Poland & Lodz

What you should know about our country and our city:

POLAND

Poland is famous for its hospitality and excellent food. Together with unforgettable tours and adventures we can guarantee a very special week.

Poland offers things to see that are not found anywhere else. Major attractons include:

Warsaw’ s Royal Castle and Old Town , totally destroyed in the war and meticulously rebuilt to look as good as old;
Baltic cruises to Sweden and Finland featuring all the shipboard amenities of a bygone era;
the Wolf’ s Lair in Kętrzyn – the forested East Prussian underground headquarters from which Hitler directed his (luckily unsuccessful) plans for world conquest;
Old Royal Krakow with its royal art treasures and crown jewels in Wawel Castle and Cathedral ;
the hauntingly majestic Shrine of the Black Madonna at Czestochowa’ s Jasna Gora Monastery ;
the Wieliczka Salt Mine , a subterranean wonderland (chapels, chambers, ballrooms, statuary; chandeliers – all carved from salt) which Ripley’ s ” Believe It Or Not” ranks among the man-made wonders of the world;
the raft ride down the Dunajec River rapids amid the cliffs of the Pieniny Mountains ;
the gruesome former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau (better plan on skipping lunch that day!);
the beautiful Tatra Mountains featuring cable-car rides amid breath- taking scenery, rich Goral folklore and distinctive architecture;
Bialowieza , Europe’ s last virgin forest where wild ponies and bison still roam in their native habitat.

These are but a few tourist highlights, but there are a great many more. Poland is an ancient nation that was conceived near the middle of the 10th century. Its golden age occurred in the 16th century. During the following century, the strengthening of the gentry and internal disorders weakened the nation. In a series of agreements between 1772 and 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria partitioned Poland amongst themselves. Poland regained its independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union in World War II. It became a Soviet satellite state following the war, but its government was comparatively tolerant and progressive. Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union ” Solidarity” that over time became a political force and by 1990 had swept parliamentary elections and the presidency. A ” shock therapy” program during the early 1990s enabled the country to transform its economy into one of the most robust in Central Europe, but Poland still faces the lingering challenges of high unemployment, underdeveloped and dilapidated infrastructure, and a poor rural underclass. Solidarity suffered a major defeat in the 2001 parliamentary elections when it failed to elect a single deputy to the lower house of Parliament, and the new leaders of the Solidarity Trade Union subsequently pledged to reduce the Trade Union’ s political role. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004. With its transformation to a democratic, market-oriented country largely completed, Poland is an increasingly active member of Euro-Atlantic organizations.

BRIEFLY ABOUT LODZLodz is the second largest city in Poland (after Warsaw) with about 800,000 inhabitants. Lodz lies 135 kilometers away from Warsaw (the journey by train takes about one hour and a half, or two hours when you take the Polski Express bus). The city is the main centre of textile industry (one of the most important in the world) and other branches developed here including clothing and chemical industries.Lodz is also a significant cultural and scientific centre with numerous public and private universities, a research centre of the Polish Academy of Science, radio broadcasting stations and a TV centre. Our city is the biggest film making centre in Poland, with the National Film, Television and Theatre School and film production companies.

Nowadays Lodz is one of the most modern centers of commerce, business and science. The landmarks of the city history are such monuments as: a baroque church and a Franciscan cloister from the 18th century in Lagiewniki, a neoclassical town-hall (1827), enormous old factories and residencies of the celebrated Jewish and German industrialist families the Poznanskis, the Hertzs and the Scheiblers, the biggest Jewish cemetery in Europe and Piotrkowska street the longest shopping precinct in Europe with Art Nouveau buildings. In the city there are many cinemas, theatres, the Lodz Philharmony named after Artur Rubinstein and The Lodz Opera House.