4 Search Results for ""hunting lodge""

• Poland - Part 2 (Greater Polan Poland - Part 2 (Greater Poland)

  • From: lprice
  • Description:

     

    I totally love this hotel. I don't want to leave. The restaurant on the ground floor was great. But all good things must come to an end, back to the bus as we head to the Wielkopolska region. 

     

      Our first stop of the day was at Antonin, the hunting lodge of Prince Antoni Radziwill. It is a yellow octagonal- shaped home with a huge column in the center if the home. Animal lovers, be forwarned, there are deer heads covering the three story column. Karl Friedrick Schinkel, a famous German architect, built the home in the 1820's. 

      Out front you can't miss the Chopin bust that looks as if it is floating above the hedges. Chopin apparently lived here for a while and taught the Prince's daughter piano lessons. He composed several pieces here, including the Introduction and Polonaise in C-Major op. 3. He also dedicated the Piano Trio op. 8 to the Prince himself. This is a great place to stretch your legs and wander around the huge park that the estate sits on. 

     

      Our next stop is at a beautiful French Chalet of Goluchow set in the middle of the Polish countryside. You enter into the courtyard with an arcade overlooking it and part of the grounds. The home was rebuilt in the late 1800's and was turned into a museum with a huge collection of Greek vases, paintings, military equipment and prehistoric tools. The museum was one of the largest private museums in Europe until 1939. The museum was looted in World War II and part of the grounds destroyed. The grounds were designed in the English park style, similar to the Biltmore. The grounds are still the largest arboretum in Poland. After hiking across the grounds for a bit it was time to go see a modern castle. 

     

      We stopped in the city of Kornik for lunch before we headed to the castle complex.

    I am not sure if I was just starving or what, but the Bolognese Spaghetti that I had from the restaurant was amazing. 

      The castle was renovated by the Dzialynski family in the Neo-Gothic style that we see today. The castle was under repairs when we went through the home. We ended up sliding across the wood floors with our cloth booties created to protect the floor. The house has been turned into a museum now. It has a great armor collection and period furniture from different eras.

     

    
    Gniezno was the first Polish capital until the 11th century. There is a large cathedral that was built in 1342  and is on the UNESCO World Cultural Treasury list. The relics in the cathedral are of St. Adalbert, the first patron of Poland. If you haven't had lunch yet, there is a great field at the bottom of the hill where the Cathedral is located. It would be a great option for a picnic lunch. 

     

      Strzelno is a photographers dream at sunset. There are two structures on the parish land. The Bascilica looks Baroque but is much older. Check out the Romanesque column that they found during restoration. After you have wandered around the nave, head outside to St. Adalbert's Hill and the rotunda shaped Church of St. Prokopus. The red light of the sunset bounces of the brick and makes it look like it is on fire. Well worth the trouble to get there at sunset.

     

    Torun is the home of gingerbread, mmmmm, and Nicholas Copernicus. There is a statue dedicated to him in the Old Market Square next to the Old Town Hall. We got to Torun late so we toured the city in the dark which was interesting, but I think we all agreed that the best part was the Leaning Tower. Yes, you heard right, Torun has a leaning tower too.

    If that isn't good enough, they also made it into a bar. Not the nicest thing to do to your drunk patrons, but hey at least it was entertaining. The tower leans a  whopping 1.4 meters. You might not think that sounds like a lot but walk around in the tower and let me know if you don't have the fun house effect. 

     

    PTTK Guesthouse was where we settled in for the night after a beer or two. Check with the staff. This was a great hostel, but it might be reserved for students under the age of 26. It also has a fairly early lock-out time so beware nightly party animals. 

     

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  • 1 year ago
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• Antonin Antonin

  • From: lprice
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  • 1 year ago
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• Frederick's gazebo Frederick's gazebo

  • From: KatiCorsaut
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    Outside Berllin, Frederick the Great had a hunting lodge - Sans Souci - so-called because no women were allowed (ok, he had issues). This is the only gold-plated gazebo we ever saw.

  • 1 year ago
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• A Journey to the Arctic Circle A Journey to the Arctic Circle

  • From: Macinfla
  • Description:

     

     

    We’d driven over 4,500 miles from Elkhart, Indiana to Anchorage, Alaska in a motorhome, then enjoyed a 12-hour ride from Anchorage to Fairbanks on the Alaska Railroad. After traveling this far, we felt we should keep on going as far as possible. The Northern Alaska Tour Company’s ad said “Let us fly you into the Arctic Circle and over the Brooks Mountain Range”. How could we turn an opportunity like that down?

     

    We arrived at the tour company’s office at the Fairbanks airport to be weighed in and instructed on the safety concerns of traveling in a small aircraft. After brief introductions to Tim, our pilot, we left Fairbanks aboard an eight passenger, twin-engine Piper Cherokee. “Air Arctic” it said on the side of the plane, but don’t confuse this with a major airline of any kind.

     

    Tim was good about pointing out things of interest to us, and it wasn’t long after gaining our cruising altitude of 3,500 feet that we flew over pumping station #1 along the Trans-Alaska pipeline. The pipeline and the adjacent Dalton Highway stayed in view for most of the flight, as Tim was using them to guide us more than 260 miles north of Fairbanks, and well into the wilderness known as the Arctic Circle.

     

    So what is the Arctic Circle? This is an imaginary line circling the North Pole. It is north of this line that at the summer solstice, the sun will not set for more than two months. Sunlight 24 hours a day. Conversely, at the winter solstice, the area north of the Arctic Circle will not see the sun and remain in total darkness 24 hours a day, for the next two months. It’s no wonder bears hibernate.

     

    While flying over the remoteness surrounding the Yukon River Valley region, we see Stevens Village, a Koyukan Athabascan native Indian settlement. This prompts Tim to inform us that within the Alaska and Yukon Arctic Circle region, there are more than 15,000 square miles of territory, and in this vast area there are fewer than 600 human residents. In our opinion, this qualifies for remote wilderness, as bears greatly outnumber humans here.

     

    It was early June and we found the normally snow-covered Brooks Mountain Range to be clear, with lots of green trees and vegetation. While the summer here may be only slightly longer than two months, we remember that it is broad daylight around the clock, so it is possible for vegetables, berries, trees and wildflowers to prosper, even at these latitudes.

     

    In just over two hours flying time, we arrive at our destination and land at Coldfoot Camp, which is one of the farthest north unrestricted air strips in the Arctic Circle. To go further in this region we were told, would require getting a permit to enter the Prudhoe Bay oil field, which is restricted for private vehicles and aircraft. Further, signs inform us that when traveling north from Coldfoot, there is no fuel or other services available between here and the 240 miles to the Arctic Ocean.  No cell phone service to call AAA if you run into trouble, or out of gas.

     

    The Coldfoot camp is a supply depot for the region and was originally built in 1970 to support building the Dalton Highway. The region however, has a rich history as a gold mining settlement at the same location, with more than 200 residents in its heyday back in the early 1800’s.

     

    We were met at the plane by Chad, our guide and driver for the day. Chad himself is an import from Michigan, but he fell in love with the place when he visited and has now lived in Coldfoot for more than four years. He was very knowledgeable of the region, and told us he now owned 35 Siberian husky dogs and loved to dogsled with them when the weather permitted, which is most of the year.

     

    Chad drove us north out of Coldfoot on the Dalton Highway, past the ominous signs that say travel is restricted. As far as services or lodging are concerned, we are pretty much at the end of the road for this trip. Chad wanted to show us the village of Wiseman, approximately thirteen miles north of Coldfoot. Before construction of the Dalton Highway in the 1970’s, it was a day’s journey between the two settlements, by walking or dogsled.

     

    We didn’t know what to expect at this remote village, though Chad confirmed that we would not be seeing ice igloos and polar bears, like all lower 48 tourists initially think. We were told that to see ice igloos we would have to travel to Greenland, there are no longer any in the Alaska Arctic Circle territory.

     

    There were other surprises, too. We brought along our jackets, but they were very lightweight, and we told ourselves before we left that if it was too cold and snowy, we would just stay on the plane and have our pilot fly us back to Fairbanks. Of course, when we got up to Coldfoot, the temperature was in the low 70’s and it was a bright, beautiful day. It could easily have been a little warmer in the Arctic Circle today than it was back home in Indiana. The jackets stayed packed away in the plane, we toured the northernmost regions of Alaska in our shirtsleeves.

     

    The Dalton Highway is a two lane gravel road that is known locally as the “Haul Road”, because its main purpose is to transport equipment and supplies up to the North Slope oil fields. The road is never plowed, so for most of the year it is either tightly packed snow, or completely impassable.

     

    We turned off the Dalton Highway, first to take pictures of the nearby Trans-Alaska pipeline, and again shortly thereafter when we came to the two mud ruts that constituted the three mile access road into the village of Wiseman. Little more than a dirt trail through the trees.

     

    The community of Wiseman is known as the only former gold-mining town dating back to the early 1800’s that has been continuously inhabited to this day. Today, there are still some gold mining operations in the Arctic Circle, but they are mostly small, individual operations, and they are not located near Wiseman.

     

    Twenty-two people currently call Wiseman home, and virtually all of them live here the year around, even when the winter temperatures drop to more than 80 degrees below zero. The winter winds that accompany the snow from September through April are often near hurricane strength, and it snows enough to frequently require homes to be dug out. Our guide Chad said the Wiseman post office, now closed, is completely buried by snow several months out of the year.

     

    The residents of Wiseman continue to engage in the work of 200 years ago, like fur trapping, hunting for food, a little gold mining, and harvesting and selling wild berries. The homes in the community are mostly the same homes built 100 or more years ago. Log cabins, dirt floors, no electricity except for a few solar panels, no running water. There are about eight telephones in town, but their ability to make and receive calls is very spotty. Heating and cooking is almost exclusively done with firewood.

     

    Chad was hoping to introduce us to the village’s unofficial mayor, Jack, but unfortunately he was out hunting for his dinner. We took photos of his home, and to see this place really increased our desire to meet Jack. One side of his log cabin is completely covered in wolf skulls, for example. Huge antelope antlers adorn his doorway, and his front door is a nicely done polar bear pelt.

     

    Chad told us that in 1930, an author came to Wiseman and lived with the natives for more than fifteen months, documenting as much as he could of their daily living experiences. The result was the book “Arctic Village”, by Robert Marshall. We made a mental note to buy a copy of the book when we were next in a bookstore.

     

    Words can’t do this wilderness community justice. We will just close this chapter of our travels by saying that Wiseman is a village right out of the early 1800’s and not restored to its original condition, but virtually unchanged from those days. Like stepping back in time 200 years.

     

    Time to get back to our waiting plane, and the flight back to Fairbanks. It’s common up here to offer travelers empty plane seats, and on our return flight we are taking along two ladies who had come up to the Arctic Circle by road, as part of a group to do some rafting on the Koyukuk River. They said they had an enjoyable time rafting, but were not looking forward to the long and arduous drive for almost 300 miles down the gravel Dalton Highway, so they were hitching a ride with us. One of them was terrified of flying, but did remarkably well on the flight back, even through the rain, snow and sleet storms we encountered while flying over the Brooks Mountain Range.

     

    Back in Fairbanks, the Northern Alaska Tour Company presented us both with our “official certificates”, certifying our visit today into the Arctic Circle, and ran us back to Pike’s Waterfront Lodge, just in time for happy hour and dinner.

     

    We can enthusiastically recommend this journey to travelers who venture anywhere near Fairbanks. Next time you’re in that neighborhood, check out the wondrous sights of the Arctic Circle!

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  • 2 years ago
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