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    Berlitz Pocket Guide Poland (Travel Guide eBook)
    Berlitz Pocket Guide Poland (Travel Guide eBook)
    Berlitz Pocket Guide Poland (Travel Guide eBook)
    Ebook427 pages3 hours

    Berlitz Pocket Guide Poland (Travel Guide eBook)

    By Berlitz

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    About this ebook

    With an iconic style and a bestselling brand, this is the quintessential pocket-sized travel guide to Poland - now with a bilingual dictionary

    Plan your trip, plan perfect days and discover how to get around - this pocket-sized guide is a convenient, quick-reference companion to discovering fun and interesting things to do and see in Poland, from top tourist attractions like Krakow, the Tarta Mountains, Sopot, Malbork Castle and Kazimierz in Warsaw, to hidden gems, including Zamosc. 

    - What to see: comprehensive coverage of the country's attractions, illustrated with striking photography
    - What to do: how to make the most of your leisure time, from local entertainment to the best activities and shopping
    - History and culture: giving you a deeper understanding of the country's heritage, people and contemporary life
    - Practical tips: where to stay, dining out and how to get around: reliable recommendations and expert travel advice
    - Dictionary: quick-reference bilingual language guide to help you with vocabulary on the ground
    - Covers: Krakow, Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains, Malopolska, Warsaw, Wilanów, Lódz, Gdansk, Torún, Poznán.

    About Berlitz: Berlitz draws on years of travel and language expertise to bring you a wide range of travel and language products, including travel guides, maps, phrase books, language-learning courses, dictionaries and kids' language products.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInsight Guides
    Release dateJul 1, 2019
    ISBN9781785732294
    Berlitz Pocket Guide Poland (Travel Guide eBook)
    Author

    Berlitz

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      Book preview

      Berlitz Pocket Guide Poland (Travel Guide eBook) - Berlitz

      How To Use This E-Book

      Getting Around the e-Book

      This Pocket Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration and planning advice for your visit to Poland, and is also the perfect on-the-ground companion for your trip.

      The guide begins with our selection of Top 10 Attractions, plus a Perfect Itinerary feature to help you plan unmissable experiences. The Introduction and History chapters paint a vivid cultural portrait of Poland, and the Where to Go chapter gives a complete guide to all the sights worth visiting. You will find ideas for activities in the What to Do section, while the Eating Out chapter describes the local cuisine and gives listings of the best restaurants. The Travel Tips offer practical information to help you plan your trip. Finally, there are carefully selected hotel listings.

      In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

      Maps

      All key attractions and sights in Poland are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map], tap once to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

      Images

      You’ll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Poland. Simply double-tap an image to see it in full-screen.

      About Berlitz Pocket Guides

      The Berlitz story began in 1877 when Maximilian Berlitz devised his revolutionary method of language learning. More than 130 years later, Berlitz is a household name, famed not only for language schools but also as a provider of best-selling language and travel guides.

      Our wide-ranging travel products – printed travel guides and phrase books, as well as apps and ebooks – offer all the information you need for a perfect trip, and are regularly updated by our team of expert local authors. Their practical emphasis means they are perfect for use on the ground. Wherever you’re going – whether it’s on a short break, the trip of a lifetime, a cruise or a business trip – we offer the ideal guide for your needs.

      Our Berlitz Pocket Guides are the perfect choice if you need reliable, concise information in a handy format. We provide amazing value for money – these guides may be small, but they are packed with information. No wonder they have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.

      © 2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

      Table of Contents

      Poland’s Top 10 Attractions

      Top Attraction #1

      Top Attraction #2

      Top Attraction #3

      Top Attraction #4

      Top Attraction #5

      Top Attraction #6

      Top Attraction #7

      Top Attraction #8

      Top Attraction #9

      Top Attraction #10

      A Perfect Tour of Poland

      Introduction

      Historic cities

      Population and Religion

      Rural Poland

      A Blend of East and West

      A nation of triumphs

      Life post Communism

      A Brief History

      Foundations of the Polish State

      Kazimierz the Great and the Jagiellonians

      Swedish dynasty

      Decline and partitioning

      The aftermath of World War I

      Nazi invasion, World War II and the Holocaust

      Communism and Soviet domination

      Pope John Paul II and Solidarity

      The end of Communist rule

      Historical landmarks

      Where To Go

      Kraków

      Main Market Square and Old Town

      St Mary’s Basilica

      The Czartoryski Museum

      Jagiellonian University

      Old Town Churches

      Wawel Hill

      The Cathedral

      Castle Highlights

      Kazimierz

      Excursions from Kraków

      Wieliczka Salt Mines

      Auschwitz and Birkenau

      Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains

      Zakopane

      The Tatras

      Małopolska

      Zamość

      Kazimierz Dolny

      Warsaw

      The Old Town and Market Square

      The Royal Castle

      St John’s Cathedral

      Around the Rynek

      The Royal Way

      Jewish Warsaw

      West of the Old Town

      Łazienki Palace

      Wilanów

      Łódź

      Main sights

      Gdańsk

      The Main Town

      The Royal Way

      Waterfront

      Old Town

      Old Suburb

      Excursions from Gdańsk

      Malbork Castle

      Toruń

      Old Town

      New Town

      Poznań

      Old Market Square

      Around Old Market Square

      City Centre

      Cathedral Island

      Malta

      Excursions from Poznań

      Kórnik Castle

      Rogalin Palace

      Wrocław

      Ostrów Tumski

      The Old Town

      Around the Market Square

      What To Do

      Shopping

      Where to shop

      What to buy

      Entertainment

      Sports

      Children

      Festivals and events

      Eating Out

      Where to eat

      When to eat

      Polish cooking

      Soup

      Starters

      Main courses

      Desserts

      Drinks

      Reading the Menu

      Menu reader

      Restaurants

      Kraków

      Zakopane

      Zamość

      Warsaw

      Gdańsk

      Sopot

      Toruń

      Łódź

      Poznań

      Wrocław

      A–Z Travel Tips

      A

      Accommodation

      Airports (lotnisko)

      B

      Budgeting for your trip

      C

      Car hire

      Climate

      Clothing

      Crime and safety

      D

      Driving

      E

      Electricity

      Embassies and consulates

      Emergencies

      G

      Getting there

      Guides and tours

      H

      Health and medical care

      L

      Language

      LGBTQ+ travellers

      M

      Maps

      Media

      Money

      O

      Opening times

      P

      Police (policja) (see also Crime and safety and Emergencies)

      Post offices (poczta)

      Public holidays

      R

      Religion

      T

      Telephones (telefon)

      Time zone

      Tipping

      Toilets

      Tourist information

      Transport

      V

      Visas and entry requirements

      W

      Websites and internet access

      Y

      Youth hostels

      Recommended Hotels

      Kraków

      Zakopane

      Zamość

      Kazimierz Dolny

      Warsaw

      Gdańsk

      Sopot

      Toruń

      Wrocław

      Poznań

      Dictionary

      English–Polish

      Polish–English

      Poland’s Top 10 Attractions

      Top Attraction #1

      Corrie Wingate/Apa Publications

      Kraków

      The former capital of Poland is still the country’s artistic and cultural centre and its most popular tourist destination. For more information, click here.

      Top Attraction #2

      Shutterstock

      Tatra Mountains

      With their spectacular peaks they are a hiker’s paradise. For more information, click here.

      Top Attraction #3

      Shutterstock

      Wieliczka Salt Mines

      With its extraordinary, ornately carved chambers, this Unesco World Heritage Site is a must-see. For more information, click here.

      Top Attraction #4

      iStock

      Warsaw

      A wonderful capital city, where history and culture come alive. For more information, click here.

      Top Attraction #5

      iStock

      Zamość

      Modelled on Italian trading cities, the Old Town is a 16th-century Renaissance jewel. For more information, click here.

      Top Attraction #6

      Shutterstock

      Gdańsk

      The birthplace of the Solidarity Movement. For more information, click here.

      Top Attraction #7

      iStock

      Sopot

      Poland’s lively summer capital. For more information, click here.

      Top Attraction #8

      Gregory Wrona/Apa Publications

      Malbork Castle

      Built by the Teutonic Knights and one of Europe’s biggest strongholds. For more information, click here.

      Top Attraction #9

      Shutterstock

      Kazimierz Dolny

      A confection of Renaissance and Mannerist houses. For more information, click here.

      Top Attraction #10

      Shutterstock

      Kazimierz

      Kraków’s former Jewish quarter is re-inventing itself while not forgetting its past. For more information, click here.

      A Perfect Tour of Poland

      Day 1

      To the dragon hill

      Tour the Royal castle on Wawel Hill, have lunch in Trattoria Wawel, then visit the cathedral where Poland’s kings were crowned. You might catch a short classical concert in one of the Old Town churches before dinner at Kraków’s oldest restaurant, Wierzynek (for more information, click here) .

      Day 2

      Students and synagogues

      Enjoy a café in Rynek Główny, before exploring the Old Town. Café Camelot is nice for lunch (for more information, click here). Later, go to Kazimierz. Dine to the sound of live Jewish music at Klezmer Hois.

      Day 3

      Medieval mall

      Spend the morning searching for souvenirs in the Sukiennice, Kraków’s medieval market building, before continuing to Warsaw by internal flight or train.

      Day 4

      Warsaw rebuilt

      From the top of the Soviet Palace of Culture you get an excellent view of Warsaw, with its modern skyscrapers and rebuilt Old Town. Take a tram to the Warsaw Rising Museum and then walk east through the streets of the former ghetto, for a more light-hearted afternoon in the Old Town, taking lunch in the Rynek Starego Miasta.

      Day 5

      Royal route

      Visit the Royal Castle in the morning, then take a stroll down from Plac Zamkowy, passing Warsaw University, and stopping for a visit to the National Museum or the Chopin Museum. Take a break for a coffee or lunch on Nowy Świat.

      Day 6

      Palace on the water

      Take a trip to downtown Warsaw to admire the beautiful Łazienki Palace and enjoy an afternoon in the peaceful gardens, where locals come to relax. Later, take the train to Toruń.

      Day 7

      Historic Toruń

      Walk around the medieval city walls to see Toruń’s leaning tower, then visit the museum where its most famous son, Copernicus, was born and marvel at the stars in its Planetarium. In the evening hear live folk music as you eat at Karczma Spichrz(for more information, click here).

      Day 8

      Malbork Castle

      An early train from Toruń Główny will get you to Malbork in less than three hours. Spend the day at the castle, the massive brick stronghold of the Teutonic Knights, before taking an evening train to Gdańsk. Dine at the riverside Restauracja Baryłka (for more information, click here).

      Day 9

      On the waterfront

      Follow the Royal Route from Upland Gate to the Golden Gate before plunging into more recent history at the European Solidarity Centre, not far from the shipyards. Dine in old Gdańsk at Restauracja Targ Rybny (for more information, click here) in the fish market.

      Day 10

      Beach life

      Frequent trains from Gdańsk will take you to the lovely seaside resort of Sopot. Here you can relax on the beach, take a walk along its pier or explore the many nature trails in the area by bike or on foot. Eat at Bulaj (for more information, click here) on the beach.

      Introduction

      Despite being more than a thousand years’ old, Poland’s survival is something of a miracle. Its boundaries have been continually redrawn over the course of eight centuries. Then suddenly it disappeared from the map. Between 1795 and 1918, Poland, wedged in the middle of Europe, ceased to exist. Partitioned for a third time at the end of the 18th century by Prussia, Austria and Russia, Poland became the object of a tug-of-war between more powerful states.

      And then the real tragedy occurred. Hitler and the Nazis invaded Poland, launching World War II, then extinguished many of its cities and eradicated 20 percent of its people, including nearly its entire Jewish population of three-and-a-half million – until then the largest Jewish community in Europe. Wars have befallen many countries in modern times, but few have been as thoroughly ravaged as Poland.

      Yet Poland rebuilt itself from the rubble of war. From photographs, paintings, architectural drawings and the memories of its grief-stricken survivors, Poles reconstructed the Old Towns of Warsaw and Gdańsk brick by brick, only to suffer four decades of Soviet-imposed Communist rule. Yet Poland asserted itself once more.

      In the 1980s, the trade union movement Solidarity (Solidarność) helped to trigger the demise of Communism in Poland and throughout the Soviet bloc. Poland has survived with its culture, language, spirit and most of its territory intact. In 2004 it joined the European Union, as a modern, independent nation.

      Historic cities

      Largely rural, Poland has great tracts of wilderness and primeval forest in its 23 national parks. However, the country is perhaps best known for ancient towns rich in history and architecture. Kraków, which survived unscathed from the war, is a splendid medieval city (it was the royal capital for 500 years), with a magnificent market square, hill-top castle, and one of Europe’s oldest, most prestigious universities.

      Warsaw, Poland’s largest city by far and its commercial and political capital, is not the bleak grey morass of Communist days. It may still be a little harsh on the eyes in places, but it is undeniably beautiful in others, and perhaps best expresses Poland’s current crossroads. A 20-minute walk can take you from the Royal Castle to a monolith of Stalinist architecture to the gleaming headquarters of international companies banking on Poland’s emergence as a major European player.

      While Warsaw’s Old Town is an astonishing phoenix-like fable of reconstruction, Gdańsk’s historic centre is even more alluring, its Royal Way a loving restoration that defies the imagination. No matter how many times you stroll through the medieval layouts of these cities over cobblestoned streets, gazing at stunning examples of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture created, incredibly, as late as 1953, you cannot help but be amazed. The buildings look genuinely old; it is as though the indefatigable Polish people willed their authenticity.

      Smaller towns can be just as impressive. Zamość is a perfect Renaissance town with one of the most photogenic main squares in the country. Zakopane is an Alpine-style town carved out of wood at the foot of the High Tatras, the highest peaks of the Carpathian Mountains, within easy range of great hiking and skiing. Toruń, the home of the great astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, is a feast of red-brick Gothic architecture, while Poznań, a determined trade centre, combines commerce with authenticity in its extraordinary Old Market Square.

      Pyramid by the Renaissance Cloth Hall, Kraków

      iStock

      Population and Religion

      Poland is a nation of 38.5 million. Over 90 percent of the population call themselves Catholic (but less than 40 percent are practising) and they are more conservative than many of their Western European neighbours. Throughout history, Poland has been incredibly cosmopolitan, with Germans, Jews, Lithuanians, Belarusians, Armenians and Ukrainians living there. During the Second Republic (1919–39), only two-thirds of the population were ethnic Poles. It has also traditionally been a land of religious tolerance. When medieval Europe was rocked by religious wars, Poland was a safe haven for Jewish, Protestant and Orthodox refugees – making the intolerance later inflicted by Germany on Polish ground all the more terrible.

      Today, Poland is unusually homogenous in terms of ethnicity: some 98 percent of the people are Poles. The Jewish population was reduced to 250,000 after World War II, and today there are only a few thousand Jews living in Poland. The largest minority groups are Lithuanians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.

      Literacy rates are high, at a shade under 100 percent. Poles are well-educated, and young people in the larger cities speak good English (much more so than German or Russian). They’re up-to-date on fashions, trends, music and technology and they welcome visitors with lavish hospitality.

      Green Poland

      Almost one third of Poland is covered by forest, mostly pine and spruce as well as other coniferous and mixed deciduous trees.

      Rural Poland

      Of course, some parts of the vast Polish countryside are a very different story. Here you’ll still see a stubbornly traditional way of life that seems years slower than city life. Roads are lined with wooden shrines, erected by people intent on manifesting their devotion. Even if you’re not planning on travelling through the countryside, you can get a good taste of rural life by visiting a skansen, or ethnographic museum, which showcases Polish country life and historic houses in open-air exhibitions.

      A winter scene in the Tatra Mountains

      iStock

      A Blend of East and West

      Poland’s history as a territory coveted by great powers all around it ensured that the north–south divisions often seen elsewhere are, here, primarily east–west divisions. The west is more Germanic, organised, pragmatic and industrious, while the East has a reputation of being more Russian – which means, in short, relaxed, cultural and introspective. Poznań, for example, revels in its business skills and organisational

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