The cool clear mountain air.

Szczyrk is a fairly typical small Polish town.  First of all, as you can see, its name is entirely consonents, not a vowel in sight (not my favourite....that is the wonderfully named Zrzn, on the way to Lublin).   Second, the road through it is in a state disrepair....plenty of potholes and ridges where old repairs haven't quite worked how they should.  Again, this is not uncommon - even the national roads (equivalent to say the A40 or A21 in England) are like that.  It can make a long journey a bit wearing on your car's springs as well as your nerves.  The architecture is a mix of traditional Polish country house and functional communist block - not too pretty on the eye, but comfortable enough once modernized.  There are plenty of stores, small corner shop affairs that sell pretty much everything, as well as a couple of supermarkets, a good selection of souvenir shopes, restaurants and hotels.

What sets it apart is its location.  It's a ski resort in the Beskidy mountains in the south west of the country, a few miles from the border with the Czech Republic.  The Tatra mountains, about 50 miles to the east, close to Krakow, are a higher and more impressive range of mountains (this time bordering both the Czech Republic and Slovakia) but I'm told the skiing in the Beskidy range is better.  Never having tried a pair of skis on in my life I couldn't comment.  But Szczyrk is popular, and one of the leading resorts in Poland.  There are regular competitions, often featuring leading winter sports competitors....a couple of weeks ago there was a world championship held here in the discipline of cross-country skiing, for instance.  Right next to the guest house we rented is a championship quality ski jumping hill, complete with floodlights and three hills of varying height and difficulty.

So it's a good place, and when we were invited by some close friends to visit with them this week we had no hesitation in accepting.  Marcin and Monika are good friends, we've had a couple of boating holidays with them on the Mazurian Lakes, and their kids, Mateusz and Maciej, are good mates with our two.

So, done deal....

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It's a drive of some 300 km from our place, through Czestochowa, Katowice and Bielsko Biala.  The trafic was pretty light all the way, odd for a Saturday, and the kids behaved impeccably so it was pretty painless.  The main bottlenecks were through the major towns of Czestochowa (a historical tourist city that houses in its cathedral the medieval Catholic relic of the Black Madonna, making it a year round place of pilgrimage) and the industrial connurbation of Katowice and Chorzow, a still flourishing mining area close to the Beskidys.  But we left home around lunch time, took our time (with a couple of comfort breaks along the way) and arrived at the pension soon after dark, around 5:30.   There was surprisingly little snow to be seen in Sczczyrk, despite the temperature being around -10C, but the ski-jumping hill next door was certainly well covered (though not in use).   There was in fact more snow back home in Warsaw.....

We stayed at a small pension (a self-catering Polish guesthouse) and it was lovely.  The basement area - in fact it was sort of half under- and half over-ground - had been recently converted to provide accomodation.  It had three bedroom/bathroom/sitting room affairs surrounding a small central kitchen area, all with stripped pine floors and furniture (a double bed and 2 singles, wardrobe, chest of drawers and flat screen tv in each).   Our suite also had a comfortable settee and pine cottage style dining table and chairs.  The walls were pine clad and the low ceilings had a novel undulating finish that made them look like cave roofs.  The bathrooms were brand new and tastefully decorated, with good sized shower cubicles.  I've stayed in a few places over the years, mostly on the Baltic coast, and this was by far and away the best.

On the Sunday we went for a drive up into the mountains, and it was a delight.  10 km outside of town and 300m further up the mountain was a different world, one of thick snow and blue skies.  We went to one of the ski slopes and took the kids sledging.....the boys enjoyed it but Ally was not keen - "Too cold, daddy!"  We stayed for an hour or so, then headed further up to another place called Wisla.  Close to here the river that bears its name springs from the mountains and flows 900-odd kilometers through Krakow and Warsaw and Torun, the ancient and modern capitals of Poland and its university city birthplace of the astronomer Copernicus, before flowing into the Baltic at Gdansk.  It's also the home of Adam Malysz, probably the country's most famous sportsman, still one of the best half dozen ski jumpers in the world and a local hero - there is a museum dedicated to his career in Wisla.  We walked here along a ridge in brilliant sunshine, the snow ankle deep, through a pine forest, and to our right views across to the Czech Republic.  More sledging, and again too cold for Ally.  We ended up in a roadside cafe across from the car park, drinking hot beer flavoured with raspberry juice and herbs, hot chocolate for the kids and potato pancakes.....delicious.  We went back there later in the week, when it was even colder after another snowfall and the skies were even clearer, the bluest sky I have ever seen.....quite gorgeous.

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We enrolled Kuba and Maciej for ski lessons at a school in Sczczyrk.  Marcin and I took them off and they were fitted out with skis and boots and helmets, and then on to the nursery slope where they each had individual tuition.  They had four sessions in all, over the rest of the week, by the end of which they were happily skiing downhill on their own, slaloming their way without having to clutch their instructors' hands or poles for balance.  At the end of the week they each were given signed diplomas to show they had completed the course.....a proud moment!  Marcin and Ania are already experienced skiers, so Marcin treated himself to a two day course on the snowboards, while Ania settled for a couple of runs first on the nursery slopes with Kuba, and later, solo, on the Black Run at another slope.....she loved it.  On the Thursday it was my turn......and what a day!  We went off on a ski lift to the summit of Skrzyczne, at over 1200m one of the tallest peaks in the region.  The views on the way up, literally through a thin cloud layer, were quite stunning, and the top under clear blue skies was a snowy wonderland.  There was a cafe there, so we went there to warm up before hitting the slopes.  It was Kuba's second last lesson, so I stayed in the warmth of the cafe drinking hot chocolate while Ania shot off another 60 odd pictures of Kuba.  Ally fell asleep in my arms, and I had to wait a couple of hours before Ania came to relieve me and sent me off to the instructor.  This was my first time, ever, at this game and by the time I got out on the slopes my legs were already aching from the unaccustomed load of heavy ski boots I'd been hobbling about in for several hours...my knees, weak from old football injuries, were on the verge of giving up the ghost.  I clipped on the skis, with my instructor's help, then I stood there hanging on like grim death to the poles he was holding across him horizontally as an aid, while he gave me a string of incomprehensible instructions in Polish (a great guy, his English was on a par with my Polish - that is to say pretty much non-existant).  I caught the words "lewo" (left) and "prawo" (right), and then we were off.  Top man, he took it nice and slow, skiing backwards in a gentle slalom, while I clutched onto the poles, desperately trying to keep upright and turn when he did.   Somehow I managed to get to the bottom of the slope without falling arse over head and breaking something....but my knees!!!!!  Agony is probably too polite a description......  I could hardly stand, and it felt as though my knees were about to burst.  We were at the base station for a little pulley system that dragged us back up the slope, so I grabbed one of the handholds and slithered back up, still miraculously managing to keep my balance.  At the top, you were supposed to let go and turn right, back onto the flat at the top of the slope.  I managed that ok, but then began to slide backwards.....  Nothing for it, my legs finally gave out and I collapsed.  That was the end of my skiing....no point in continuing, the way my knees were....I could hardly stand, never mind hit the slopes again.  But it was great fun, and maybe I'll give it another go one day.
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There are a lot of restaurants and hotel in the town, but we tended to use one more or less in the centre of town that had a kids play area inside and served a good menu of Polish, Italian, Greek and Mexican cuisine.  We tried several differnt dishes across the menu and it was all excellent....as much as you could eat, well cooked and presented, washed down with a fine selection of local and imported beers.  And all at a very reasonable cost.   While we adults ate and drank, the kids were quite happily playing with train sets, building blocks, colouring and puzzle books, dolls and a whole host of other stuff, often with other kids from other families.  The evenings were as enjoyable as the days, and we all slept well.

The town also had a small spa kind of place, in a big house on one of the back streets.  One of its features was a large room that had somehow been converted to a cave, with natural mineral salt like deep sand on the floor, and the walls and ceiling covered with mineral salt deposits and stalactites.....it was very cleverly done.  In the room were perhaps a dozen sunloungers and the obligatory kids play area (this time with toy JCBs and dumper trucks, beach buckets, spades and rakes) and a family ticket priced at 32 zlotys gave you an hours' relaxation, breathing the enfused air and chilling out to a soundtrack of gentle music with the sea and gulls cawing in the background.  It was all very kitsch, really, but a pleasant way of spending a quiet time, and the salty air did my sinus the power of good.....I'd been carrying a virus for weeks, coughing and sneezing, and none of the many over-the-counter remedies seemed to help, but after the two visits here we made, for at least a couple of hours afterwards my nose and throat were fine and clear.

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So all in all, we had a great week.  It made a change from the normal daily grind, and the change of scene from city centre to clear mountain terrain was exhilerating.  Kuba thoroughly enjoyed his skiing and wants to do it again, even Ally got used to the cold eventually and enjoyed herself in the snow.

I'm guessing we'll do it all over again next year.