A Road Trip through Poland

After submitting my master thesis I had the chance to attend a wedding of two Polish friends. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to get to know Poland. The wedding took place in Augustow which is in the Northeastern part of Poland, close to Lithuania, Belarus or the for its forests and lakes well-known region of Masuria. From Berlin it's a 12 hours drive, which is ok when you are used to North American distances. ;-)

Augustow is is a small touristic city that is surrounded by beautiful lakes and forests, an ideal place to sail, swim and relax. After the wedding we went to the Wolf's Lair, which has been Hitler's Eastern Front military headquarter in World War II. An impressive sight where you can see destroyed bunkers with up to 7 meter thick concrete walls and it was the location where Claus von Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20th 1944, exactly 65 years ago, but failed due to unfortunate circumstances.

On the way back we had a quick stopover at Malbork Castle which is a Unesco World Heritage site and the largest brick Gothic castle which was founded in 1274 by the Teutonic Order.

Then we stopped for two days in Gdansk (German: Danzig) which has a beautiful Old Town with the picturesque Piwna street that invites everyone to buy amber jewelery in one of the many small market shops, to explore and analyze the architecture of the surrounding houses or to just grab a coffee in one of the many cozy cafes. You can walk up the St. Mary's church tower to get a wonderful view over Gdansk. By the way, St. Mary's is the largest brick church in the world.

Sopot is as well part of the Tricity region, together with Gdansk and Gdynia. Some of us played beach volleyball while others walked along the longest wooden pier in Europe with more than 500 meters in length. In the evening Sopot provides a variety of good nightlife points of interest.

Do you know any other interesting spots in Poland that are worth visiting? Share them on Tagcrumbs. I was really impressed by Gdansk, so add it as a favorite and tag it with 'todo' and 'travel'. ;-)