Ready for… 2017?

How is it that year after year, those 365 (sometimes 366) days fly by faster and faster? Before we know it, it’s already another New Year’s Eve, another New Year, time to make new travel plans and squeeze more vacations into business calendars.

Today, we’re wrapping up 2016 and lifting the lid on what we plan to do in 2017 :)

What was 2016 like?

A year ago, in a similar post, we mentioned that this would be a special year for us, full of changes and challenges, and that’s exactly what it was. We already knew that our family would grow, so our plans for 2016 were subordinated to the blessed state and the planned delivery date. Unfortunately, the Baby Bear was moderately concerned about them and decided to give birth on the weekend, which we intended to spend in Sulejow :) And so, instead of an outing to the Lagoon, we had other attractions, but a little closer to home…. And we wouldn’t trade this weekend for any other! (Yes, for none and period!).

The first half of the year was full of trips abroad: we returned from the Canary Islands, were in England and Portugal. We didn’t plan anything further, we wanted to focus on the Ready for Poland series and I think we succeeded :) Honestly, I don’t think we have ever, in one year, discovered so many interesting places in Poland!

Fact, we were a little more motivated to travel by car, we couldn’t sit at home, so we packed the bare minimum necessary and hit the road. We rediscovered the charms of traveling by car, flexibility, and we could also compare Poland’s top attractions, their preparation and accessibility for foreign tourists.

This is precisely the interesting observation. The more we travel abroad, the more we pay attention to it. Going to Wawel Castle, Czocha Castle or Moszna Palace, we tried to look at these objects with the eye of a foreign tourist: to see if he or she can find his or her way here, understand the history, learn about the culture. We are accustomed to being inundated with knowledge when we enter a facility, as well as with materials that will serve us in writing blog posts. In Poland, we lacked some of that. We had to focus and memorize what the guide said, or scour the Internet for information.

Thus, 2016 was spent getting to know Poland: we sailed Elbląg Canal, we visited Malbork Castle, we went down to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, admired the murals in Gdansk, searched for the golden train, admired a’la Disney’s castle in Moszna, took a walk through Krakow’s Kazimierz and finally drove in the first train to Lodz Fabryczna ;) So it’s no surprise that the Top 10 of 2016 is full of our native attractions.

On the one hand, we have managed to post a lot of content and trip reports on the blog, but on the other hand, we are far behind schedule with a few more that require a little more time. Our resolution is to describe them first at the beginning of the year.

Our greatest success and pride and satisfaction is the fact that someone reads this blog of ours ;) Statistics can’t be fooled ;) The number of views, the number of fans on FB are growing and growing with which we are really very, very happy! This is a huge motivation for us to continue writing and creating content that can help and inspire someone to go.

Thank you also for your emails and comments. We are happy to answer them all :)

Our TOP 10 of 2016

It’s hard, really hard to choose just the top 10 memories of 2016, but we’ll try to meet the challenge. Unfortunately not everything has been described, but entries are already being produced :)

1. beaches of Portugal, Algarve – for good reason, they have been recognized as the most beautiful beaches of Europe – “Europe’s Leading Beach Destination 2015”. The golden beaches with stunning rock formations are an interesting option not only for beach fans.

2. cemeteries in Vilnius – places very special for Poles, striking by their symbolism. Our only regret is that it has been so neglected. We wrote about the cemeteries here.

3. Malbork Castle – it had to rank high in this list. There are many castles in Poland, we saw a lot this year, but this is the one we remember best. A big plus for the organization of the tour, maps, audio guide – uncommon in Poland, unfortunately. We recommend our post, about here.

4. Sintra, Portugal – we couldn’t decide on any particular site, so the whole place lands on the list :) Two sites deserve special attention: Pena Palace and the Quinta da Regaleira estate. Surprised? We did a little too, but these are two places that particularly stuck in our minds. Pena Palace, to some kitschy, mottled, and to us captivated by just this uniqueness and beautiful view. The Quinta da Regaleira property is a unique, unparalleled place to explore and discover. Numerous tunnels, stairs, corridors – our only regret is that we didn’t have head flashlights with us ;) You absolutely must see Sintra if you are going to Lisbon.

5. the Palace in Moszna – our Polish answer to Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle. TROUBLE more modest ;) And while the interiors don’t knock you out, the park surrounding the castle and the building itself are fabulous.

6. murals in the Gdansk housing estate Zaspa – not only the Shipyard, not only the crane, not only the Old Town. It is worth looking at Gdansk from a slightly different angle, and the Zaspa estate guarantees us an interesting artistic experience :) We recommend our coverage.

7. Wieliczka Salt Mine – a bit left in the shadow of Krakow, often overlooked, and in our opinion it is one of the most important places worth seeing in Poland. It is a unique place in the world, and we described it here.

The 8th Gdansk Shipyard and the European Solidarity Center – another symbolic place associated with Polish history in our list. Here, however, the most noteworthy is the newly built Solidarity Center. We have outlined the other noteworthy places in and around the Tri-City in this post.

9. Ogrodzieniec Castle – The remnants of this castle in our listing may come as a bit of a surprise, but we were equally surprised by the size of the castle once we approached its walls :) The impressive walls illustrate how big the castle was in its heyday, and thankfully overshadow the numerous stalls and grilled sausages set up at its foot.

10. the Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoznica – the list closes with another symbolic object. Another place that made a huge impression on us and etched itself permanently in our memory. This was not the purpose of our trip to Lower Silesia per se, but it was a good thing that we ended up here. Check out this post not only about castles and palaces of Lower Silesia for more details .

We could post another of the 100 places and events of 2016, but who would read it all? :)

2016 in numbers

Just like last year, below are some figures that show the passing year in our performance:

• We have only had 5 flights.
• We visited 5 different airports.
• In total, we flew 12,130 kilometers / 7,538 miles.
• We spent more than 19 hours on board the planes alone.
• We were on board 3 different airlines.
• We visited 4 different countries: Canary Islands, Portugal, UK, Lithuania (+ of course we traveled a lot in Poland :))
• We have surpassed 20,000 fans on FB (thank you!).
• We wrote 104 blog posts.

You may now be calculating your kilometers flown and conclude that ours is a pittance, but we are still glad that we managed to see many new places.

Well, and to sum up more visually, our travel map has expanded by more points:

What was missing?

A year ago we wrote that in 2015 we neglected Poland – this year we can’t write that, and would even write that we spoiled it :) It’s been a long time since we saw so much of our beautiful country.

In 2016 we let go of more active activities, we did not participate in any bike rallies, so we hope to do so in 2017 :) There was also a lack of exotics or further flights, but we still have a terrible backlog of descriptions of where we’ve been, so maybe that’s a good thing? ;)

What will 2017 be like?

Of course it will be even better! Maybe 2016 was not the most traveled year, but it was definitely the best year of our lives :) And I dread to think what it will be in 2017 ;)

Uniquely, we have already made plans for this year almost until December, the question remains whether we will be able to implement everything.

We can let out the secret that this will be a year of cold trips :) We don’t mean Greenland, Scandinavia or Canada, but it doesn’t promise to be any trip where we would have the opportunity to enjoy the beach and sun. We tend to focus on destinations with temperate climates and winter madness. It’s going to be a bit exotic and far away, and we’re going to do a little bit of banging around, because there are often no direct flights to the destinations we’ve chosen.

We hope to continue our Ready for Poland series, if there are any places in Poland that you particularly recommend, write in the comments! We are very curious about what you think is the most beautiful in Poland.

There will definitely be more about traveling with a baby, it is inevitable :) There will be a lot of tips, hints and learning from your mistakes. We are already looking forward to our first flight and are already betting how much excess baggage we will have ;)

It has been an exceptional year for us, we hope the next one will be just as fantastic, which we wish for ourselves and for you!