Boleslawiec, Poland:: Polish Pottery

I'd already been to Poland for pottery once, but when a friend told me about the MWR trip that was coming up- I knew I had to go again. Poland is kind of a tricky trip. It's a far enough drive where you wouldn't want to do it all in one day, but there's not much else around Boleslaweic to validate staying the night. So when I was told that I would be driven on a chartered bus in the company of some of my favorite girls and not have to worry about a thing I was sold. The only down side was the time schedule. It was a little crazy. We left at midnight on Friday night and arrived in Poland at 5:45 am. Believe it or not, the owners of multiple shops were ready for us and the shopping officially began. We continued shopping until about 11 when we stopped for lunch. Just a few short hours later and we were  at it again. After touring 14 different pottery shops we finally called it a day. When I finally made it home I was exhuasted and proceeded to fall asleep before 9 pm. I slept for about 12 hours straight. :)

At our second stop I found a limited edition collection that I just had to get my hands on. It was perfect for so many reasons.

1. I was actually able to find complete set- which can be really hard to do. 
2. The set had everything I had on my list: pitcher, ice cream bowls, and a coffee cup for RC. 
3. It was the perfect mixture of modern and classic Polish pottery. If you've ever seen Polish pottery you know it's customary for a lot of floral patterns and blues. Neither of which I have in our house. So when I found this fun polka dot pattern I was so excited. 

Mom's Visit: Poland

Poland! Our Poland trip ended up being quite an adventure. One of the first things I heard about once moving to Germany was the Polish pottery and how you HAD to visit the town of Boleslawiec to visit the many, many pottery shops or skelps. I'm talking there are some seriously obsessed women out there.

We decided to make a two day trip out of it although many people do it in one. Personally I don't find driving 9+ hours in one day enjoyable so we opted to stay in the 75 euro a night Palac Brunow. And boy am I glad we did. You can find pictures of the palace below. An absolutely beautiful "hotel", spacious rooms by European standards, and an amazing meal for dinner AND breakfast as well. All for just over $100 I might add.

I'll be honest after driving through Boleslawiec and around Poland for close to 2 hours Palac Brunow was a sight for sore eyes. Overall there were many run down or unkept buildings. Maybe from the influence of the Soviets who had ruled for so long? It may not have helped that it was a very dark and dreary day. So while the town of Boleslawiec nor the area we drove through was very appealing to the eyes the pottery most definitely wise. I definitely understand why people make it in a day trip. There really isn't much to see beyond the pottery. I may be spoiled by the charm of Germany.

Oh, and I should also mentioned that we woke up the next morning to snow! Snow in October! What am I getting myself into? I do not belong in the snow, but nonetheless we thankfully had a snow scraper in the car and battled through 4+ hours of snow and ice to make it safe and sound back home.