Poland: Zgorzelec - Olsztyn (2015)

[lovingkindness]

One day last summer I walked over a bridge into Zgorzelec, Poland. Finding a Św Jakuba sign I followed until eventually I arrived in Olsztyn. Here are some resources that came my way, a list of stages and places where I found welcome. With gratitude to all, Thanks…

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/resources/poland-drogi-%C5%9Aw-jakuba-zygorzelec-olsztyn-june-july2015.458/

As I walked I figured that if I made it to a village by nightfall then the signing of the Droga was adequate. I walked without GPS or internet connection. Along the way I found a few discarded scraps from a Pilgrim’s guide, located tourist brochures in Poznan and somewhere was given a map. I met many people. Often we didn’t share a language. We smiled a lot and ate food, sometimes sang and made music.

Early mornings in June/July ….wild raspberries in sandy soil, tiny strawberries the size of a baby’s nail, blueberries ripening in the undergrowth of silent forests. Sour cherries…

… allées lined with old Lipa trees, bees swarming in redolent air. Dust floating in golden light… Rambling in late afternoons along drogis, by wooden churches, through vast expanses of ripening grain. Fields choked by a myriad of cornflowers and marguerites and poppies.

Ultreia et suseia!

-Lovingkindness

 

[mspath]

Your journey must have been perfect; absolutely perfect! May you enjoy many more.

MM

 

[lovingkindness]

Your journey must have been perfect; absolutely perfect! May you enjoy many more.

MM

Thanks!

 

[lovingkindness]

...about the trail

The terrain between Zgorzelec and Torun is sandy and mostly flat with forests and crop lands. After Torun one eventually arrives in the forested lake districts of the north.

Dolnośląska Droga Św. Jakuba:
The trail is signed both ways between Zgorzelec and Jakubow.

Wielkopolska Droga Św. Jakuba: Jakubow – Mogilno
Signed in one direction heading south to Jakubow

Szlak Piastowski: Mogilno – Toruń
On roads to Pakość then a droga to Płonkówko

Droga Polska/Camino Polaco:
From Iława to Gietrzwald the signed trail is primarily on asphalt.

 

[Deleted member 34316]

One day last summer I walked over a bridge into Zygorzylec, Poland. Finding a Św Jakuba sign I followed until eventually I arrived in Olsztyn.

Sounds like an amazing adventure, the google says you walked 680 km! wow!
Sorry for my curiosity, but... weren't you going, like, in the opposite direction... away from Santiago?
Buen Camino nevertheless!

 

[lovingkindness]

Sounds like an amazing adventure, the google says you walked 680 km! wow!
Sorry for my curiosity, but... weren't you going, like, in the opposite direction... away from Santiago?
Buen Camino nevertheless!

Hi there, arthur1218. I often follow a trail in reverse. It's all part of the fun. Some of the trails I follow, though are signed both ways. For example, the one leading to Jakubow, a Santuary which is fast becoming 'little Santiago' in Poland...

My journey through Poland was part of another. I was returning to Nidaros - Trondheim where St Olaf, the first Christian King of Norway was buried. In April 2015 I set off from Trieste, Italy. The journey lasted about 5 1/2 months. I followed the Jakobova Pot and Via Sancti Martini and parts of the Iron Curtain Trail through Slovenia and Hungary until I arrived in Eisenstadt, Austria. To avoid walking through a Norwegian winter I skipped the 600 kilometers between Vienna and Prague then set off along der Zittauer Jakobsweg aiming for Gorlitz/Zgorzelec on to Olsztyn. I took the ferry from Gdansk to Sweden then walked a couple of pilgrim trails across Sweden to Trondheim. Afterwhich I drifted south until I reached Hamburg Hauptbahnhof where I joined others assisting the refugees in transit...[that's probably more than you need to know, but hej....?!?...]

cheers!


Jakob's Well [studenia jakubowa], Jakubow, Poland 2015