|
At Raba 500 playing with the local children Our younger guests love spending the day at home, and there's no need to pay to travel anywhere. Just being here around Raba 500 is a holiday for children. There are about 15 children, aged 2 to 16 living around the hamlet of Bogdalowka, where Raba 500 is situated on the north side of Raba Wyzna. The children play outside spring through autumn, and run from garden to garden with a freedom that is refreshing to see. Most homes have pets or farm animals: the children will see chickens, geese, turkeys, (many of which roam free in the lane) sheep, goats, rabbits, cows, horses, dogs, cats, hamsters, fish and, in the forest above Raba Wyzna, wild deer. Sharing is the rule, and if your child needs a bike, one will be found. Your children are sure to be invited into neighbouring children’s homes and are welcome to reciprocate as all the local children know that our door is always open to them. They may want to join the children helping their parents in the fields beside each house, raking hay, and then riding down to the farm on top of the horse drawn cart full of hay. In our garden, we have a climbing frame and slide, paddling pool, play house, swing and sand-pit and loads of out-door toys. In the evening, the children can host their own BBQ, inviting their local new friends round to cook sausages over a small fire. Our daughter will accompany them to the shops to buy supplies. Summer holiday evenings, June 21st to 1st September, usually find all the local children playing some sort of mass game until darkness sends them inside to bed around 21.00. During school time, however, children are usually in bed around 19.00 as they start school at 07.45. In the winter, sledging groups gather and all our guest’s children are welcome to join in. We have 4 ‘apple’ sledges and 1 bigger traditional frame sledge for their use. |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
Go wood cutting in the forest with the local men Krystyna’s husband Jozek, and their sons Rysiek and Krzysiek will be happy to take you off up into the forest for some wood cutting. It’s amazing to see how they read the grain of enormous tree trunks before inserting axe blades at relevant points then with one crash of the hammer, the whole trunk falls apart into manageable logs. We do not charge for transport but get the lads a bottle of vodka on the way down, AFTER your lumberjacking: alcohol and axes do not mix well. |
|
|
Potato planting and harvesting at Raba 500 If you come to stay with us either at the end of April/beginning of May, or at the end of August/beginning of September, depending on the weather, we will be either planting or harvesting potatoes in our garden and in the fields. It’s hard work but fun, and all our friends and neighbours join in. The horse ploughs the furrows and we jab the seed potatoes into the soil quickly before she comes round again. Halfway, we all stop for a beer or two, and then get back down to it. Harvesting includes all ages, with the children having fun collecting the smallest potatoes for seeding next year. Again, the horse does the heavy work, dragging a spidery contraption which throws the potatoes out of the soil, some 6 foot into the air. A real Podhalan experience and it all takes place in our back yard. Oh, and our potatoes are talked about on the Internet, they are SO good. |
|
|
 |
Traditional Polish food is really yummy and I learnt to cook here in Podhale so you’ll enjoy real home cooking, Polish style. Children of all ages love the meals we serve up, with many parents being delighted to see supposedly ‘fussy eaters’ tucking into their second helping of beetroot soup. All meals and soups are prepared from scratch, fresh ingredients sourced locally. Our potatoes are home grown and 100% organic. Milk is fresh from the cow each morning, although I have shop bought milk if you prefer. Cakes are made by the locals, and bread baked at the local bakery 2km away. Breakfast (included in your accommodation charge): cereals or home mixed muesli and milk, bread or toast, butter, margarine, home made jams, Marmite, yoghurts, ham, cheese, tomato, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, fruit juice. Lunch: soup, bread, cake, coffee, tea, water: 20zl adults, 15zl under 12’s. Evening meals: 30zl adults, 20zl under 12’s. A three course meal, order it in the morning and dinner can be on the table anytime between 16.00 and 21.00. Just let me know. Dinner includes soup, bread, main course, cakes, coffee, tea, vodka, beer, juice or water. If you require wine, I can buy it for you at 35zl per bottle or you can buy your own on your way home. We will happily cater for special diets: vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, allergies. Just make sure you let us know what you require. |
|
|
Horse and cart ride from Raba 500 The horse(s) and cart(s) arrive around 17.30 outside the house, and we pack on all the supplies of beer, vodka, soft drinks, potatoes, cheese, sausages, bread rolls, ketchup, music machine with extra batteries... and all the other bits and pieces we need for a 3 hour trip to the forest! There's room for up to 5 people per cart plus driver, but we'll fit 6 on if need be. Summer or winter, we'll make sure you are comfortable with sheepskins to either sit on or hide under. Burning brands light the way, and those sitting by the beer crate can start the evening on the outward journey. We can provide up to 4 horse and cart combos so groups of up to 20 can enjoy a convoy through the village, bells ringing, horses clopping and neighbours waving us on. This is a wonderful evening out for all the family, something that local families do for fun on a summers evening. The price includes the cart driver's fee, (and makes a big difference to his monthly income by the way) and your food and drinks, and apples and carrots for you to feed to the horses, of course. (Ask to see the photos of the guests feeding the horse mouth to mouth….) We drive out around the back of Bogdalowka, onto the main road and canter through the village, starting our 30 minute drive out of town. Slowly up the hill over Raba Wyzna's sole speed bump between the junior and senior schools, we come down past the football stadium, and pull over onto a track into the forest. A wooden roof with rustic benches and tables awaits, and the drivers build a fire in the grill and a bonfire to the side. Cooking is self-service: everything will be laid out on the tables for you. You can either put your sausages, potatoes and cheese on the grill or the drivers will provide wooden sticks to impale your goodies on, and hold over the flames till they are hot through. The sausages are pre-cooked so no fear of food poisoning. The drinks go round, the food goes down, the music plays and you may get a song out of the drivers... In the winter, children can sledge down the surrounding slopes, build an igloo or snowman and then warm up around the fire. Around 20.30, we start to pack the carts and head back home singing as we pass the abandoned palace..... Cost: 350zl for 2-6 people. For example, 5 people = 70zl each = £15.55. |
|
|
 |
||
|
|
Raba Wyzna has one bar, Rabacowka. The landlord, Pan Jan, is a bit of a historian and his bar is full of Partisan Memoria: the Gorals fought hard, guerilla style, against the Germans and the Russians. It’s rarely busy in the bar as the people of Raba Wyzna tend to party at home, but weekends find a variety of locals in the bar and they will be delighted to entertain you. If you want a meal at Rabacowka, let me know the day before and Marta, Jan’s wife, will do the honours. The back bar is a games room with pool, darts and an air hockey table. It’s 10 minutes walk to Rabacowka from Raba 500: if you can’t walk home, Jan the landlord will happily drive you. |
|
|
Pani Kryszka, my hairdresser, will be delighted to meet you. She charges about 20zl for a wash, condition and cut and I can highly recommend her. The salon is about 10 minutes walk from home. |
|
|
|
|
An ideal end to a day at home at Raba 500, summer evenings often find us wandering up the lane to the fields on the way to the forest, where neighbours tranquilly mow, rake, turn or harvest the hay. This is the real Podhale, with wooden home-made rakes, grass either scythed by hand, or by horse drawn mower, and the horse drawn cart to take the dried hay down to the farm. You will be welcome to join in at the lower fields: it’s best to take a couple of beers with you as the beer fumes keep the hay flies away as you sweat your way round the haystacks. Children can roll in the hay in the lower fields but will not be invited to the upper fields as vipers can often make an appearance there in the untended strips of land. Carts drawn either by antiquated (but efficient) tractors or horses are filled and the children love to pile on top and ride down to the farm, geese, dogs and chickens running alongside in the lane. Some days, we spend all day in the fields and a picnic lunch is enjoyed sitting in the shade of the haystacks. A real day out with no travel involved. |
|
|
Raba Wyzna Village Raba Wyzna is a large village with nearly 2000 houses now, half built in the last 10 years. The village extends some 7 kilometres along the valley of the River Raba, which rises in Bielanka to the south of Raba Wyzna and continues north to join the Vistula east of Krakow. If you fancy an afternoon picnic beside the river, ask Marysia and she will show you where you can sit peacefully, dipping your toes in the cool mountain water. There are lots of shops scattered around Raba Wyzna, most catering to very local trade. In the centre of Raba Wyzna, 5 minutes walk from our house, The Orange Shops, run by the Rapacz family, have just about anything you might require from food, drink, alcohol, snacks, toiletries, souvenirs, toys, shot glasses, shoes, boots and slippers and suitcases if you need an extra for the journey home. The church is open all day, with masses every morning and evening, and every 1.5 hours on Sundays. A very friendly church, and always full, summer services find half the congregation out in the church gardens for the service. Past the church is pre-school, then further along the lane you’ll find the old abandoned palace of the Dukes of Raba Wyzna, half hidden in the trees and host to hundreds of crows during the summer. Rabacowka, our sole bar, has strong links to the Polish Memorial Group for Partisans: those men and women who fought both the Germans and the Russians for so long. You will also find a pool table, darts and air hockey at the bar. Alternate Sundays find most of the village inhabitants heading out to the football stadium, up the hill past the schools and fire station. Raba Wyzna ‘Orkans’ have varying degrees of success on the football field, but it’s always a great afternoon out. Raba Wyzna sits in a valley which protects it from the harshest weather conditions of the region. There are many tracks and trails which you can follow up the hills on either side, giving you magnificent views of the Podhalean countryside all around. |
|
|
 |
||
|
|
The garden at Raba 500 covers some 2000m sq, all safely fenced and gated so even small children can run out and play anytime. We have a splash pool, play house, climbing frame and slide, sand-pit and swing and a wide variety of out door games and toys, bike, skate board, roller blades and so on. You can host your own BBQ if you wish – the ladies at the local butchers will be delighted to help you choose your sausages. Sun shines most days throughout the summer: sun bathe or sit in the shade of the apple tree, sit in the pool with a cold beer, or under the sunshade at the bar with an iced drink: you don’t need to go anywhere for the day when you stay at Raba 500. |
|
|
It’s rare in the summer to have rain during the day at Raba 500, but if we do, there are plenty of day trips that keep you out of the wet, or why not spend a day at Raba 500? And during the winter, there may be some people who fancy a day at home relaxing from an excess of ski muscle use. If so, there is plenty for adults and children alike to entertain themselves with at Raba 500. The library has over 1000 books with lots of variety for all ages, although we have no Barbara Cartland. A mini pool table for children, X Box, Play Station (although we haven’t got many games so if you are aficionados, best to bring your own game with you). TV: we have cable TV so there is usually a channel to suit. We can also lend you a lap-top if you fancy a film in bed in your own room, and we have 100’s of DVD’s for you to choose from. We also have a wide variety of jigsaw puzzles and some board games and 100's of music CD's from Slipknot through Siouxsie to Sinatra. For adults or family groups, there’s the sauna, 50zl for all of you for up to 6 hours use. We also have toys in abundance, although they tend to the girly side. Lots of dressing up clothes, big and small so we can put on a pantomime if you like. In the dining room there is a fridge for guests use, so if you want to buy any food supplies for yourselves, feel free to use the fridge to store them. We offer a lunch snack of soup and bread for 20zl per person. |
|
|
|
|
Sleigh rides Children love the horse drawn sleighs that run along the Gubalowka Ridge during most of the winter. In Zakopane, on the south side near the Skoki, ski jump runs, and up to Kuznice in the National Park, you will also get a lovely sleigh ride through most of the winter months. In Rabka Zdroj, when the roads are snowed up, sleighs are out and about, and we have our own horse-drawn sleigh driver, Marek, who will come and take a group of up to 4 of you around the snowed over roads of Raba Wyzna when ever you like, evening or day-time, and he picks you up in the centre of Raba Wyzna so you can walk down and meet him then go to the pub, Rabacowka, afterwards. Reckon to pay at least 100zl per hour. These sleigh drivers have a limited amount of time they can work their sleighs during the year as the roads are kept so clear for cars! |
|
|
We have phrase books and dictionaries you can use to write a shopping list of supplies required for a picnic up the hill in a forest glade on Raba Gora, above our house. You can walk into the village and make your purchases, then take the Jan Pawel II marked path (and our map) and wander up the hill past the village cross, into the forest and along to the picnic area. A good walk, but not too far for children, although we can drive you up the hill as far as the forest edge if some of you are not keen on up hill walking. Lovely views, take the camera, but do stay out of areas of untended long grass and weeds: there may be snakes. You can carry on along the Jan Pawel II marked path as far as Rdzawka village across the Zakopianka, then walk back via the wooden church and art gallery on main road above Rokiciny Podhalanska, the path bringing you down through the village with a short walk along the 958 back home. Or ring us on your mobile from either the church above Rdzawka, or the church at Rockiciny and we’ll collect you - no charge. |
|
|
|
|
Sledging around Raba Wyzna We have a good size frame and wood sledge and about 6 apple sledges so the children can go off down the lane, sledging with the local children. For adults, when there’s a lot of snow on the back roads, we can tie you to the back of the Land Rover and tow you up to the top of the ridge towards Harkabuz, then let you sledge back down the road. Hilarious. |
|
|
My best friend and neighbour, Krystyna Bogdal, lives with her family across the road from us. Their small farm is a regular venue for fun and games! You and your children can learn to milk a cow and then have the milk you milked with cereals for breakfast next morning. The family will put on a BBQ for you, and you can wander around, meet the horses and the bull, the dogs and wild cats and dance in the grass to local Goralskie music. In summer, a paddling pool is ready for children and adults alike. A very ‘real’ experience, and adults should not expect to come home sober. No transport charge of course, even if we have to drive you home (!). A very full afternoon or evening, with snacks, BBQ, drinks etc. costing 50zl each. Another ‘to go where no other tourist group has been before’ experience. |
 |
|
