Way back when I discovered the tickets for trains to Szczecin, Poland (see A Day Out - Szczecin), I'd also stumbled across tickets to another place in Poland called Wroclaw and that there was a special cheap train called the "Kulturzug" going there every weekend in the summer. We'd put it up against the Szczecin train but decided for Szczecin - but since Wroclaw was the 2016 European Capital of Culture, it looked interesting and since the train was cheap we kept it in mind as a future option although we never got around to it before the original summer period when it was running expired. Sometime later, I discovered that the Kulturzug had been extended until the very beginning of January 2017 - we could still do it yet. Wroclaw had ended up on our list of destinations anyway, and when having a cursory look at when we might perhaps go to Wroclaw we discovered the Christmas Markets there started in Mid-Nov - just before they kicked off in Germany. So, we decided to aim for the opening weekends of the markets as that was something we wanted to do too, visit Christmas Markets in a country outside of Germany. Dates selected, accommodation for the Saturday night found, train tickets purchased and the trip was locked in! Getting there and back was accomplished by the aforementioned Kulturzug - the special train put on by Deutsche Bahn at weekends direct to Wroclaw. There apparently used to be a direct train to Wroclaw from Berlin, but not anymore - in general, train links between Germany and Poland are not great. This train was €19 each one way, which for a 4.5-5hr train journey wasn't bad we thought. It was a long time to spend on the train, which was one of the older German Railcar types but considering the train was cheap and there wasn't a massive swathe of things to do in Wroclaw, it was fine. We left at 8.31am on the Sat and arrived at 1.05pm, and left on Sunday at 4.29pm arriving back at 9.32pm. The train wasn't fully packed, but still had a decent load but despite the length of journey it was surprisingly comfortable. We brought our own snacks and food to eat and drink on the train too. The main event, as far as we were concerned was the Christmas Market and it was no small one. There were a large number of stalls, all selling a wide variety of items - and a large amount of them were locally-produced arts and crafts or food and wine. We had dinner there, with meats and potatoes cooked on a barbeque which was shaped like a steam train, we also had waffles for breakfast, which were heavily overladen with cream and chocolate sauce. We did procure some items, including a bottle of home-made Polish Wine (turns out its Rhubarb Flavoured and yes we did try it before buying. Also, the commercial Wine producing scene in Poland is virtually non-existent) but perhaps our biggest consumption at the market was Glühwein (Mulled Wine, or warm wine with spices) of a wide variety of flavours and types. They had 10 different kinds - the most variety I'd seen - and they came in little boot-shaped mugs which you paid a deposit (Pfand) for and got back when you returned the mugs. Or didn't get back, if you didn't return the mugs - its expected some will become souvenirs and yes we did procure two of these cute mugs for ourselves. Wroclaw itself, in the Old Town was very charming looking - it had that classic Germanic style like Brasov in Romania, except unlike Brasov in Romania but just like Szczecin, Wroclaw used to be a part of Germany and was known as Breslau. This wasn't just during World War 2 or anything, it was Germany for as long as Germany existed as a country and then belonged to one of the Germanic Kingdoms before that. It only stopped being German when after World War 2 Russia insisted on shifting Poland to the west - so the Soviet Union could become bigger, and did so at the expense of Germany which shrunk (but kinda didn't matter after a while since Poland and East Germany became part of the Eastern Bloc and de-facto Soviet Union anyway). How weird is that, that an entire country just got shifted to the west? The Soviet Union is no more and that area of Poland that it acquired is now in Lithuania and Belarus, and the little bit of German territory it acquired just north of Poland is now an isolated part of Russia. So we were in a city that was once German, but now is Polish thanks to the Russians, hence the architecture. Wroclaw is the Polish version of Breslau - and pronouncing Wroclaw in the Polish manner is rather difficult, its more like "Rosh-love" but often we defaulted back to calling it Breslau since everyone in Germany still calls it that and while our friends and colleagues haven't heard of Wroclaw, they have heard of Breslau! Poland is rather cheap compared to Germany in many respects, including food and drink. They use the Zloty and not the Euro despite being a part of the EU, and its roughly 4 Zlotys to 1 Euro. Sasha found us a little cafe in Wroclaw with quite a reputation and apparently was open 24hrs - in a neat old building, it had real charm and also its food and drink selection was rather simple and effective. Food? the menu was painted on the wall by the bar, and everything was 8 Zloty's a plate (2 Euros); drinks, well the menu was painted on the opposite side of the bar and everything was 4 Zloty's (1 Euro). So that's beer, wine, Polish Vodka, tea, coffee, etc was all 1 Euro and all the food was 2 Euros. We got 3 plates to share for lunch and a beer, and later got a vodka each (which just came as a shot) but upon our next visit we got glasses of wine, which I have to say were rather generously filled given the price! We also had a lunch at a place which specialised in Pierogi, or Polish Dumplings (and proved to be far too much food for us!). While we spent the majority of our time in the old town area, we did venture around a bit including going to look at the "Train to Heaven" - an old steam locomotive mounted virtually on end which pointed towards the sky. It wasn't until we were at the train and read its name properly that we realised it was a reference to the Holocaust. Our Kulturzug train tickets were also valid for Wroclaw's public transport for the weekend, which made things rather easy to get around. Last but certainly not least, I can't forget to mention the "Dwarves". Wroclaw is known for its "Dwarves" - which are little bronze statues placed around the city, no more than Gnome sized and mostly they look like Gnomes rather than Dwarves although if you think of "Snow White and the 7 Dwarves" thats the kind of Dwarf they depict. Initially they started out as a form of protest against the Communist regime, and then later the city commissioned a few of them in memory of their form of protest. They were so popular that many businesses got their own made and placed outside their business - our hotel even had one! some were better than others but it was fun to go round the city on the lookout for them. I think we found close to 20, but there are apparently more than 80 planted around the city! Over all, we didn't go crazy with the spending but we still had a good time and got a lot for our money's worth. It was also our first Christmas Market of the season - which was going to be short for us since we were going away for most of December, but we were determined to get as much in as we could. Wroclaw was a fitting opening for our "Christmas Market Adventures" but also a lovely place to get away to for the weekend, and of course another tick off our list of places we had to visit.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
About Me
A Kiwi out travelling in the UK and surrounding countries Archives
August 2019
|