Yesterday afternoon we went for a drive down the peninsula. We can now officially say we have been to Hel and back as it is the tip of the peninsula that is called Hel. Along the way we saw small villages, mostly fishing and tourism. It is high season and the tourists are everywhere. Kiosks trail the roads full of trinkets and souvenirs for people on holiday.
Bikes, cars, and people make the roads crowded and I worried for awhile about Tomasz, our host, driving us around. I am an accomplished anti-backseat driver so I decided to continue my philosophy and not think too much about it. It turned out we were more than fine and had a great time exploring.
My favorite place was Jastarnia where I saw the Konkel house and the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church; a boat hangs from the wall and Cole found ice cream outside.
Cole especially liked the open air military museum where we saw a number of bombs and weapons used to protect the peninsula during World War II.
Today we road our bikes to Puck on the bay side where we met Brunon, Grandpa Konkel of the same generation as my parents. There is an entire book written about how we are all related and if you are terribly interested I can put you in touch with the editor, my dad, who loves to tell the story.
For now I want to share how much we enjoyed Brunon’s home. I can hardly believe that dad did not prepare us for all the fun. We simply knew that he had hens. Now we can add ducks, rabbits, carrots, apples, berries, and a mini-farm waiting to be explored. Cole looks forward to going back. I found a rose garden, a cup of tea, and strawberry dessert – Brunon’s wife Stefania knew exactly how to make me feel spoiled!
We spent the late afternoon at the beach. On the north side of Władysławowie just across the street from Baltos the beach is beautiful, clean, and full of tourists. It was a fun place to do some people watching and let the boys play in the sand.
Tonight we are a little saddle sore and very tired. We are planning more site seeing tomorrow.
8busyfeet 