[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Planning to travel to East Poland

[Jerry Frank]

There will be a report of my May trip to Ukraine and Poland in an upcoming issue of the Journal.  I didn't go to SE Poland so I cannot offer much by way of answering most of your questions.

I will recommend that you rent a car.  I find that gives you a lot of flexibility in travel plans.  I was quite comfortable driving there as was my son.  The only unnerving part was having the heavily English accented voice of our gps system trying to pronounce some of the Polish place names.  <grin>

Keep in mind that Poland is quite small in comparison to Canada or USA.  The drive from Warsaw to Lublin can be made within 3 hours without any stops.  Your 7 days there will give you plenty of time to visit your villages.  You may want to find some touristy things to do in the region as well.  You will be very close to the border with Ukraine but do not consider going there (for example) on a day trip.  You cannot cross the border with a rented car.

Gas is readily available though more expensive than here, as is the case throughout Europe.  Poland requires the use of an International Drivers License which you can get through your nearest automobile association.  You may never have to produce it but might need it to rent a car.  I had to show mine when we crossed the border from Germany into Poland.

Most roads, even many rural ones, are in very good paved condition though some get down to the level of Saskatchewan rural roads with potholes and bad pavement repairs.  Depending on where your villages are located, you could encounter some dirt or sand roads.  While traveling on a good highway southbound to Augustopol, we were directed to turn right when we came within 1 km of the expected turnoff.  When we got down to 0.5 km, the gps advised to turn right "if you can!"  We turned right onto a one lane sandy trail.  Fortunately the weather had been dry with some light rain falling that morning so we had no trouble with the 2 km or so of trail winding first through some bush, then along country fields and finally reconnecting with pavement.  Not sure how we would have managed had there been pouring rain or if we had encountered another car heading in our direction.

Hiring a translator is a personal decision.  We managed 5 days in Poland including visiting two archives without one.  Most hotels will have staff who speak English.  Many restaurants do as well though less so.  Many restaurants have menus with English translations though you might be offered "beef guts soup" instead of what more politely should be called tripe soup.  If you want to converse with locals in the villages, you will probably need a translator.  In the cities we, for example, stopped a person on the street to request a recommendation for a good Polish restaurant and had no problem finding someone who spoke English.  What was more difficult was finding the Polish restaurant.  The vast majority of restaurants on the main shopping street in Lodz represented every country on earth except for Poland.  We finally found one on a side street that was quite good.  Be sure to use the schmaltz (bacon drippings) to spread on your bread which is usually offered in lieu of butter.  Yummy!


Jerry




----- Original Message -----
From: "Joyce Guasch" <jguasch at fastmail.net>
To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
Sent: Wednesday, November 7, 2012 11:03:05 AM
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Planning to travel to East Poland

Hello everyone,

 

September 2013, my sister and I with our husbands plan to visit East Poland.
We will fly to Warsaw and find our way to the Lublin area. We need a lot of
advice before we leave. To anyone who has been to Poland and specifically
that area, I need your help and advice!

 

We need to start at the beginning. Renting a car vs. taking the train to
Lublin. Any thoughts on this?

 

Our plan is to stay within the area of Lublin, Chelm, Wlodawa. I have not
mapped any of the other possible locations we want to visit besides
Dubeczno, Kulczyn, Wolka Nadrybska. We are hoping we can see everything and
go everywhere we want to go in 7 days. Any suggestions of anything else we
should do, for research as well as something to see in while in the area?
Cemeteries? 

 

We will need the services of a translator or driver/translator. Maybe for
the entire time if it is recommended we should not drive ourselves around.
Any recommendations and what can we expect to pay for this service. 

 

Are there any suggestions of where we should stay? Lublin? Chelm? Wlodawa? 

 

Our father's passport: I can see it was issued in Wlodawa, Jan 8, 1920.
Would looking for passport applications, if available, for my father and
siblings be of help to me and would Wlodawa be the place to look, or Warsaw?


 

I'm also going to look through past SGGEE journals, some of which I have
already saved in anticipation of someday taking this trip. If there is a
particular article that anyone recommends, please let me know. I may also
have emails from this list saved. I will also review those. 

 

Any and all help will be very much appreciated. We are seasoned travelers,
but not this kind of travel. When our Poland visit is complete, we'll fly
from Warsaw to Athens and continue with a small group and explore the Aegean
coastline, specifically Croatia then fly home from Zagreb. 

 

 

Joyce Welke Guasch

of Springfield, OR

Researching: Welke, Gurke, Beniamin

Ratz, Lentz, Pusch, Zimmerman of East Poland

Haner, Lindley, Wisbey, Bailey,

of the US and Germany

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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