Discover the best of Poland, from Prussian palaces and 'Hollywoodge' to Chopin's childhood homeSleep in a Prussian palaceIn the 19th century, Lower Silesia (the bottom left-hand corner of Poland) was a prized piece of the German empire. After King Wilhelm's brother built himself a summer palace here in 1822, every Prussian nobleman had to build one too, complete with English-style park, artificial ruins and romantic temples.Drive through the valley around Jelenia Gora and you'll find a crumbling castle every few miles. You could buy one and spend the next decade doing it up, or just stay the night in one of the restored palace hotels.Lomnica Palace (+48 75 713 0460, palac-lomnica.pl/en) has doubles from �55 B&B, or Hotel Palac Staniszow (+48 75 755 8445, palacstaniszow.pl/en) has doubles from �70 B&B. You'll eat dinner by candlelight reflected in polished stone floors, climb gothic carved timber staircases to bed, and sleep deeply to the sound of the wind in 100-year-old lime trees.Classical music nuts will thrill to the baroque abbey in Krzeszow, east of Jelenia Gora. Here, precious original manuscripts from Berlin (including a quarter of all Mozart's works) were kept out of range of Allied bombers during the second world war.Walk the Karkonosze mountainsPark in the resort of Karpacz, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Wroclaw, then take the chairlift (ignore the sneering locals who climb on foot as a matter of national pride). Hike the last kilometre to the highest peak of Sniezka, through which Poland's southern border runs. There's a flying-saucer-shaped Soviet-era cafe on top, with views north across Poland and south into the Czech Republic. In communist times this border was guarded by Russian soldiers with rifles. Kids would put a foot across the line then brag that they had been abroad. At a time when hardly anyone had a passport to travel, it was a bitter joke. Now the border is lost in long grass.It's a 45-minute walk to an isolated valley known as Samotnia, or "the lonely place". For around �15 you can have a double room in the wooden chalet here, Schronisko Samotnia (+48 75 761 9376, samotnia.com.pl/en). There's a cosy restaurant, or you can eat outside on benches by the lake.Hunt for amber near GdanskLeba is a small fishing village and resort on the Baltic coast, where you walk through pine forests to the beach. Kids queue to buy rurki z kremem, yummy cigar-shaped waffle tubes filled with vanilla cream. You can hunt for lumps of amber (fossilised tree resin) in the vast, lunar sand dunes where Rommel is said to have practised desert warfare, or watch families sheltering from the stiff Baltic breeze. Hotel Neptun (+48 59 866 1432, neptunhotel.pl/en) is the only hotel/castle in Poland built on a beach, and offers dinner, bed and breakfast for two from around �95 a night.It was in nearby Gdansk that brave shipbuilders (encouraged by a forward-thinking Pope) first stood up to their communist occupiers. Light a candle in the austere St Bridget's church, where Solidarity members once gathered in secret, and spot red Solidarity flags peaking out from corners of this old traders' city, a reminder that this is where the end of the cold war began.Crash a wedding in ZamoscZamosc, near the eastern border with Ukraine, grew from one man's dream to build a perfect, Renaissance city. Local noble Jan Zamojski hired Italian architect Bernardo Morando for the job in 1580. The result is stunning ? think your own private Padua, without the queues. Book a room on the arcaded main square and sit in the window with a bottle of champagne, toasting the brides who marry every couple of hours on the staircase of the pink town hall. Or visit the fabulous old synagogue on Zamenhofa, built by Sephardic Jews from Venice in the time of Shakespeare. Orbis Zamojski (+48 84 639 2516, accorhotels.com/gb) has basic doubles for around �40 room only, but pay a bit more for the corner suite with a view of the town hall.Listen to the music that makes Poles homesickPolish composer Fr�d�ric Chopin (his dad was French) was born in Zelazowa Wola, not far from Warsaw. Visit his house (+48 46 863 3300, chopin.museum/en/museum/branches/id/216), a typical 19th-century Polish nobleman's house, or dworek. Sit in the garden with its stream and dragonflies, and listen to a nocturne on a warm summer evening (there are regular concerts). Chopin left Poland in 1831 and never returned. He lived in Paris, along with other Polish exiles, and the nostalgic music he wrote there still has the power to carry any Polish migrant back home whenever it is played.Enjoy 'cucumber season' Cucumber season (sezon ogorkowy) is how Poles describe the long summer months when schools, theatres and pretty much everything else shuts down and there is nothing to do but watch cucumbers growing. Warm sunshine arrives (finally), pierogi (dumplings) are filled with blueberries, and soup is made from young beetroot shoots. It's the perfect time to get lost in the heart of Poland. First buy a picnic ? ideally cold smoked sausage, beer, rye bread and cherries.There are daily farmers' markets in the rynek or market squares of most small towns and villages, with wonderfully fresh piles of unwashed carrots, beetroot and cabbages. There will be smoked cheeses and sausages, and you can buy just a half or a third of a loaf of delicious rye bread if that is all you need for lunch. No need to label the produce "organic" ? there is no other kind of farming here ? and it is all truly seasonal.Drive south from Warsaw for a couple of hours, then turn off on to the smallest road you can find. Keep turning randomly right and left wherever you see a plaster saint in a shrine by the road, until your route peters out in the middle of a blossoming potato field. Get out with your picnic. Lie on the ground and watch the passing clouds overhead for further directions.Visit HollywoodgeLodz (pronounced woodge) is where cinema greats Roman Polanski, Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Kieslowski went to film school. "HollyLodz" animators strongly influenced British TV ? the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield (where Nick Park conceived Wallace & Gromit) ran regular exchanges in the 1980s. This newly groovy industrial town 120km south of Warsaw is turning its old fabric factories into hip apartments and studios. Walk the Polish equivalent of Hollywood Boulevard's Avenue of the Stars, Piotrkowska, and ask at the Film Commission (104 Piotrkowska, +48 42 638 5546, lodzfilmcommission.com) to go on the free Lodz Film Heritage Trail (Saturdays only).Explore Lancut castleYou can visit Lancut castle (+48 17 225 2008, zamek-lancut.pl/en), the historical heart of the elegant Polish aristocracy in the south-east corner of Poland, as long as you are prepared to shuffle round the parquet floors with protective slippers over your shoes. It was originally built by the Lubomirski dynasty (complete with exquisite tiny theatre), then extended by the Potockis into one of the grandest residences in Europe.Drive a steam trainForget the rococo palaces and green gardens, it is Wolsztyn that many people (well, blokes mainly) want to visit. Towards the centre of the country, it is the only place in Europe that still operates a scheduled train service using steam locomotives. You can actually drive your own loco, and 40+-year-old boys from Texas to Amsterdam flock here to try footplating and shunting, far away from their day jobs, health and safety, and wives who just don't get it. The Wolsztyn Experience (01628 524876, thewolsztynexperience.org) has one-week courses from �8250/week, and weekends from �130,, including accommodation, some in the depot. Alternatively, the nearby Hotel Wolsztyn Palace (+48 68 346 9358, www.palacwolsztyn.com.pl) has doubles for around �70 B&B, and there is a fairyland of lakes, apple orchards and windmills to explore to the south.? Filmmaker and writer Simon Target is co-author with his Polish wife Beata Zatorska of Rose Petal Jam: Recipes & Stories from a Summer in Poland, published this week by Tabula Books, price �25. See a selection of their recipes at guardian.co.uk/foodPolandCultural tripsCity breaksShort breaksEuropeRail travelguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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