June 21, 2025 – Near Elbląg to Frombork – 54 kms – Villa Varmia

June 22, 2025 – Frombork to Górowo Iławeckie – 86 kms – Landsberg Studio Apartment 

June 23, 2025 – Górowo Iławeckie to Reszel – 62 kms – Stara Kamienica

June 24, 2025 – Reszel to Kruszewiec – 37 kms, including a side trip to the Wolf’s Lair – Apartament Karolevo

Gordon: A few days ago we connected with the Green Velo near Frombork, a pretty and historic seaside town.  The Green Velo is a 1900 km bike route that sweeps across the east of Poland, generally close to the border with Russia, Lithuania, Belarus or Ukraine.  The name “Green Velo” is not a translation, but rather its official name in Poland.  English is frequently encountered here in the names of businesses and in advertising.

The Green Velo takes a meandering route, mostly along small roads and unpaved tracks.  It is a bit slow, usually scenic, and almost never on busy roads.  We will probably follow it for most of the ride back towards Krakow.

We have generally been staying in small cities as we drift along near the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.  The towns are pleasant, each with a small historic core, several brick churches, and often a castle.  Most were founded in the 13th or 14th centuries.

In addition to the historic towns and natural environment, this region has an unusual tourist attraction in the form of the so-called Wolf’s Lair.  This was a command centre for the Nazis during the Second World War.  I am not particularly interested in military history, and Ruth even less, so we debated for some time whether we would go a bit out of way to visit this site.  

In the end we did decide to go, and we are glad that we did.  I didn’t realize that Hitler had spent so much of the War period here, a total of 800 days.  It was also the site of the famous assassination attempt of July 20, 1944, which came very close to killing Hitler.  It has been immortalized in a number of books and movies, including “Valkyrie,” which starred Tom Cruise.  It is interesting to speculate about how history would have been altered if a table leg had not deflected the blast from Hitler.

The site consists mostly of the ruins of a large number of colossal concrete bunkers spread over a large, forested site.  There is really not a great deal to see, but interpretive panels and audio guides brought the site to life.

The curation of the Wolf’s Lair presents unique challenges, as it is clearly necessary to avoid creating a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis.  I feel the Polish authorities discharged this duty well, with exhibits on the overall history of the War, including its genocidal components, as well as the Warsaw Uprising.  It was notable that the majority of the other visitors were German.  I am, however, reluctant to speculate on their reasons for visiting the site.