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385 pages

English

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Discover this fascinating country with the most incisive and entertaining guidebook on the market. Whether you plan to wander through Krakow's magnificent medieval Old Town, hike in the Tatra Mountains or relax on the Baltic coast, The Rough Guide to Poland will show you the ideal places to sleep, eat, drink, shop and visit along the way.
- Independent, trusted reviews written with Rough Guides' trademark blend of humour, honesty and insight, to help you get the most out of your visit, with options to suit every budget.
- Full-colour maps throughout - navigate the cobbled alleys of Lublin or Warsaw's New Town without needing to get online
- Stunning images - a rich collection of inspiring colour photography.
- Things not to miss - Rough Guides' rundown of Poland's best sights and experiences.
- Itineraries - carefully planned routes to help you organize your trip.
-Detailed regional coverage - whether off the beaten track or in more mainstream tourist destinations, this travel guide has in-depth practical advice for every step of the way.
Areas covered include: Warsaw, Mazovia and Lodz, the Bay of Gdansk and the Wisla Delta, Torun, Mazuria and Podlasie, Lublin, Zamosc, the Polish Carpathians, Krakow and Malopolska, the Tatras and the Pieniny, Upper Silesia, Wroclaw and Lower Silesia, Wielkopolska, Pomerania. Attractions include: the Mazurian Lakes; wooden churches near Zakopane; Auschwitz-Birkenau; Malbork Castle; Kazimierz Dolny; Slowinski national park; Wieliczka Salt Mine; Bialowieza national park; Bieszczady national park; Rynek Glowny, Krakow, and much more.
-Basics - essential pre-departure practical information including getting there, local transport, accommodation, food and drink, health, the media, festivals, sports and outdoor activities and more.
- Background information - a Contexts chapter devoted to history, books, music and film, plus a handy language section and glossary.
Make the Most of Your Time on Earth with The Rough Guide to Poland

Sujets

Travel

Eastern

Poland

Europe

Informations

Publié par	Apa Publications
Date de parution	01 juillet 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781789194777
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	18 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0800€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Contents
INTRODUCTION
Where to go
When to go
Author picks
Things not to miss
Itineraries
BASICS
Getting there
Getting around
Accommodation
Eating and drinking
The media
Festivals
Sports and outdoor activities
Culture and etiquette
Travelling with children
Travel essentials
THE GUIDE
1 Warsaw
2 Łódź and central Poland
3 Gdańsk and the Vistula Delta
4 Mazuria and Podlasie
5 Lublin and the east
6 The Polish Carpathians
7 Kraków and Małopolska
8 Podhale, the Tatras and the Pieniny
9 Upper Silesia
10 Lower Silesia
11 Wielkopolska
12 Pomerania
CONTEXTS
History
Polish music
Books
Glossary
SMALL PRINT AND INDEX
Introduction to
Poland
Of all Europe’s countries, Poland is the one that has changed the most in recent decades. All of its major cities have been through a process of major reinvention, opening flashy new museums, laying out new parks and brushing up their heritage with a spate of renovation. Gleaming corporate skyscrapers have taken root in Warsaw, the one East European capital that looks like a city of the future as well as a monument to the past. And yet, at the same time, the country remains deeply traditional: folk culture is still an integral part of the contemporary scene, religious festivals are enthusiastically observed and vast tracts of rural Poland retain an unhurried, un-modernized feel. There’s an awful lot of wild nature, too, from the drifting dunes of the Baltic coast to the dense forests of the east, and the magnificent mountain chains that mark the country’s southern borders.
Poland’s transformation is all the more remarkable when one considers that it was a communist -ruled one-party state from the late 1940s until 1989. In many ways it was Poland’s resistance to communism that kicked off the whole system’s collapse, with the birth of the Solidarity trade union in 1980 – and the imposition of martial law in 1981 – demonstrating that communism throughout Eastern Europe had gone into irreversible decline. Two decades of non-communist governments have wrought profound changes on the country, unleashing entrepreneurial energies and widening cultural horizons in a way that pre-1989 generations would have scarcely thought possible. Most importantly, the country has a radically different look about it, having exchanged the greyish tinge of a state-regulated society for the anything-goes attitude of private enterprise – and all the billboards and window displays that go with it.
Much of Poland’s recent transformation is a direct consequence of joining the European Union in 2004. Almost all of the things built in Poland in the ensuing years were paid for, either wholly or in part, by EU funds. EU membership has also seen the exodus of Poles seeking work in other member states (a number that peaked at over 2 million in 2007), reducing unemployment at home and bringing money into the local economy through remittances sent back to the mother country. More Europeans (usually tourists) are visiting Poland, too, thanks in part to budget airlines – there’s hardly a single Polish city that doesn’t have some kind of connection with the UK, Ireland or Europe at large. However, attitudes to the EU remain ambiguous in Poland itself. EU membership has allowed foreign investors to buy up large chunks of the Polish economy, and also encouraged (either consciously or not) the growth of a cosmopolitan, liberal culture of which many conservative Poles disapprove.
Indeed, Polish society outside the big cities remains fundamentally traditional, maintaining beliefs and a sense of nationhood in which the Catholic Church occupies a central position. During periods of foreign oppression – oppression so severe that Poland as a political entity has sometimes vanished altogether from the maps of Europe – the Church was always the principal defender of the nation’s identity, so that the Catholic faith and national independence have become fused in the Polish consciousness. The physical presence of the Church is inescapable wherever you travel, whether in Baroque buildings, roadside shrines or images of the national icon, the Black Madonna of Częstochowa.
Poland is also a remarkably ethnically homogenous place. The country’s significant Jewish community, numbering some 3.2 million in 1939, was almost entirely wiped out during the Holocaust. Before World War II Poland included eastern territories that harboured significant Belarusian and Ukrainian minorities, but in 1945 the Soviet -dominated nation was given new borders, losing its eastern lands to the USSR and gaining tracts of formerly German territory in the west. Germans were expelled, to be replaced by Polish migrants from the east, with the result that the population of Poland today is far more uniformly “Polish” than in any previous century.

FACT FILE
• Poland occupies a vast swathe of territory in north-central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, and Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Russia to the east.
• Much of northern and central Poland is made up of agricultural plainland and gently rolling countryside, although the Tatra and Carpathian mountains in the south provide a dramatic contrast.
• Its population of 38.5 million is predominantly both Polish and devoutly Catholic , although, unsurprisingly for a country which has changed its borders many times in the past, significant pockets of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Bojks and Łemks exist in the east of the country.
• Traditionally, Poland is known for its ship-building, coal and steel industries , although these days cosmetics, medicines and textile products – often made under licence for Western conglomerates – are increasingly important sources of foreign income.
• Poland’s national tipple, wódka , dates back to the early Middle Ages, when the first Polish vodkas appeared. Called gorzałkas , they were primarily used as medicines.
• About thirty percent of the country is covered by forest . This includes Białowieża Forest, one of last surviving stretches of primeval forest in Europe.
Unsurprisingly, symbols of Polish national heritage are everywhere, from the beautifully restored Old Towns of the main cities to the former aristocratic palaces of the east. One of the hallmarks of the new Poland is its ability to give this heritage contemporary shape, evidence of which is provided by the plethora of outstanding, media-savvy new museums that have sprung up all over Poland, from the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, to the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk, the Emigration Museum in Gdynia, the Brama Poznania in Poznań, the Stara Kopalnia in Wałbrzych, the Silesia Museum in Katowice, the Home Army Museum in Kraków… the list goes on. There’s arguably no other country in Europe that has laid its history and culture out for the visitor in such an accessible, well-designed way.
Where to go
Poles delineate their country’s attractions as “the mountains, the sea and the lakes”, their emphasis firmly slanted to the traditional rural heartlands . However, the last two decades have seen the inexorable rise of Poland’s cities as the main motors of cultural change, and it’s these that have sprung into the international consciousness as hot-tip destinations for those who want to soak up central European history, immerse themselves in the arts, or stay up all night sampling hipster pubs, vodka bars and DJ-powered dancefloors. Poland can boast seven urban agglomerations of half a million people or over, each of which has its own personality, gastro-scene and distinctive nightlife, not to mention a wealth of (frequently very new) museums. Most regional cities have airports served by international budget carriers, ensuring that you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to deciding where to start and finish your trip.

JEWISH HERITAGE
The history of Poland is inexorably linked to that of its Jewish population which, before World War II, comprised roughly ten percent (three million) of the country’s total – Europe’s largest Jewish community and the world’s second largest after the USA. Of the current world Jewish population of fifteen million, over half are thought to be related to Polish Jewry.
Poland’s Jewish communities were largely wiped out during the Holocaust , and many of the neighbourhoods where they lived were destroyed – either during the war or as a consequence of post-war urban development plans. However, there is much in the way of Jewish heritage still to see, from the beautifully restored synagogues of Tykocin , Włodawa , Zamość and elsewhere, to the evocative streets and squares of Kazimierz, the animated former Jewish quarter of Kraków . The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw makes for essential viewing, pulling all the strands of Jewish heritage together in spectacular, inspirational fashion. Many will feel the need to visit the former camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau , a place that – due to the sheer weight of physical evidence and survivor testimony – has come to symbolize the Holocaust as a whole.

Alamy

THE HISTORIC PORT OF GDAŃSK
Shutterstock
Kraków , the ancient royal capital, is the real crowd-puller for Poles and foreign visitors alike, rivalling the central European elegance of Prague and Vienna. This is the city where history hits you most powerfully, in the royal Wawel complex, in the fabulous open space of the Rynek, in the one-time Jewish quarter of Kazimierz, and in the chilling necropolis of nearby Auschwitz-Birkenau, the bloodiest killing field of the Third Reich. Kraków is