“Visit Poland & Slovakia” By Arvo Johnson

Christiane being from Germany and her family still there has aloud us many opportunities to travel Europe. Her parents live in the area that was East Germany and grew up thinking Poland was not necessarily and place the you would vacation to. Poland was one the few countries that East Germans could travel and therefore was not held in very high opinion.

Even in the 20 years since Christiane and I have been together and our many trips over to Germany we never bothered going except to a border town in Poland with her parents to shop get gas and other items . In 2018 we spent most of the summer over in Germany visiting her parents due to some family health issue Christiane did not want to travel very far from the Berlin area. We were planning on spending 4 weeks traveling in Poland and Slovakia. We had to cut the 4 weeks trip short and head back towards Berlin but in the 20 days we did travel, Poland and Slovakia surprised us with its beauty, history and affordable travel.

We left the Berlin area by car and our first stop was Slowinski a Unesco World Bio sphere,
Beautiful dunes along the Baltic Sea. Gdansk a port city along the Baltic, this is a beautiful city with munch to offer those who choose to explore. It was the 1939 flash point of World War II, and then in 1980, the birthplace of the Solidarnosc labor movement, ushering the end of Communist domination in Eastern Europe. Gdańsk is a pearl of bourgeois architecture, boasting beautiful houses and a unique market. It is a world of cozy streets and historical churches.

Malbork Castle, the castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork is the largest in the world also the largest brick castle in the world. The medieval castle built in the 13th Century as a fortress by the Teutonic Knights. This is a site not to missed if you ever plan a visit to Poland.

Torun founded by the Teutonic Knights, famous for its native son, Copernicus. Torun was one of the few Polish cities to escape major damage in World War II which explains the beautiful buildings the are thoughout the city. Torun is also home to gingerbread making dating back to 1380.

Krakow, the old town area is a Unesco World Heritage site and does not dissappoint incredible architecture and the old marketplace, Rynek Główny (Main Square), has existed since the 13th century.
The sites are many so you need plenty of time to see just a few.
Wawal Castle, Wieliczka salt mine, Auschwitz II(Birkenau)death camp will be the ones we highlight.

Before crossing the border to Slovakia we spent a few days in Zakopane right at the foot of the Tarta Mountains. Really beautiful but crowded and touristy. We were expecting to spend some time hiking and escaping the crowds, even with all the people it was still very picturesque town.

With our time shortened we decided to focus on some hiking in the magical canyons and explore a few of the more than 2,400 caves in Slovakia, of which more than 400 have been explored so far. New caves are being discovered constantly. The ones that we did see were like a journey to the center of the earth, incredible.

So with our journey got short we headed back to Germany promising ourselves to go back in the near future to see more of Poland and venture deeper into Slovakia. Poland and Slovakia have much to offer the traveler and is not a place many people have on their radar. It has many hidden gems and easy trip from Germany so we have a built in excuse to go back soon.

Arvo and Christiane Johnson moved to Sequim in 2009, before that they lived in Southern California. They met while traveling independently in Chile and have been inseparable since then. They love to explore and travel, they have been to over 60 countries and still continue their sense of adventure while introducing their 2 daughters age 6 and 10 to a life of exploring and adventure. They hope that the traveling will instill a sense of appreciation for there life, the culture , history and nature of this great planet, along with a thirst for adventure that they will have throughout their life. They love the outdoors and many of the activities that go along with it.