Wanda Hennig blogs about her month-long ‘roots’ trip to Poland.

Positively Poland: Three

“After breakfast I want show you the region of Masuria, the land of one thousand lakes. The best way for us to visit this region is, when we get there, to walk a bit and then to rent a small houseboat and spend a few hours out on the water exploring the lakes.”

We will stop at a supermarket and pick up food for a picnic hamper before we board our craft. After about three hours we will dock, then embarking on a short hike to “enjoy” the bleak sight of the biggest bunker in Europe.

We head back to “port” and leave the lake late afternoon to head for where we have an overnight reservation — at an old “farm of horses,” Kierzbuń.

En route we stop in Ryn, once a haven of Teutonic knights (it has a castle — now a hotel), for dinner at Gościniec Ryński Młyn, a restaurant on a lake. Again it feels like we’ve stepped back in time. Ryn on Saturday night is a ghost town. Our little trio — plus nobody else around. The restaurant we find is a large and a homely place. Comfort food. Substantial. Rib-sticking.

Hanging from the ceiling is an old wagon wheel which has been threaded with dried foliage and strung with dozens of pretzels. Someone likely thought this an attractive and creative use of pretzels. Mostly now, the pretzels are creating an attractive landing place for flies.

They offer Polish traditional regional cuisine. The waitresses are dressed in period attire. It’s warm and comfy inside. We eat goulash and duck and the vegetarian among us orders some kind of pie with mushrooms and vegetable. Everything comes with a lot of dumplings or potatoes. We drink beer.

This is a day to describe in pictures rather than words…