33rd Warsaw Marathon

The opportunity to write this note came today as a surprise. I was doing my regular jogging when I saw lots of people running on one of the main streets of Warsaw. I was wondering what was happening when I saw the sign:

 And then I rrcalled immediately - the 33rd Warsaw Marathon! I climbed up the foot-bridge:

It was great watching them from the top. Good luck guys!

MSPO

Like most of the horse families, my family has a long military tradition. Unfortunately, during the last century the army changed a lot and we, horses, are not needed in the army anymore. But when opportunity arises I like to see some military equipment and vehicles during parades and exhibitions. Therefore, I went recently to MSPO in Kielce.

I have seen there Polish military trucks ...


... the S-70i helicopter ...

and the CV-90 infantry fighting vehicle.

I have also checked my ability to become a special force operator. My great advantage is low visibility - can you see me in the pictures ? Both on land ...

... and in the deep water.

As you can see below I might be useful directing online man portable air defense missile Grom...

... although I would most probably fail to direct the rifle fire (the trigger is not designed for horseshoes).

Obviously, as most horses today do, I would become great expert in parades, especially of buoyancy models.

Hope to see you there next year in the MSPO fair (although you must be at least 18 years old to be allowed).

Pacanów

I wonder how many of you have ever heard of Koziołek Matołek? It is a Polish comic book from 1933 telling the story of a nice goat.



Matołek is a traveller like me. He travels all around the world, trying to get to Pacanów where, as they say, he could get some horseshoes (or rather goatshoes).

Nowadays, Pacanów houses the European Center of Fairy Tales.

It is a very interesting building surrounded by a nice garden.

I have visited the garden of course ...

.... though I had to be really careful. Luckily I spotted quickly the sighns "Beware of dwarves running free!".

Inside you can walk through the enchanted garden.

This nice lady is called Pyza. She is a travller like me, running across Polish roads. The skirt she is wearing is a traditional cloth from the Łowicz region.

I did not meet Matołek himself but I've seen his statue.

And I was lucky to find the smithy of the Koza family. Now I wait for one of them to come and to give me some nice new horseshoes.

Ogrodzieniec

Ogrodzieniec is a small town in the South of Poland known for its medieval castle. The castle was destroyed in the 17th century but is still gave me a thrill.


I decided therefore to climb to its tower. It took many stairs ....

 ... and some dangerous passes ...

 ... but it was worth the effort! On top of the tower you see the Polish flag.

Next to the castle, you may find a park with miniatures of castles from the region.


Here you can see an overview of the park.

Below you may see what some of those castles looked like in the good old days. I would love to live in all of them. But I would definitely not like to clean any of them  ;).

 Babice castle

 Ogrodzieniec castle

Pilica castle / palace

Air Show Radom

Last weekend I visited the Radom Air Show.

I simply loved all those military aircrafts and helicopters. You may see some of them below:

JAS-39 Grippen

EF2000 Eurofighter

Mi-8 

F-16D Block 52 

9 MB-339 and 5 F-16

But the best part were of course the dynamic displays:

F-16C/D

SW-4

MiG-29

Something about Rick

My name is Rick and I am a traveller. I have recently adopted a human family and I am taking them on some of my trips. Unless the family proves too lazy, my plan is to publish a new story at least every second week.