A better picture of the 126p Maluch. Our friend (also a Marta) tells us that their family had three so they could keep one running.Maybe that’s why they travel in packs. Designed by Italians, built by Poles, there has to be a joke in there somewhere!
The little Fiat with 23 horsepower was introduced in 1973 for the low price of 69000 zloty, and in 1993 you could buy a new one for 69 Million zloty. Save your pennies
Marta’s cousin has been putting us up while we work on the estate. They remember the little Fiat well – was especially challenging for the vertically endowed. We’ve inherited two photovoltaic systems in Poland. An interesting topic on its own. The economics are not improving as solar panels approach free. Marta’s friends from high school invite us to hike for three days in south east Poland, in the Bieszczady mountains.
Long drives in Poland are slow – another village inevitably starts 50m after the last one finished. I finally decided to drive 55km/h because it wasn’t worth accelerating.
No grocery stores and few restaurants in the area around Bieszczady, so the hotel room includes dinner, breakfast, and you can make a hiking lunch at breakfast.Hiking in Europe, off season. This obelisk is on the border of Ukraine, Poland, and Slovakia. The circular economy has gone too farPoles don’t need very much “wilderness” to make some trails and go for a hike. They would be confused by Canadian parks – where are the hordes of people?Poland has their own version of the Japanese 7-11s, called Zabka. A lot of them.The Spa town of Krynica-Zdroj has reached peak-ZabkaSome of the alcohol for sale at a Zabka. Maybe it’s just Canada that makes a big deal of only selling alcohol in special stores. Polish Robin Hood on the right, and the administrator who hunted him on the left.
It’s interesting how we are very excited about the rule of law until it gets applied to our favourite wealth redistributing brigands.
Zabka sells linear pizzas (Zapiekanka) which are the greatest way to start the day. Unless it’s Sunday morning, when Poland shuts down, and I go hungry. There are now LOTS of bears in Europe. Slovakia has started culling them. No hikers on trails outside of the parks, but trails have some room for improvement. Plenty of trees for timber in Poland/Slovakia. Clearcuts are well disguisedConiferous trees make long logs, as expected Most logs we see on trucks and at sawmills are about 2.5 meters – deciduous hardwood, mostly beech. Europe is not competing against Canada to make 2x4s for cheap. In case you think it’s only industry mucking up the trails, this is a quad track. Which surprised me, given that in parks we aren’t allowed to go 10 feet off trail to bag a peak.I’m not an art/sculpture fan unless it’s big, orange and says CAT. I’ll make an exception for this guy.
Bieszczady region had a reputation for being a scary wilderness. Sounded like silly fairy tales. The reality is more prosaic – civil war, genocide, ethnic cleansing. For every big war in Europe, there are dozens of ugly conflicts that I’ve never heard of.
Hanna has a big goose, Vegreville has a large egg, and Ustryki Dolne has this thing. Telus should use it in their ads.T34s also work as Chester-approved art. Marta played on this as a kid
Marta found a gliding club on our route, Bezmiechowa, which turned out to be where Polish gliding started in the 1920s.
So simpleCars are super-low emssions, in a country where houses are burning coal for heat… must be smelly when it gets really cold. Cemeteries are a big deal. November 1st is a massive holiday to go visit and clean the graves. Interesting that this tradition vanished in North America.This closet was “borrowed” from Marta’s family by the Germans in WWII and later found in Vienna. Made before we learned that furniture can be made from sawdust and glue. I assume the house was built around this monster.Mining museum in Zabrze. Compressed air locomotive for underground use?This is massive – a big air compressor?Rail cars for moving miners underground A very common machine even in our modern days, but you may have never seen one opened up. Water boilerI’ve never seen one of these in person – a hydraulic roof for long wall mining. We went on a mine tour, 320 meters down. Disappointing, all in polish and Marta tells me it was short on details anyway.
Need to arrange a private guide in English for places like this. The logistics of modern under ground coal mining is insane and would be great to understand more.
So we cheered me up with aviation therapy. Aeroklub Gliwice, which operates out of a massive 1920s German hangar.
While we wait for the director to show us around, we watch the club’s Antonov-2 taking military parajumpers for flights. No joke
They need to put a tow hook on this birdEvery glider was made in Poland. Fabric covered second hangar, floor paved with asphalt. Practical construction. Home build retrieve vehicle Retired tow plane. (Joking)Jacek, Marta’s godson puts us up for a night and takes us to the Gliwice port. Which sounds like a joke, we are a long way from the sea. You can boat on inland waterways and canals all the way to Amsterdam These are lockboxes for receiving packages. Gliwice is all apartments. We drop in on Łucian and Maria. Family friends that Marta recently reconnected with. Lucian was an engineer in coal mines, so I get to put on his miner dress uniform.Marta briefs our friends on future travel/Delica plans. They nod politely while making plans for an intervention. 110m tall wooden radio tower in Gliwice. WWII got rolling right here Marta has way too many friends. Be careful with drinking in Poland – drunk driving blood alcohol limit is 1/4 that of Canada
My flight to Canada got canceled so a day in Krakow, one of the few old cities in Europe that escaped being flattened in WWII
700 year old cathedral. I’m sure the pyramids are very impressive, but the fact that a complicated building like this still stands is a real testament that people were smart. Krakow didn’t do so well when the Mongols showed up. They got busy building city walls, and the moat makes great green space now Bits of the city walls have been preserved.
Marta and Chester's Maleficent Adventures 