Kazimierz Dolny

Introduction

Kazimierz Dolny is a town in central eastern Poland, by the Vistula river near Pulawy in Lublin Province (historical part of Lesser Poland), with 3,572 inhabitants. The towns is called 'the pearl of Renaissance architecture'.

Sights and Activities

The Old Town with a famous Market Square and historic well in the middle:
- parish church of St. Bartholomew and John the Baptist (1586-1589)
- St. Anne church (1671) and Holy Spirit hospital (1635)
- St. Mary church (1589) and monastery (1638–68)
- the Old Synagogue
- tenement houses from 17th century - St. Nicholas and St. Christopher houses on the Market Square
- defensive tower (13th or 14th century)
- ruins of Romanesque castle from 13-14th century above the Old Town
- historic granaries (16th and 17th centuries).

In the area:

• Ruins of the Renaissance Janowiec Castle built by Mikołaj Firlej in the 16th century, destroyed by the Swedish army in 1655 during the Deluge. janowiec is a village situated on the western side of Wisła River (there is a ferry from Kazimierz Dolny to Janowiec).

Getting There

By Plane

Airports in Lublin, Radom and Warsaw in the area.

By Train

The train station is located in Pulawy.

By Car

Main roads to Lublin, Warsaw and Radom in nearby town Pulawy.

By Bus

Bus lines from Pulawy.

By Boat

Boat on the river to Janowiec (ruins of the castle built in the years 1508-1526 and destroyed by the Swedish army in 1655 during the Deluge).

Eat

The Old Town of Kazimierz Dolny is full of small restaurants.

Sleep

Well developed net of hotels in Kazimierz Dolny and a few places to sleep in Janowiec (e.g. Pensjonat Serokomla).

Keep Connected

Internet

In the cities there are more and more Wifi Hot Spots, so if you have your own mobile device, you can connect. Best chances of finding one are at airports, railway stations, in cafés, shopping malls and universities. Places like McDonald's and Starbucks usually have unlimited free wifi. In some hotels you can find free wifi, though you might have to pay as well or maybe just use it for a limited amount of time. Internet cafes become less popular recently as people prefer to use internet at homes.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

To call to Poland from abroad, dial the Polish country code,48, then the number without the leading 0, as if calling from a domestic mobile phone.
The general emergency number is 112. Police (997), Ambulance (999) and Fire (998) have phone numbers as well, and municipal police has 986 as a number.

Mobile phones work almost across the whole country. There are four mobile phone operators in Poland: Plus, T-Mobile, Orange and Play. About 98% of the country is covered by the standard European GSM 900/1800 MHz network, the remaining 2% are wildlife reserves or high mountains. 3G is available in almost every town.
Domestic call rates are roughly the same across all services. Prepaid starter kits with SIM card (called starter in Polish) are widely available in reasonable prices (PLN5-20, most of which is available for calls), in most of the shops, supermarkets and news agents.

Just about every shopping centre has at least one independent cellphone shop, the guys who run them are usually knowledgeable and have a range of cheap handsets which you can use as a local / travel phone. This may be a good option since juggling SIM cards is always a pain.

Post

Poczta Polska is the Polish public post service. Post offices are generally open from 8:00am to 6:00pm Monday to Friday. Some offices are open on Saturday until 2:00pm and the main post offices in major cities are open daily, 24 hours. Services are generally ok, but don't expact it to be fast and it is not always reliable, though most letters, postcards and parcels will arrive at its destinations after a week or two. You can find the red post boxes dotted throughout the country. You can check this postal website to see how much sending a letter, postcard or parcels costs, both domestically as well as internationally. For sending packages internationally, you can also check FedEx, TNT, DHL or UPS, as they have fast and reliable services and generally competitive prices as well.

External Links