warsaw’s secret garden [podkowa leśna, poland]

As we stepped into the Wizz Air plane, ready for our London to Warsaw journey I became truly excited for the week ahead – both C and I were about to explore the Polish countryside, in all its woodsy glory, earthy smells and…well, delicious cakes.

We were staying with our friends (and  one of C’s old friend) near Podkowa Leśna, Poland’s first garden city, which is located about 30 minutes from Warsaw. The city is in itself a well-guarded secret, a little gem surrounded by a lush forest, grand post-war villas and one of the nicest, though proudly twee, garden cafés I’ve been to.

You can immediately feel how special this place is, surrounded by the forest and wonderful shaded streets. It felt especially magical to me as we are quite deprived of this kind of scenery in Portugal which makes me really appreciate the unique scent, textures and woodland life you’re able to experience when you’re deep in the forest.

As we started walking into the forest, the Gruffalo Trail book came out again to help us explore the forest’s various textures, plants and insects. Here, we managed to find everything featured on the book, from various species of mushrooms, moss, large spiders, different types of trees and leaves and all sorts of insects – it really was a perfect introduction to our inquisitive toddlers looking to learn more about what Autumn was all about.

C, his old buddy P and his fun-loving lab dog jumped, ran, climbed and explored as they voraciously looked to tick all the things in their trail book, and then when that was done, they ran some more.

After a long walk in the woods, we had a short walk to get to a playground, or so I was told…when my friend told me playgrounds in Poland were a-ma-zing, I though she was exagerating, but no, it really was a wonderful spot.

Situated by St Christopher’s church, this picture perfect spot had it all: the golden sun peeking through the tall, lush trees, a large and super friendly playground with children playing safely as well as a smart country-style café that served the most impressive cakes. As the sun started to go down, and the children still played in the playground, we finished the afternoon with an Earl Grey and a Raspberry Pavlova cake …

A perfect day, do you ask? Well, yes. Other than various toddler tantrums you’d expect from hanging out with two 3 year olds, we really couldn’t have asked more from the stunning Polish countryside.