What a great day!

Monday, June 06, 2016
Szklarska Poreba, Western Poland, Poland
Today we're heading for the Czech Republic - with a side trip. We were at the station, Wroclaw Glowny, with plenty of time to spare. It's a nice new modern station. Our Regional train arrived - a nice surprise, a newish train with comfortable seats, big windows, and an electronic display showing the stations and the time. We were due to leave at 9.32 and arrive at Jaworzyna Slaska at 10.14. That would give us 12 minutes changeover time to catch the train to Swidnica Miasto to see the Church of Peace.

Unfortunately, that first train was 10 minutes late leaving . It caught up a minute! At Jaworzina Slaska quite a few people got off and headed down the stairs in search of the correct platform. A German lady used the logic that there was nobody on platform 2 and a lot of people on platform 1. Sounded good to me! A few minutes later the train arrived - a small modern one (bigger than 1 normal carriage, but smaller than 2). It only took 10 minutes to reach Swidnica Miasto - another modern station, but unmanned and no locker room.

We walked over to the Rynek and called in to Tourist Information. Couldn't leave our bags there either, but got a town map. It was only 10 minutes walk to the Church of Peace so it didn’t really matter - just noisy on the cobblestones.

The church was built in the second half of the 1600s. It had to be built outside the city ramparts and couldn't have a belfry or bells. It was to be 100 steps long and 50 steps wide. Only wood, sand, clay and straw could be used in it's construction, and it had to be completed in a year . And they did it! Because the land size was so small, the church has 3 levels and can seat 3000, and can accommodate 7,500. The first service was held 24 June 1657. The church might not look that ornate from the outside, but you should see inside! My flash wasn't working, so you'll just have to google it. 

I'm so glad we did this side trip. The church was inspiring, and the town itself is small and attractive. The Town Hall Tower had been around for hundreds of years, then, soon after chiming 15.15, it collapsed and slid down with a mighty roar on 5 Jan 1967. Dust and dirt everywhere. It was all due to the scandalous incompetence of the teams demolishing the nearby tenement houses - weakened the structure. The town didn’t get its tower back until 2012.
 
 The train back to Jaworzina Slaska left at 13.10. This gave us over 10 minutes to make our conection to Szklarska Poreba Gorna. This train was a 'stopping' train - we stopped at 25 stations. But the train once again was modern and moved at a good speed . Some marvelous scenery.

From Jelenia Gore we headed up into the mountains. Our destination station was at the top of a hill, and our hotel was the other side of the valley. We'd printed a map, but while it was only 1.3 kms it was very confusing. So used the phone with gps and Near maps - it got a bit confused as well. Got there in the end. Very flash! One of those genuine bargains on booking.com. Plus I must've looked worn out, as we got the 'disadvantaged' room on the ground floor! Sklarska Poreba is a spa town and also very popular in winter for skiing - we are here in the off season. It means "glass forest clearing" - there used to be a glass making industry here years ago.

A lot of the restaurants were closed, but we found a great place and thoroughly enjoyed dinner.

In the morning, the breakfast was magnificent.
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