lublin train station is a bit off city centre but close enough for a chilling-off walk along the avenues.

 

Best hotel in town is from my own experience IBB Grand Hotel Lubelski with a very attractive tarif. Double room from 350 Zloty including a generous breakfast.

 

In the morning by taxi 13 Zloty, again back to the bus station next to the trains, to catch the 08.01 connection to Frampol, our starting point.

 

Lovely weather, after all flat land (Poland comes from 'pole' which means 'field' or 'flat land' cf. Dutch 'polder') we started to see some elevations but only for a short while. Our destination and most of our route further south-east turned out to be as flat as ever. And even as sandy as before. More than 600 kilometers with sandy soil. Easy walking and gentle to your feet. Not exactly but relatively speaking. Frampol, a sweet Little Town from the early 18th C., was almost completely destroyed during WWII as the Luftwaffe targeted it on 13 September 1939 for 'instructive aims'. It was not a military object. Thus a war crime, a terror act like Guernica two years before.

 

We bought some bread and cheese and set on, in fact not towards south but more to the east.

Frampol is the said Place for Isaac Singer's novel Gimpel the Fool. Everywhere there are various marks from the visit 1987 of Jan Pawel II i.e. (Polish) pope John Paul II. In the village of Radziecin there is a Park Papieski, an arboretum to his honor.

 

 

 

From 09:30 to noon we walked under a pretty hot sun on bitumen roads with no or very little traffic. We had our bread and cheese 'lunch' in a forest

 

 

 

that led us south to the town of Bilgoraj, another scene of Isaac Singer's novels.

 

                                                  Daniel fann snart adress och telefon till sina kollegor på polska skogsstyrelsen.

Ingången till skogen mellan Frampol och Bilgoraj.
   Här som vid flera andra skogsentréer fanns pedagogiska
introduktioner, bord och bänkar för studier.

Hotel Sikarski. Rekommenderas varmt.
Välförtjänst kall Tyskie öl, som avnjöts med
pumpasoppa och polska piroger som kallades
ryska men som var dumplings, ett slags ravioli.







 

 

The first day was not that long, 20-25 km but perhaps a bit too warm, +25°C. www.meteoprog.pl did promise cooler weather and even some rain and we were Confident that we would make use of our 'wet equipment' - my French natural rubber boots and Daniel's Lundhags leather boots. We asked our way out of Bilgoraj around 9 o'clock in the morning. People we asked said 'Don't you have money to take a cab? They did not have a clue of our intended walking route across the fields to Edwardow village.

Taking the east exit, we passed old and new industries and private villas. There is abundance of EU signs of co-financing. Not on these constructions though.

more to come....

POLEN. ETAPP 5.

Så är det dags att packa, checka in on-line, kolla passet och resten! Denna gång i sällskap med Daniel. Det är mer än tjugo år sen sist, då vi vandrade uppför både Galdhöpiggen och Kebnekaise, en härlig resa under tre sommarveckor 1993 från söder till norr. Min femte etapp i Polen blir den sista. Avsikten är att vandra under fyra dagar från Frampol till Narol via staden Bilgoraj och genom Polens finaste lövskogsreservat.
Time for packing, to check-in on-line, check the passport and the rest! This time together with my son, Daniel. More than twenty years have elapsed, as we in 1993 climbed the two no 1 peaks (Galdhöpiggen, 2.469 m in Norway and Kebnekaise, 2 106 m in Sweden) - a splendid journey during three summer weeks from South to North. My fifth Walking in Poland we be the last one, from Frampol to Narol through the Isaac Singer town of Bilgoraj and lush leaves forest reserves.
This time, for a change, I have got detailed and real good maps as shown here.

Now, Narol is not the end of Poland. In fact, I still have some fifteen kilometers to the Polish-Ukrainian border but given the tight schedule from Thursday to Tuesday, this is the option we have. I will have to decide where to continue next year, in April. For sure, I will fly back from L'vov in Ukraine.

Planning for walking through Polska Lubelskie

3 July 2014, My next part in September will also be the last part in Poland. From Lublin to the Ukrainian border is 150 kms along the main roads. To experience a safer and more relaxing route, I will start south of Lublin at Janów through some of the finest parts, including nature reserves and finish in the town of Narol. Also, I need to make this distance, some 100 kms, in four days only. This time, my son Daniel will walk with me. He is fluent in Russian and a biologist. We are both looking forward to join for this event. Aside from the natural sensations there are many cultural things to relate to. Isaac Singer, jiddisch author and 1978 Nobel Prize Winner was born in Bilgoraj, one of the towns we will visit.

 

POLEN - April 2014

Again, I believe I need to write in English since several of my new Polish friends along my way won't understand Swedish.
21 April
This fourth time in Poland since the start from Gdansk in September 2012 I flew to Warsaw Chopin Airport and after short while looking for maps in the Central station I took the train to Tluszcz (approx. where I ended my previous walk last September). The Batory hotel was excellent, friendly and really value for money (B&B 105 Zl).
22 April
The only map I could find was, in the gas station across the street from the hotel, a standard road map for the Mazowiecki region leaving much detailed information out. However, looking for the right exit from this town Tluszcz a grandfather, Henryk, and his little grandson David suddenly came in my way and pointed out and accompanied me accross a small ditch

 and then I was on my straight way through the fields and into the woods far from traffic noise and life danger.

 

Most forest from Gdansk to Warsaw have been forests either sparsely grown with fur trees or 

 

with hardwood like oak and beech. Inbetween and along open fields is lush vegetation and the sheer greenery

 

 

Soon the dirt road becomes more stable and the next village is near. 

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In Mianse there are grounds fenced in waiting for investors - here, though, no sign SPRZEDAM - For sale.

 

Street signs are common and remind of Poland's catholic legacy, here of one of the national heroes or church icons, Stefan Wyszynski, cardinal, archbishop and pastor primas of Poland (1901-1980).

Normally, five kilometers take an hour to walk but this first day without a proper i.e. detailed map it took more than one and a half hour. Starting not until 10:30 a.m. the body called for bread and water in the nearest store - SKLEP, not to mix up with CHLEB which means 'bread'. But you can be sure to find chleb in every sklep...

 

Poland is a land of horses, like Sweden more for pleasure than for farming but sometimes like outside the village of Franciszkow, I met these beautifully dark horses, like twins, and after a brief 'dzien dobry' and a handshake, the Friesian (?) horses with the man continued.

 

Soon after, a white stork landed a few meters from the road, fully occupied looking for frogs and other food stuff did not bother about me on the road.

In the green, a insignificant creek formed its way between willows.

But for me not so insignificant, when I realised that I had left my rubber boots at home. 

 



 

 

 



 



 

This was not the end of the day or even the beginning of the end - it was the end of the beginning. More hours of walking before reaching Stanslawow.



 

SOUTHERN POLAND - ETAPP 4

Hi, soon April and a new leg to my walk through Poland is materialising. It will start 22 April from Tluszcz (try to pronounce that namn, the 'l' is a Polish one with a bar and is in fact not an l but more a 'w' in wool). The aim is to reach Lublin within two weeks prefably sooner or I will miss my flight back to Sweden... Some 200 kms. I shall need to find and secure accommodation for the nights at convenient distances, 25 to 30 kms between each. This stretch will take me across more flat farming land further down towards Ukraine. As in September last year I think I'd better bring my French short-stemmed wellies if there will come rain. Don't want to get wet.