As our traveling family is planning to expand with a new traveling companion, and with the related health complications of Janet, our traveling activities this year are reduced to almost zero. In spite of all that, we did commit to one short trip this year. Our goal was to visit the Polish Silesian Beskydy Mountains, which are close enough to the Czech border to get to the nearest maternity hospital in case of an emergency.
Bielsko-Biała - Rexie the dog
We leave before lunch on Sunday. From Ostrava's main railway station we take the S2 line to Cesky Tesin, where we will change to Cieszyn, Poland. On the way, we will have time to see the square and the border park on the Czech side, situated on the river Olše, which forms the natural border between Poland and the Czech Republic. We will cross the border via a bridge near the Polish castle Mysliwski, which served as a residence for the Habsburgs during the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
Český Těšín - Town Hall
Český Těšín - Border river Olše
Český Těšín - Czech-Polish border crossing with Mysliwski Castle in the background
We continue along Gleboka Street to Rynek Square, which is currently under reconstruction. At least here we will collect money to have cash for the buses. The BNP Paribas ATM charged a fee when withdrawing from Revolut. However, there was still a Santander ATM a short distance away, which was no longer charging a fee. After the successful withdrawal, we checked out the area around the center, including Jesus Church, and then walked down to the bus station where we waited for our bus to Bielsko-Biała. There are mainly two carriers operating on this route. The long-distance Lajkovník, which goes directly to Bielsko-Biała, is cheaper, faster and more comfortable than the Linea trans, which goes around all the villages along the route. Moreover, they run as shuttles in old battered Mercedes. The third option is the train, which takes the longest time to get there, plus it has one change and the highest price. So we choose the Lajkovník for 13 Zloty and half an hour later we are in Bílsko-Bela. Otherwise, I searched for bus connections according to the already verified ePodroznik. However, beware of the quoted ticket prices, which were not always valid.
Cieszyn - Gleboka street
Cieszyn - Town Hall
In Bielsko-Biała we are dropped off at the bus station, from which we have about five hundred meters to our accommodation Dom Turysty PTTK w Bielsku. It is located in a large neoclassical style villa. However, the photos on Booking are deceiving, because we certainly didn't get a room as nice as the one in the photos. Ours was already something to remember and the price-performance ratio here was definitely not ideal. Anyway, we unpack and head out to explore the city. We go downtown and what we don't come across again. We get to Plac Boleslaw Chrobry and there's a bunch of people with rainbow flags. After a year we have deja vue from London where we hit the Pride march at the same time. I didn't expect anything like that in Poland. Also, there were more cops than participants. There is a Biała castle near this square, but despite the amount of people, you couldn't even get a good look at it from the outside.
Bielsko-Biała - Plac Boleslawa Chrobrego
Bielsko-Biała - Bielski Marsz Równości and the handsome one for this year
We continue through the historic streets to the main square, Rynek Square, and from there we continue to St. Nicholas Church, where we find Schodowa Street, which is both a clear instagram, but also accurately characterizes this city as a mix of repaired and unmaintained buildings.
Bielsko-Biała - Church of St. Mikolaj
Bielsko-Biała - Schodowa street
Otherwise, the town of Bielsko-Belje is the capital of the well-known socialist symbols in the Czech Republic. It is the birthplace of the animated characters Bolek and Lolek, but also of the legendary Maluch. Historically, they were two separate towns, divided by the Biała River, which incidentally belonged to the Czech Kingdom for some time. The reunification of the two towns took place in 1951. The town is also known as Little Vienna. The nickname was probably coined by someone who had never been to Vienna. Personally, I've never seen anything Viennese there.
Continue from Schodowa Street along Zamkowa Avenue back to Plac Boleslaw Chrobrego. On the way we pass the remains of the city fortifications and on the square we hit just the beginning of the march. We wait for it to pass us and hope we don't get hit with those long batons or tear sprays the accompanying policemen carry. We then cross the Bílá River into the Biała part of town, where we will look for the sculptures of the creations of the Studio Filmów Rysunkowych (Cartoon Studio), which are scattered variously around the town.
First we find a statue of Rexy the dog. It is located on Reksia Square (Skwer Reksia) by the river and 11th November Street. Next on the list are Bolek and Lolek. These are located in Bielsko between the Wokulski and Galeria Sfera shopping centres. But before we reach them, we come across Cechowa Street, where there are plenty of eateries, restaurants and cafes. The ones that caught our eye the most were Magiczny Kocioł and Trzy Miotły-Magiczna Kawiarnia, which were Harry Potter-style wizarding cafes.
Important information: they don't have milk bars (Bar Mleczny) here, but Pierozek bars. It's basically the same thing, only the name is different. Just like the milk bars, here you get traditional Polish cuisine at low prices. Unfortunately, they are closed on Sundays, just like the shops.
Bielsko-Biała - Rexy
Bielsko-Biała - Bolek and Lolek
Once we have photographed Bolek and Lolko, we return to the 11th November Street, which will lead us to the main square of Bělá. Here you will find statues of the characters Smok Wawelski, Bartłomiej Bartolini and Don Pedro. I am not familiar with these three figures and they were successful mainly in Poland.
Bielsko-Biała - The Biała River and the Polish Temple of Czech Consumerism
Bielsko-Biała - Smok Wawelski and Bartłomiej Bartolini
Bielsko-Biała - Even little big kids will have fun
Bielsko-Biała - Don Pedro
We reach the end of 11th November Street and slowly start looking for a place to have dinner. Unfortunately, on a Sunday the options are a bit limited. We first try Cechowa Street, but eventually make our way to the Rynek. On the way we come across the march again. Here on the Rynek we make our biggest failure of the day. On the way we don't find any restaurant that interests us. At the Rynek we give up and sit in the garden of Barometr Coffee & Bar. We saw people there with food, so we figured they were cooking there. Otherwise there is a lot of street food along the way, but we wanted to have something traditional Polish. So back to the cafe. The drinks here were expensive as hell. Funny that the draft beer was cheaper than the identical bottled beer, but even so the cheapest beer came out to about 80 CZK, which we found to be standard here. However, for the important item, which was the food, we were told that they don't cook here, but that we could use a QR code to order food from a friendly hamburger restaurant to be brought in. I say ok, we choose our burgers and Janet places the order via QR. After confirming the order came a shock! Lead time 1 hour. You really want that when you're starving. There was no cancelling and we didn't want to run away, so we honestly waited for an hour and five minutes, sipping our drinks slowly. When we finally finished, the eating took us many times faster than the actual execution. We paid for more drinks from the bar and went to the last attraction in this town, and that is the historic wooden Weaver's House (dom Tkacza), which serves as a museum.
Bielsko-Biała - Dom Tkacza
That was our last point of the city tour today, and since it is getting dark, we return back to our accommodation. On the way we stop at the Zabka, which is the only one open on Sundays. We buy some junk food for the evening. Then we go to our room and go to sleep. Tomorrow we will finally go to the mountains.
Useful links:
Czech Railways
e-podroznik
Lajkonik
Dom Turysty PTTK w Bielsku - Białej
