Kalzimierz Dolny to Warsaw

Friday May 26, 2017 Day 16

Last day traveling with the remainder of the group. Woke up to sunshine streaming through the window in our quaint little abode Sandomierz. Breakfast and then time for a stroll around the square. No tourists at 8 a.m. only a few residents and merchants getting started on their day. We wandered along the narrow cobblestone streets, past relaxed gardens with brilliant blue iris, geraniums and begonias. Over to the old town wall’s back gate that was just wide enough for a person to get through when they were too late for the other gates.

Heading north in the van towards Warsaw today. More miles of fruit trees, cabbage and then hops which were just starting to climb up their supports. The road to Kalzimierz Dolny is for the most part only 2 lanes, winding around fields and farms, occasionally going through tiny old towns with houses usually made of stone. Not sure if we took the scenic route or if this is just the way to get to where we’re going but we drove on rural roads thru small villages and open fields.

Kalzimierz’s is a small town of about 2600 people. Before WWII it had a large Jewish population. Only three Jewish families survived and that was because they left shortly before the start of the war, all the towns others Jewish citizens were killed. Today there are no Jewish families living in the town. Our first stop was the location of the old Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of town in the woods on the side of a hill. The cemetery was destroyed during the war by the Nazis. After the war the local citizens took all the knocked apart and damaged grave markers they could find and built them into a wall at the old cemetery as a memorial to the Jewish people who had been sent to the death camps.

The rock in this area is very soft and subject to erosion by rain. The next place we stopped was where the erosion was by people over 100’s years walking from the homes in the valley to the fields up the hill.

Kalzimierz sits between two hills on the side of the Vistula River. On one hill is a church and other the other side is a castle. This picturesque town has become an artist and writer’s community as well as a get away for people from Warsaw. After walking around town including the local market in the square, another church we then visited a silver and jewelry museum. Our last activity was to jump on a tourist boat up and head up river passing a couple of castles and another boat.

We said good bye to Kalzimierz and headed towards Warsaw. We hit the Friday afternoon rush leaving Warsaw, highway construction, etc. The last few miles were jammed and very slow going especially as we got thumped by a number of intense short lasting rain squalls.

We had an excellent farewell dinner at a restaurant near the Radisson Hotel where we are staying for our last night in Poland. Tonight was lamb for Fred and Russian Perogi for Gail. The food we have experienced in Poland has been different and better than expected. We said last goodbye to our friends from Las Angeles who have a 6 a.m. flight to catch and headed up to our room.

This is not the last submission to this blog as we will share some of our collective thoughts on Poland tomorrow plus whatever adventures we find as we overnight in Amsterdam on our way home.