while not null: Europe Trip 2026 - Jaworzno and Ojców National Park

While in Poland, I visited my family in Silesia.

I got from Warsaw to Katowice by train. At the Katowice Main station I noticed an unusual EMU. Only now when selecting photos for the blog I started reading about it. It's a VeloCug - a specialized bicycle-transport EN71 operated by Koleje Śląskie (Silesian Railways). It seems to be running June to August with spaces for at least 30 bicycles. A super convenient way to go on an interesting far away bike trip with your friends. Regular trains accommodate from 4 to 14 bikes. Silesian Railways seem to be quite bike-friendly: they include an hour of a Metrorower city bike rental when you buy some train tickets. They also provide a VeloBus - a van with a trailer for bikes when buses replace trains during track maintenance works. Amazing!

Jaworzno (pop. 82k) - my uncle worked in a coal mine not far from there:

City library

City square and church

A mural of Jaworzno native, jazz singer Basia Trzetrzelewska and one of her well known songs here.

Like the dwarfs in Wrocław, in Jaworzno you can find European hamster figures placed around the city:

Kapias Gardens:

A free entry, fantasy family garden with a shop, run by the Kapias family since 1979:

The shop

The maze

These are for sale.

Gródek Quarry/Park:

An old dolomite quarry. The quarry operated from 1883 to 1997 and then it was flooded. Some digging equipment left at the bottom is now a diving attraction. Apart from diving schools, there are walking and bike trails.

GEOsfera in Jaworzno:

Currently, 327 meters above sea level. 250 million years ago, a bottom of a warm shallow sea. From 1954 to 1980 a limestone quarry. Since 2014 an educational park:

Look for imprint fossils.

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The above were near Jaworzno. We also went on a day trip to Ojców National Park near Kraków. We walked the trails, saw ruins of one castle. Saw another restored castle. There are walking and bike trails, short and long. There's history there too. The 1863 January Uprising against the Russian Empire in particular.

Ojców Castle ruins and car parking area:

View from the top.

The Polish flag was not always white and red. It was just red with a white eagle, red-white-red, like Austrian flag today, or red-white, like Monaco today. I think the Czech flag was white-red too before creation of Czechoslovakia.

An educational trail.

Ojców - the little village near the castle:

An account of a young Frederic Chopin's trip to Ojców which could have ended badly as the young men got lost in the dark and had to be rescued.

1938 car rally. That tradition luckily is not being continued.

Fossil imprints

Trail colours, distances and times.

Solid lines: walking trails. Dashed lines - bike trails. Distances in kilometres.

Cracovian Gate:

Pieskowa Skała castle:

Location of Pieskowa Skała castle in relation to Kraków.

Near the castle there are boards with some local history of the 1863 January Uprising and some details about the participants, in Polish only unfortunately:

The camp in Ojców gathered 2500 soldiers in 3 weeks.

Zuzanna Czaplicowa ran a pharmacy before the uprising. She volunteered and setup and ran a military hospital in the Pieskowa Skała castle. After the fall of the uprising she was arrested by Russians and sent to Siberia. She died on the way there.

Anna Pustowójtówna was a daughter of a Russian general. Her brother was a Russian captain, she was brought up by her grandma and considered herself a Pole. She was arrested in Lublin for playing patriotic songs and sent to monastery in Moscow. She escaped and through Moldova arrived in Poland to fight in the uprising. She volunteered dressed as a man Michał Smok (Michael Dragon). The officer recognised her and wanted to send her home, but she persevered and served as an aide. After the fall of the uprising she was arrested, but then released. She emigrated to Paris where she served as a nurse in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and then in Paris Commune in 1871.

Edward Habich came from a Polonised German family. He was a civil engineer and an officer of the Russian army. He was in Paris when the uprising broke out. He returned to Poland and commanded a unit. He did not fall into Russian hands when the uprising fell. He left for Paris. In 1868 on recommendation from Ernest Malinowski he left for Peru where he set up a first polytechnic in South America. He managed the construction of the port in Arica.

François Rochebrune's troops - see below.

François Rochebrune was a Frenchmen who settled in Poland. During uprising he formed and led a unit called the Zouaves of Death.

Some peasants were traitors informing on the troop movements to the Russians, capturing lost soldiers and handing them over to the Russians. They even attacked the Ojców village after the troops left, robbed all residents and killed the wounded soldiers who stayed there.