Poland 2025

[Markus Becker]

Uwaga Piwo everyone!

By surprisingly established Spanish tradition, continued on short notice by z Germans(well, just one), all of Tank Net's I&I are in Poland now. Why not plan ahead? 

The P-Day 2025* is August the 15th, I am off work until the 17th, so let's plan another incursion into Poland Backwards!

We arrive in Warsaw on Day 1. Some pick up the cars, others some beers. 

On Day 2 we head for Danzig. It's a 3 hour drive and we go right past the Marienburg, the base of the Teutonic Knights. Knowing TN, we won't have much time left for Danzig.

Day 3 is Danzig. It is very different from Warsaw. The latter is a Polish city destroyed by the Germans and rebuilt by the Poles. The former is a German city destroyed by the Soviets and rebuilt by the Poles. Good job getting history back and there's museum ships there. The Hel Peninsula is near. 

But she's for Day 4. 

On the morning of Day 5 we could relocate to Poznan. Another 3 hour drive and there we have a tank(!) museum, a Gestapo/resistance museum, the museum of the one and only successful Polish uprising and the Old Town. With the modern Royal Place of His Majesty King Bill of Prussia. I hope they are done with the construction work there. 

On Day 6 we go on another 3 hour drive to Krakow. The Air Force museum is there and definitely lot of other things. So Day 6/7 are spend there before the 

And on Day 8 we go on the final 3 hour drive to Warsaw. ETA there should be no later, preferably sooner than the 14th of August, so we have days to see things. 

The good thing is the flexibility of the planning. We could go north to south or the other way round. And we can cut bits off: Krakow entirely or just the Hel Peninsula. 

And as a plan of last resort we just meet up in Warsaw. Plenty of interesting stuff to see there and no shortage of experienced guides: Hubert, Matt, me.

So, let's talk, throw ideas in, plans out and hope for more of the Gang meeting in the blistering August heat. 

*When you avoid standing in the sun for an hour while Polish politicians enjoy themselves giving speeches. Over and over again. Just so you can see the AFV parade that lasts well under the hour long speeches. 

[sunday]

Sounds yummy! 🤩

August 15th 2025 is Friday.

Edited October 17, 2024 by sunday

[Markus Becker]

Here's the Long Plan:

Thursday 7th: Arrival in Warsaw
Friday 8th: Marienburg and some Danzig 
Saturday 9th: Danzig
Sunday 10th: Hel peninsula, then to Posen
Monday 11th: Posen
Tuesday 12th: To Krakow and some Krakow 
Wednesday 13th: Krakow 
Thursday 14th: to Warsaw and some Warsaw 
Friday 15th: Parade in Warsaw 
Saturday 16th: Warsaw 
Sunday 17th: End of I&I 

And the Short One, Version Danzig:

Sunday 10th: Arrival
Monday 11th: Marienburg and some Danzig 
Tuesday 12th: Danzig 
Wednesday 13th: Hel Peninsula and to Posen
Thursday 14th: Posen and to Warsaw 
Friday 15th: Parade 
Saturday 16th: Warsaw 
Sunday 17th: End of I&I 

 

And the version Krakow:

Sunday 10th: arrival 
Monday 11th: Posen
Tuesday 12th: to Krakow 
Wednesday 13th: Krakow 
Thursday 14th: to Warsaw 
Friday 15th: Parade 
Saturday 16th: Warsaw 
Sunday 17th: End of I&I

[Markus Becker]

@urbanoid

Please run this by Hubert and @Damian

[Damian]

Good to know it is planned early. Maybe @Manic Moran Could also visit Poland next year, I might try to aks in the museums if a proper videos could be made.

Meanwhile I will plan my own time free from work for August, to spend it in more pleasant way.

[Markus Becker]

Well, we got Nick into a TKS already but there's the 7TP too and I happen to know where to where one is.

 

I wonder if we could get more people interested? @DB or even the rare and illusive @BansheeOne? @Leo Niehorstertoo! 

Edited October 20, 2024 by Markus Becker

[sunday]

2 hours ago, Markus Becker said:

Here's the Long Plan:

Thursday 7th: Arrival in Warsaw
Friday 8th: Marienburg and some Danzig 
Saturday 9th: Danzig
Sunday 10th: Hel peninsula, then to Posen
Monday 11th: Posen
Tuesday 12th: To Krakow and some Krakow 
Wednesday 13th: Krakow 
Thursday 14th: to Warsaw and some Warsaw 
Friday 15th: Parade in Warsaw 
Saturday 16th: Warsaw 
Sunday 17th: End of I&I 

Times (distances) by car

Warsaw airport -> Malbork

3 h 39 min (323 km)

Malbork -> Gdansk

55 min (63,1 km)

Gdansk -> Hel

1 h 48 min (99,4 km)

Seems that, up to here, we could stay at a Gdansk hotel, arriving the 7th, departing the 10th.

Hel -> Poznan

4 h 45 min (400 km)

Hotel in Poznan, arriving the 10th, departing the 12th

Poznan -> Cracow

4 h 42 min (460 km)

Hotel in Cracow, arriving the 12th, departing the 14th

Cracow -> Warsaw

3 h 8 min (290 km)

Hotel in Warsaw, arriving the 14th, departing the 17th

Doable renting cars at Warsaw airport the 7th and returning them the 14th, and staying in four different hotels.

Alternatively, we could rent cars only in Gdansk, and try to use rail for the rest of travel.

By train

Times are mainly in a ballpark, these are calculated assuming travel in November, on the same days of the week. Seems times are the same, or even shorter, than by car.

Warsaw airport -> Gdansk

4 h 3 min to 4 h 37 min

Gdansk -> Poznan

3 h 51 min to 6 h 20 min

Poznan -> Cracow

5 h 44 min to 6h 47 min

Cracow -> Warsaw

2 h 21 min to 3 h 49 min

[sunday]

Seems US Army Majors should exercise discretion in Gdansk.

 

[Damian]

@Stuart Galbraith Might be interested.

[urbanoid]

8 hours ago, Markus Becker said:

@urbanoid

Please run this by Hubert and @Damian

I'll think about it, I have some reservations about... geographical spread. I think the plan involving those 4 cities is going to be hard, effectively we'd spend 2 days of the I&I on the road. I also wonder whether Hubert has any more ideas about showing us stuff in Warsaw, while I didn't ask yet he MAY feel that it's going to be a bit repetetive for him since the stuff that we'd want to visit in the larger group is the very same that he was showing us this and previous year.

Anyway, I'll talk to Hubert... in some time.

[Markus Becker]

WRT the Hel Peninsula, there's connections by ferry* from Danzig. Might be better than driving into this bottleneck. 

As to the duration, we can always drop stuff from schedule. 

 

PS: You get ferry connections when you set Maps to foot or bicycle. It's way faster than by car. 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2024 by Markus Becker

[Markus Becker]

And a link to the museums webseite anf location. 

https://its-poland.com/attraction/the-museum-of-coastal-defence

https://www.helmuzeum.pl/helmuzeum-de/

https://g.co/kgs/wJH2qXq

Edited October 21, 2024 by Markus Becker

[sunday]

9 hours ago, urbanoid said:

I'll think about it, I have some reservations about... geographical spread. I think the plan involving those 4 cities is going to be hard, effectively we'd spend 2 days of the I&I on the road. I also wonder whether Hubert has any more ideas about showing us stuff in Warsaw, while I didn't ask yet he MAY feel that it's going to be a bit repetetive for him since the stuff that we'd want to visit in the larger group is the very same that he was showing us this and previous year.

Anyway, I'll talk to Hubert... in some time.

I agree on the perhaps too much ambitious spread of the full plan, so it would be better to drop Gdansk or Cracow. As Czestochowa is outside of the Cracow part, I am in favor of dropping Cracow, as it needs a lot of driving, and use the Gdansk stay to visit Marienburg/Malbork and Hel. The ferry ride could be fun, also. Moreover, there is a direct Intercity train from Poznan to Warsaw, if we decide to use trains after the Gdansk part.

[Markus Becker]

As far as tour guides in Warsaw are concerned. Matt and I could keep anyone new to town entertained for a long weekend.

Cutting off the Krakow leg looks reasonable. The rest fits in a week and has the shorter drives. 

 

 

[sunday]

56 minutes ago, Markus Becker said:

As far as tour guides in Warsaw are concerned. Matt and I could keep anyone new to town entertained for a long weekend.

Cutting off the Krakow leg looks reasonable. The rest fits in a week and has the shorter drives. 

Moreover, Cracow and environments, like Czestochowa, could deserve a few days.

Edited October 22, 2024 by sunday

[Markus Becker]

As far as tour guides in Warsaw are concerned. Matt and I could keep anyone new to town entertained for a long weekend.

Cutting off the Krakow leg looks reasonable. The rest fits in a week and has the shorter drives. 

Could be done by train. Warsaw to Danzig goes by Marienburg. Though almost all trains to Marienburg require a reservation. The ones from there to Danzig don't. So the ones to Posen. From there to Warsaw it's 50/50.

Btw, a town called Bydgoszcz is on the way between Danzig and Posen.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bydgoszcz

[urbanoid]

My suggestion would be to concentrate on Warsaw and north OR south (Kraków leg), without Poznań. Also to rely on rental cars instead of trains (I could probably come with one car, so it's one less to rent).

For northern direction we have the the Tri-City with quite a lot of museums, aforementioned Malbork/Marienburg castle and we can venture to Mazury region too (NE Poland), among other things we could visit Wolfsschanze and the (first) Tannenberg museum there.

[Markus Becker]

Sounds like a good idea. Interesting destinations and little driving. Danzig - Tannenberg - Wolfsschanze is just about 1:30 hours for each leg. 

 

[sunday]

40 minutes ago, Markus Becker said:

Sounds like a good idea. Interesting destinations and little driving. Danzig - Tannenberg - Wolfsschanze is just about 1:30 hours for each leg. 

It would need a day, however. Even considering 16 hours available, that means 6 hours of driving, leaving 10 for visits and meals. Still doable, but we should consider if there are other alternatives with better ratio between visiting and driving.

[urbanoid]

That's right, a better idea would be to go to Tannenberg + find something interesting nearby one day, leaving Wolfsschanze + something nearby for another.

[Markus Becker]

Posen was a one day event, so let's compress the plan a bit

The Short One, Version Northern Poland:

Sunday 10th: Arrival
Monday 11th: Marienburg and some Danzig 
Tuesday 12th: Danzig and Hel Peninsula 
Wednesday 13th: To Tannenberg (and later to Wolfsschanze?)
Thursday 14th: Wolfsschanze and to Warsaw 
Friday 15th: Parade 
Saturday 16th: Warsaw 
Sunday 17th: End of I&I 

[Markus Becker]

On second thought the Danzig schedule seems too tight. 

Driving to Marienburg, visiting, lunch and the drive to Danzig will probably get use there in the afternoon when museums being to close. And with the many sights in Danzig, that and Hel in a day might be too much.

How about adding a day to the I&I and staring on Saturday? 

Saturday 9th: Arrival
Sunday 10th: Marienburg and some Danzig 
Monday 11th: Danzig 
Tuesday 12th: Hel Peninsula and to Tannenberg 
Wednesday 13th: Tannenberg (and later to Wolfsschanze?)
Thursday 14th: Wolfsschanze and to Warsaw 
Friday 15th: Parade 
Saturday 16th: Warsaw 
Sunday 17th: More Warsaw in the morning and end of I&I 

I'd probably leave on Monday morning anyway. Sunday's trains 👎🏻

[sunday]

39 minutes ago, Markus Becker said:

On second thought the Danzig schedule seems too tight. 

Driving to Marienburg, visiting, lunch and the drive to Danzig will probably get use there in the afternoon when museums being to close. And with the many sights in Danzig, that and Hel in a day might be too much.

How about adding a day to the I&I and staring on Saturday? 

Saturday 9th: Arrival
Sunday 10th: Marienburg and some Danzig 
Monday 11th: Danzig 
Tuesday 12th: Hel Peninsula and to Tannenberg 
Wednesday 13th: Tannenberg (and later to Wolfsschanze?)
Thursday 14th: Wolfsschanze and to Warsaw 
Friday 15th: Parade 
Saturday 16th: Warsaw 
Sunday 17th: More Warsaw in the morning and end of I&I 

I'd probably leave on Monday morning anyway. Sunday's trains 👎🏻

Adding a bit of slack is good. However, we need to take in account where should be sleep. The ideal would be two hotels, one in Gdansk/Danzig and another in Warsaw. That schedule from 12th to 14th seems to need to find hotels in both Grunwald/Tannenberg and near Wolfsschanze, but the route from the Wolfsschanze to Warsaw happens to go by Grunwald, the regional capital Olsztyn is quite near Grunwald, and there is a substantial number of hotels in Olsztyn, including one from a Hilton chain. There are a couple near a nice lake, also.

@urbanoid, what do you think of Olsztyn?

So, I suggest:

Saturday 9th: Arrival in the morning, rent cars in Warsaw, drive to Gdansk/Danzig, check-in at Gdansk hotel
Sunday 10th: Marienburg and some Danzig No changes
Monday 11th: Danzig Hel Peninsula
Tuesday 12th: Hel Peninsula, some Gdansk/Danzig in the morning, checking-out of Gdansk/Danzig hotel, drive to Olsztyn, and check-in at Olsztyn hotel
Wednesday 13th: Tannenberg (and later to Wolfsschanze?), some visiting in Olsztyn
Thursday 14th: Wolfsschanze, check-out from Olsztyn after returning from Wolfsschanze, drive to Warsaw, and check-in at Warsaw hotel
Friday 15th: Parade No changes
Saturday 16th: Warsaw No changes
Sunday 17th: More Warsaw in the morning and end of I&I No changes

I think we could do the Hel peninsula on 11th, and some Danzig for the 12th before leaving the hotel. We need to check museum schedules, as some could close on Mondays.

These suggestion present the advantage of not leaving luggage in the cars, provided that the Olsztyn hotel allows us to keep luggage there after check-out. Possibility of late check-out would be better, but it is not a must.

Edited to add:

Quote

Sunday's trains 👎🏻

Should I take offense for that? 😜

Edited October 27, 2024 by sunday

[sunday]

Well, I found something I was not aware of. An AFV museum with 150+ vehicles at a town named Mrągowo, less than 40km away from the Wolfsscnanze.

http://muzeum.mragowo.pl/

They offer rides in some vehicles.

There is a awesome hotel in the town at the lakeshore: https://www.hotelsolar.com.pl/pokoje/ But with

In order to enjoy that, a possible itinerary could be:

Saturday 9th: Arrival in the morning, rent cars in Warsaw, drive to Gdansk/Danzig, check-in at Gdansk hotel
Sunday 10th: Marienburg and some Danzig No changes
Monday 11th: Danzig Hel Peninsula
Tuesday 12th: Hel Peninsula, some Gdansk/Danzig in the morning, checking-out of Gdansk/Danzig hotel, visit to Grunwald and 1st Tannenberg museum, drive to Mrągowo, and check-in at Mrągowo hotel
Wednesday 13th: Mrągowo museum
Thursday 14th: Wolfsschanze, check-out from Mrągowo after returning from Wolfsschanze, drive to Warsaw, and check-in at Warsaw hotel
Friday 15th: Parade No changes
Saturday 16th: Warsaw No changes
Sunday 17th: More Warsaw in the morning and end of I&I No changes

[Markus Becker]

On 10/27/2024 at 5:44 PM, sunday said:

Edited to add:

Should I take offense for that? 😜

I know nothing what you talk about. 

 

The potential problem with leaving Warsaw on day one, is we don't know when everyone will arrive in Warsaw. 

 

http://muzeum.mragowo.pl/

I wonder if they have a Baustab Becker conversion?