Back to nature

Tonight I get to see some of Poland. We have a social dinner in a country house(They call it a palace - but country house is a better description.)

We are in Rogalin, a kind of country park with a palace built in the 18th century:



The palace has been ransacked several times, prussians, then germans etc, it survived communism as a national museum and is now some sort of country park and art museum. During World War II it was a Hitler Youth school. So I imagine lines and lines of little blond people in brownshirts as we walk up to the main building.

The first activity is a walk around the palace - this amounts to one section which is rooms done up like they would have been during all the periods of the palace. This is pretty uninteresting - the history isn't particularly old, and it's a bit cobbled together.



We then go to the art Gallery. This is the art collection of Edward Alexander Raczynski. He seemed to only collect paintings from the years 1898 until about 1908. There are paintings by Basnard, Carrier, Blanche, Chabas, Claus, Zuloaga, Thaulow and the Polish artists, Boznanska, Wyczolkowski and Malczewski. It's quite nice, but I don't see anything that really fills me with awe.

I'm generally walking around unimpressed. The guidebook boasts that the surrounding forest has the largest cluster of protected ancient oaks. I decide that having given up on history and culture, that this might be more up my street. I head off along a country park, trying to avoid the mosquitoes, but ultimately giving up and going for the "ignore them and they'll go away" startegy. The forest is great fun. I've made it round everything else quite quickly, so I'm the first one out this far and i've got the forest to myself.

It's pretty impressive. It's very much how forest's look in films rather than how they look in real life. I think this is because it is Oaks. They are very tree-like trees. The first sign posted oak which I get to is Dab Edwarda(Polish for Edward the oak).



It's a nice enough tree - good big oak. Not quite worthy of it's own signpost, but nice none the less. I continue down the path to a clearing where I get a real sense of being in the middle of nowhere. The area is flat farmland - but very tranquil and still - it's such a contrast to the reason I'm here which is a meeting. Theres nothing special about this, It's a field with trees round it, but I really needed just a wee breath of nature:



I head back along the path and follow sign posts to more trees. The next set of trees is quite special:



Not only are they really really old oaks - they have a story behind them.

According to legend. It roughly goes like this - although, I've heard a few variations, and I've only been here a week. There were three brothers lost in the woods. Lech, Czech and Rus and they needed to hunt for food. They all went off in different directions and followed different prey. Where they ended up they settled forming the nations of Poland(Lech), Bohemia(Czech) and Ruthenia(Rus).

Lech followed a white eagle to it's nest where he started Poland's first town Gniezno(Polish for nest). He also gave his name to the local beer.

Anyway there are three trees that are over 500 years old and they are named after these three brothers.

Rus



Czech



Lech



Following a wander we get a great outdoor feed - basically bbq and beer. I get to have a good feed and a good refreshing Lech. Its almost hitting 30 degrees and I had walked really quickly to make sure I saw all the different trees, so the beer really hits the spot.

On return to the hotel a few of us go for a last beer, and then end up having another last beer in a club called the Black Sheep(Well whatever that is in Polish).



Still had no food I could describe as polish - met very few locals, and the only word I can pronounce in recognisable polish is Djen koo yi which is thank you.