leba, baltic sea, poland, PL

after few xmas days with family, we've arrived in leba, district kaszuby at the baltic sea, northern poland, PL

our stops in PL this time?

• wojanow castle (schloß schildau) in lower silesia
• lodz + ruda bugaj + alexandrow lodzki, central poland
• swiece (schwetz an der weichsel) ~ castle of the german order / teutonic knights at the wisla river (zamek krzyzacki, deutschordenschloss) + nice city center => pictures & insights in this post below ~ swiece nad wisla => hell, we have been twofold disappointed abt this teutonic castle. why? it was really small and on top closed, so our expectation to see s.th. similar to the just 100 km distand teutonic marienburg (malbork) castle could not be fulfilled ...
• highway from torun (thorn) to gdansk (danzig) ~ i took a ticket at entry, gave it at exit to the lady at the counter and there was nothing to pay after 200+ km. ME: huuuuh? SHE: its a bank holiday (26th of december) and thus nothing to pay at this state owned highway today. ME: thanks, sweety 😍. btw, we have been to the copernicus' birth city torun at the wisla river 25 years ago. how can i know that so exactly? easy! it was the irrational time when the world lived in fear of the Y2K bug + of the hystery around it. thus we've decided to spend the sylvester at the baltic sea. i just thought the sea will not care about our Y2K computer bug😁 ... unfortunately, i had no blog back then and there was no digital photography either, so i can't show ya any old pictures today. i just remember it was a nice red brick houses city like so many in northern poland and northern germany.  ... there was a 2nd interesting issue in torun in late december 1999: we have had a brand-new car skoda octavia combi and there was no free parking slot at the old city's parking site. what did we do? we left the car open with the key inside and believed the parking guy he will move it when a free parking slot appears. yes, it really worked that way. of course, we were afraid someone could steal our car and swore ourselves stupid and knew, the insurance company would not refund a dime as we left the car open out there ...
• parking sites are here in winter empty and for free. by comparison, in cities like lodz or danzig you pay a penalty of 200 PLZ (approx 50 euros) when you come 2 minutes after the time you've reserved before you left the car ... and there really are folks controlling that more than often
• leba (lebamünde, lebemünde, lebemonde) + stilo, baltics, northern poland => enjoy pictures + insights in this blog below => we loved the looong walks at the leba + stilo beach, the lighthouses, the shifting dunes (wanderdünen) in slowinski NP (slowinski park narodowy) which unfortunately destroy the pine tree forest, the shallow lakes lebsko jezioro and sarbsko jezioro and the nowecin castle (zamek nowecin, schloss neuhof). of course, we really liked our beautiful heritage hotel leba castle (zamek leba, schloßhotel leba, kurhaus leba, hotel neptun) built 1907 which never was a castle and always was a kurhaus / hotel. so why 'leba castle'? you can name your hotel however you want and it most likely helps to justify higher prices. well, lets call this place a hotel for rich folks and for dogs ... thx goodness, our 2nd hotel in leba some 500-1,000m away for the next 3 nights is just called leba hotel & spa 😉. even if the accomodation price for the sylvester nights is almost the same as in the castle hotel for the less attractive period before, all services and especially the massage + drinks are much cheaper in this 2nd hotel. on top, they do have a nice swimming pool and pilsner urquell, one of the very few alkaline beers from the czech republic. lets call this 2nd hotel a place for families and children, will we? what about spas? there was a small spa in our castle hotel, too. okay, just one small sauna + steam bath inside and a really small sauna + jacuzzi outside without any direct connection between this two areas. YES, i was in the ice cold sea water for very few seconds at night and then ran into the hot jacuzzi like a crazy fool. it was nice, of course. do you believe? 🌜☃🐋
• moszna castle (hotel) close to opole (oppeln), upper silesia ... coming soon ...

leba castlle (zamek leba, schloßhotel leba, kurhaus leba, hotel neptun)

since 1907, built at the 1st dune directly at the beach at entry leba #18.

today are the dunes highly protected. it is not possible to built houses there

the weather was all week cloudy & windy & rainy & cold ... 

but it just drizzled (genieselt), not really rained, so it was fine

for us as we could walk every day at least 2h on the beach

swiece (schwetz an der weichsel) ~ 

castle of the german order / teutonic knights from 1335

in the north, there are many, many red-brick houses

the former town hall in swiece / schwetz

good-bye, swiece / schwetz

leba castle (zamek leba, schloßhotel leba, hotel neptun)

dracula 2000 movie in hotel's cinema. me the only guest out there.

=> there were 3 beers needed to digest all that stuff 🍺🍺🍺

i've found the red darkness facebook group looking for artist emi boz

maximilian nitschke, the owner of the neptun hotel since 1914, the

day AFTER the huge 'bear wave' almost destroyed the whole property.

of course, lucky he, he could buy it really, really cheap 💸

this and the next 6 pictures were made by my wife ...

leba beach 

leba beach, there was some sun for less than half an hour during our week

a typical beach entry at leba beach

my pictures again: the baltic sea defeats the forest close to entry leba #4

the beautiful timber-framed church in leba

leba, port at leba river (lebe)

center of leba

at night ...

... at day time

the galery galeria lebska

town hall, leba

leba ~ city center

a day trip to nearby sasino / stilo

stilo / sasino, PL ~ there are activists against the planned 1st polish

nuclear power plant in just 3.3 km distant slajszewo (close to choczewo)

stilo

open air church in stilo

lighthouse #2 at stilo, unfortunately closed in winter time

lighthouse #1 at stilo

sea + lake + forest in the 'shifting dunes' slowinski NP at leba, PL

observation tower at lake lebsko jezioro

the shallow, max 5m deep lake lebsko jezioro

red bricks + timber framed houses = 💖 + 💖

hitler's WWII rockets site. western prussia was part of germany before WWII

shifting dunes in slowinski NP

shifting dunes in slowinski NP

it looks even nicer at a sunny summer day under a blue sky

as we've seen some 10-15 years ago ⏰

shifting dunes in slowinski NP

thats how i imagine namibia, my dears 😇

the sheer endless beach in slowinski NP

hotel leba in leba. okay, but by far not that good than the castle hotel 

hotel leba in leba, poland, PL

beach entry at leba

a small canal before it enters the lake sarbsko jezioro, eastern part of leba

lake sarbsko jezioro (named after city / village sarbsk).

sounds like serbian lake, doesnt it?

hotel + restaurant nowecin castle (zamek nowecin) at lake sarbsko jezioro

nowecin castle (zamek nowecin, schloss neuhof) since 1497, weiher family

if there is no reason to drink, it is still no reason not to drink 😅

two of us, sylvester 2024. cheers + peaceful new year 💖

twelve o'clock

happy new year(s) 2025++

even more pictures here.