Very flat, Poland.

By train, we’ve travelled from Gdansk to Krakow, from Krakow to Warsaw, and now we’re on the train from Warsaw to Berlin.  In all, that’s some 1400 km.

What is astonishing me is that the countryside is almost all the same. It’s flat, flat, flat. Long narrow unboundaried fields – and gosh, Polish cows don’t need fencing in – are interspersed with swathes of forest.

No wonder that that throughout history, invading armies have been able to march unimpeded across the land, conquering as they went. Hitler’s tanks, Stalin’s tanks all had a pretty easy ride here.

Just now, we’ve been passing through flatlands of long, wide peaceful lakes. And we’re drawing closer to Poznan, near to which my father was born, to a farming family.  I feel surprisingly emotional.

View from the train window, almost anywhere in Poland.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and living in North Yorkshire, where I walk as often as I can, write, volunteer, and travel as often as I can.

19 thoughts on “Very flat, Poland.”

  1. Wow, we didn’t see any of that flat landscape on our visit to Krakow. You’re having an emotional journey but one that I’m sure you wouldn’t have missed. Hope the last leg will be enjoyable. We’re off to Spain on Sunday so see you in December x

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  4. Oh it’s natural alright. A huge plain extending from Poland through North Germany and to the Low Countries. Even our own East Anglia may have been part of it once upon a time.

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  7. What tales those fields could tell.
    Nothing like retracing roots to stir the emotions. Aboriginal Australians speak of ‘belonging to land’. I think we all have that sense of connection.

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