The 2nd Annual Post-Christmas Roadtrip: Day 1
With some vacation time available, we took a short trip down to Bratislava. “Where is that?”, you may ask. Well, it’s the capital of Slovakia. Last year, we only passed by it on our way to Budapest.
We spent the first night of our journey in Rydzyna, a small town only a few hours south of Poznań. The main attraction is the palace, which also happens to be a hotel, and where we stayed.
You may be wondering about the limo out front. No, we didn’t trade in the Skoda. There was a wedding party at the hotel that night. Check out the sweet ballroom where the reception was held:
We were probably the only guests that weren’t there for the wedding!
This palace was the home of Stanisław Leszczyński, who was king of Poland twice in the first part of the 1700s. Since there are no streets, neighborhoods, or vodkas named after him, and he’s not on any of the currency, I think it’s safe to say he was one of the lesser monarchs.
The next day was an uneventful travel day through the Czech Republic and Slovakia. One of the necessary evils of travelling south is Driving Through Wrocław. I think we have mentioned a few times that Poland doesn’t really have many highways, and drivers have to negotiate many small towns while travelling between major cities on poorly maintained two-lane roads. Small towns usually only require a drop in speed, and maybe a roundabout. Wrocław, however, is Poland’s fourth largest city, and driving through it is a completely different monster.
What a map won’t show you are the giant potholes, radical lane changes, excessive use of cobblestones, and the fact that cars share all of these streets with the trams. In addition, my GPS seems to have an evil sense of humor regarding Wrocław.
The only other interesting highlight is that our route passed by the Austerlitz Battlefield, just north of Brno. (For those of you who don’t remember Mil Art, a quick refresher.) The local concrete plant commemorated the occasion on a grand scale:
A clever way to utilize otherwise boring industrial equipment!
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