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Last week I returned from a 10 day trip across southern Poland, partly in Galicia, which had been Austrian ruled from the 1790s until 1918 but before and after that part of Poland, but most in Silesia, which had belonged to Germany / Prussia 1740-1945, Austria and Bohemia for a couple of centuries before that, and was independent prior to passing to Bohemia. It was an interesting point to point trip for a lot of reasons, from the castles and medieval towns to the horrors of Aushcwitz. Through Silesia, it was hard to forget the ethnic cleansing that happened there in 1945, the mostly German population brutally removed, and replaced with Poles who had themselves been ethnically cleansed, also under appalling cirsumstances, from eastern Poland that had been absorbed by the USSR under the Moldotov-Ribbentrop pact and then confirmed to the USSR by the Potsdam conference.
Driving was, for the most part, not terribly difficult, although Poles drive more like Americans than the much more courteous Germans.
Making hotel reservations, I ended up with about half the nights in castles or palaces in the $40-70 price range per night. If a timeshare does not work, a castle is not a bad subsitute and the price was great. I wish I had looked totally for castles, as I discovered there were many more availible if I had planned my itinerary around them, and mostly at good prices. I also asked about the history of the castle. The first one I stayed in at Lancut in Galcia had been buiilt by one of Poland's most distinguished noble families and later passed to the noble family that owned it until 1945, the Counts Potocki, by marriage. In Silesia, the castles and palaces were all from the ethnically cleansed German nobility. Two belonged to Poles who had restored them as hotels. The last night before my flight out from Breslau / Wroclaw, I learned that the palace I was staying in had belonged to the famous Field Marshall von Blucher, commander of the Prussian army which had arrived in the afternoon of Waterloo to seal Napolean's fate. The castle had been a monastery in the Middle Ages and by the late 1700s belonged to the king of Prussia who gave it as a gift to von Blucher to reward his military successes. The field marshall had another castle a few miles away which was his winter castle and this was his summer one. His mausoleum is a kilometer or so up the road. The family had asked for the castles back after the fall of communism but the Polish government refused. A descendant of the field marshall's younger brother, then a businessman in New Zealand, bought the castle from the government and converted it to a hotel, so it as at least back in a branch of the von Blucher family.
I planned this trip around the things I wanted to see, as usual, and then plugged in places to stay. When I saw a castle or palace that is what I opted for. I would have been better off figuring out where the castle hotels were and then plugging in the things I wanted to see around them.
Of course, one of the things I noted was the number of castles and palaces just sitting there doing nothing. Maybe a good opportunity for a timeshare?
Driving was, for the most part, not terribly difficult, although Poles drive more like Americans than the much more courteous Germans.
Making hotel reservations, I ended up with about half the nights in castles or palaces in the $40-70 price range per night. If a timeshare does not work, a castle is not a bad subsitute and the price was great. I wish I had looked totally for castles, as I discovered there were many more availible if I had planned my itinerary around them, and mostly at good prices. I also asked about the history of the castle. The first one I stayed in at Lancut in Galcia had been buiilt by one of Poland's most distinguished noble families and later passed to the noble family that owned it until 1945, the Counts Potocki, by marriage. In Silesia, the castles and palaces were all from the ethnically cleansed German nobility. Two belonged to Poles who had restored them as hotels. The last night before my flight out from Breslau / Wroclaw, I learned that the palace I was staying in had belonged to the famous Field Marshall von Blucher, commander of the Prussian army which had arrived in the afternoon of Waterloo to seal Napolean's fate. The castle had been a monastery in the Middle Ages and by the late 1700s belonged to the king of Prussia who gave it as a gift to von Blucher to reward his military successes. The field marshall had another castle a few miles away which was his winter castle and this was his summer one. His mausoleum is a kilometer or so up the road. The family had asked for the castles back after the fall of communism but the Polish government refused. A descendant of the field marshall's younger brother, then a businessman in New Zealand, bought the castle from the government and converted it to a hotel, so it as at least back in a branch of the von Blucher family.
I planned this trip around the things I wanted to see, as usual, and then plugged in places to stay. When I saw a castle or palace that is what I opted for. I would have been better off figuring out where the castle hotels were and then plugging in the things I wanted to see around them.
Of course, one of the things I noted was the number of castles and palaces just sitting there doing nothing. Maybe a good opportunity for a timeshare?
Puppymom in MO
French Quarter Fest in New Orleans is my favourite festival
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