Mazury Things to Do

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Krutyn is a village in the heart of Mazury situated along the Krutynia Kayak Trail. Here the river is shallow and quite wide and its banks high and pretty steep with many old trees giving welcome shade to the kayakers.
The first records of Krutyn date back to around 1500 when it was founded as a hunting settlement close to the modest wooden castle of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order.
With a campsite, many pensions, a street market for local handicrafts and a few good but expensive restaurants, it is a lively tourist centre where many coaches stop for the tourists' enjoyment. The tourists, mostly seniors from Germany, usually first go for a walk across the bridge and in the nature reserve, then browse through the goods in the street market and end up in one of the restaurants where they are often entertained by folk performers. Some go on boat trips on the Krutynia or for short trips in horse-driven carts. They seldom stay in the village so it can be quite sleepy, especially in the evenings. It is then that it is most charming though and worth a walk along to admire the lovely wooden houses, the gardens and the delightful natural scenery.
More pictures of Krutyn can be found in my travelogue.

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This is a most enjoyable thing to do while visiting Krutyn. The boats are waiting for passengers by the bridge. Their owners are local men who will also entertain you on the trip, telling you about the area, its culture etc. Quite a few of them speak German as well as Polish, but even if you don't speak either, the trip on the Krutynia along the nature reserve is an enchanting experience that you will always remember.
It takes about an hour and the fare is around 20-25 PLN per person. Choose the time of day when the sun is high in the sky unless you prefer a lot of shade. Use mosquito repellent if you go in the evening. The river is shallow so it's perfectly safe. No need to book - the men are always there by the bridge.

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I cannot say I enjoyed our visit there but some people may find this site interesting. It was here at Wolfsschanze or the Wolf's Lair that Adolf Hitler spent over 850 days starting with 24 June 1941. It was here that he issued numerous orders deciding the fate of many European nations, such as about the construction of new death camps or the use of POWs in the German armaments industry. The 'Wolf's Lair' was also the site of the failed assassination attempt on Hitler, on 20 July 1944, which, had it succeeded, might have changed the last year and the final outcome of WWII.
Hidden in a forest, it used to be a town of 200 buildings: bunkers, barracks, 2 airports, a power station, a railway station etc. Most of them have now turned to moss-covered ruins, having been blown up by the Germans in January 1945. And these are ruins that do not bring to mind any feelings of regret or words of sentiment but rather satisfaction and relief that Hitler's world is gone, hopefully forever.
For more information on and pictures of this gloomy area, see my Ketrzyn page.

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Ketrzyn, a town on the Guber River has a few tourist attractions, but the most interesting is the Gothic Castle of the Teutonic Order constructed in the years 1360-70 but with some later alterations. Through the gate you get into a small courtyard in the shape of a quadrangle. Inside the quad you can see an oval tower added to the castle in 1622. Although the Soviet Army set fire to the building in 1945 so that it had to be reconstructed, it looks exactly like the original due to the fact that the reconstruction was based on 19th century drawings by C.Steinbrecht. The Castle now houses a museum, a library and a gallery of folk art with a shop, where you can view and buy some interesting Mazurian handicraft.
Just up the hill from the Castle sits St George's Basilica built in the second half of the 14th century by the Teutonic Knights and extended in the 15th century. With a tower reaching the height of 40 m and a not much lower belfry, it looks like a castle too and is an excellent example of defensive sacral architecture. Ketrzyn also boasts fragments of its mediaeval town walls, an interesting eclectic Town Hall (see the link for the picture), a Neo-Gothic building of a former Freemasons' Lodge and many 19th- and early 20th-century houses.
For more information and pictures see my Ketrzyn page

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Zakret (the bend) is one of three nature reserves around Krutyn. It's a beautiful area of forest and bog with three acidic lakes, at places so overgrown with peat moss and flowers that they form floating islands. But you must be lucky to see them as their formation depends on the wind. The trail leads around one of the lakes with a pier on it so you can approach the water as close as possible. Sit on the bench there to enjoy the magical atmosphere of the place with its peace and silence, where even the water doesn't stir as no insects live on the lake's brownish acidic surface. This also makes the reflection of the forest so clear that you are under the illusion that there are two forests there - one above and the other below.
Look up as you walk and you will notice some ancient (200- to 300-year-old) oak and a 100-year-old pine trees. For pictures of them, see my general tip.
The trail is around 3 km long. It is said to be accessible to wheelchair users but there are tree roots sticking out at places so the ride may be a little bumpy and you might have to seek help of another person to negotiate them.

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White or pink water-lilies can be found on the Krutynia where the water becomes shallow and in sunny, not too overshadowed, places.
The yellow nuphars are more common and can be seen all along the route. Their resilience to the blows they get from the oars and the kayak is simply stunning. As soon as you pass, there they are back on the surface again.

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While I wouldn't recommend Warsaw to birdwatchers, unless they are studying the behaviour of pigeons and sparrows, Mazury is the ideal area for bird lovers. The rushes and marshlands surrounding the numerous lakes and rivers are the perfect habitat to many species, 200 of which have been observed here. The lakes abound in waterfowl, like mallards, grebes, herons, bitterns, cormorants, swans and many others.There are a few bird reserves on Lake Sniardwy, Lake Luknajno, one near Zgon, the "Kozuchy" on Lake Kruklin near Gizycko and a few more.
This year (2009) we sat on a bench at Zgon overlooking Lake Mokre and watched a family of bald-pates swimming. They obviously wanted to have the lake to themselves and, when a fen-duck swam close, one of the adult bald-pates started chasing it away and persisted in doing this till the intruder gave up and swam away. But this was not the end of the spectacle. Left to themselves, the bald-pates turned against each other and a fight ensued, which looked very much like a duel. How like humans!:)
Apart from the water birds, there are black storks, peregrine falcons, red kites, short-eared owls, cranes and even sea eagles on Lake Sniardwy. We have seen quite a few black woodpeckers and nuthatches at Babieta, so they must be common there. And of course Mazury is the kingdom of the stork.

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Don't miss the interesting graveyard of the Old Believers with its Orthodox crosses and decorations. It's a lovely shady place, very pleasant on a hot summer day.
Sadly, on your visit to the Convent you will no longer meet any of the nuns, two of whom we saw when we were there about ten years ago. Their graves can now be found here, just opposite the gate in this peaceful place.