Three times. It seems hard to believe that I’ve already been to Berlin three times, and it’s been a different experience every time.Yet there are only so many times I can return to a place before retreading steps, and having nothing to do. The first time I visited, in 2009 with my friend James, we’d rushed around most of the city getting all the key attractions done but failing to see the inside of the Charlottenburg Palace due to it being closed when we got there. Our time was short, but we’d seen a lot. I considered Berlin done.

I had not accounted for the World Marathon Majors. For a long time this race series consisted of London, Berlin, Tokyo, and then the three in the USA: Chicago, New York, and Boston. I began chasing the coveted ‘Six Star Finishers’ medal, and fast-forward past many trips around Europe and the world, and in 2021 I was there to run the marathon. I’d seen very little in Berlin this time, as my focus was the race then a railway journey around Germany. I did not tick the Charlottenburg Palace off my list, but did get to see inside some museums and the cathedral.

The way things changed in the USA resulted in me abandoning my attempt to get the six-stars, and refocused on the Super Half series instead. This led me and Carmen to visit Berlin in 2025 for the half marathon as a long weekend. We attempted to visit the Charlottenburg Palace, but again it was closed. I did know at this point that the Berlin Marathon was on Carmen’s bucketlist, but I was unsure for certain if I’d be back.

Upon our return from Valencia, Carmen decided she’d enter the ballot for this year’s Berlin Marathon. I considered it briefly, but didn’t want to risk getting a place if Carmen didn’t. Once again however, she was unsuccessful.

Failing to get into one of the World Marathon Majors doesn’t always have to be the end of the story. Many races around the world are supported by charity places, where you raise money for that charity in exchange for one of the places they have purchased at a price much higher than an individual would pay through a ballot normally. Serendipitously, one of Carmen’s dancing friends worked for ‘Get Kids Going!’ - a charity that has bought Berlin Marathon places for many years, and wondered if Carmen would be interested in a place.

I half-joked that I could use a charity place too, and surprisingly ended up with one too. Without any real plan or intention, I was going to Berlin again, to run the marathon - again!

I thought it might be a good idea to see somewhere new on this trip too. As the closest neighbour to Berlin, I thought crossing the border into Poland might be a good idea. I looked at Warsaw to start with, but when Carmen reminded me that Poland is a chance to tick off the ‘Z’ entry for the ‘Alphabeteer’ challenge as well, our attention shifted to Kraków.

Neither of us have been to Poland before, so everything would be new no matter where in the country we found ourselves. My research led us to our first surprise - there was no schedule available for any direct flights from Berlin to Kraków. It looked like a budget airline, Eurowings, did flights at some point, but their schedule for it now appeared empty. This left us with taking a train - in one single journey this would take between seven and nine hours. Carmen couldn’t face that journey, and I can’t say I blame her. I’ve done coach journeys of that sort of length and they’ve not been pleasant. It’d be a whole day wasted.

There would be the potential for further delay with potential border checks too. In July 2025, Poland re-introduced border controls on their German and Lithuanian borders, and this would mean authorities boarding some trains to carry out checks - similar to what we expected, but didn’t experience, when crossing from Copenhagen into Malmö previously. An amusing observation was that this border, defined by the Potsdam Agreement, runs down to a tri-point where it also meets the Czech Republic - our first trip of the year.

I looked at the map and pondered what we could do. Could a stop somewhere around half way work? The name that stood out the most was Wrocław (pronounced Vrots-wahf), so I checked what sights there were there. This turned out to be a bit of a surprise, as the ‘Venice of Poland’ seemed to be filled with character.

Our journey could now be split into two - an almost midday train from Berlin Hauptbahnhof would arrive in Wrocław four hours later. We’d then spend a full day sightseeing there, before jumping on a train early the next morning to take us the rest of the way to Kraków for around three hours.

We’d have to see if covering three cities in a week on post-marathon legs would be a good idea. We’d have less time in Kraków than I thought, and that left a question hanging in the air as to whether or not we’d manage to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau whilst there. It could easily take most of a day to visit both camps and fully understand the tragedy that happened there. Carmen was also keen on seeing the Salt Mines - them being a little closer to the city would make them a good choice for the Sunday before flying home.

Background

Poland is a country neither me, nor Carmen, have visited before. Whenever I think of the country, the first thing that comes to mind is the sketch from Fawlty Towers where Basil Fawlty is continuously aggravating his German guests.

German: Will you stop talking about the war!

Basil: Me? You started it!

German: We did not start it.

Basil: Yes you did, you invaded Poland...

Even with Polish colleagues, there wasn’t that much more I knew about the country beyond that.

I think it’s fair to say that the Republic of Poland has had a tumultuous past. Western Polans, long-term settlers of the area, created the Kingdom of Poland in 1025 with their first ruler being Bolesław I the Brav, who was also the Duke of Bohemia. His dynasty came to an end in 1370, and was succeeded by Louis I of Hungary, who was also King of Hungary and Croatia. It was the Jagiellonian dynasty, starting with the Duke of Lithuania marrying into the ruling family, that created close ties with Lithuania that created a Commonwealth between them.

The Commonwealth lasted until a series of invasions and partitions of the country by the Habsburgs, the Prussians (whose capital was Berlin), and Russia. They had lost their independence until after the Treaty of Versailles following the Great War, when the Second Polish Republic was formed.

Poland had once been part of Russia, but was taken over by Germany in the Great War before gaining their independence. With rising territorial tensions between Germany and the Soviet Union, Germany proposed an alliance with Poland against Russia. It was rejected by Poland on the basis that it could be a threat to their independence, as they would become little more than a client state.

As the years went on, tensions grew, and a dispute broke out over the ownership of Gdańsk due to its varied history. Britain guaranteed "if any action clearly threatened Polish independence, and if the Poles felt it vital to resist such action by force, Britain would come to their aid."

In August 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrip Pact. Officially, it was a non-aggression agreement between the two countries, but in secret it was also an agreement of who would invade and control what European countries. It was a truth that would only come to light during the Nuremberg trials. The Second World War started on 1st September 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, in what they referred to as a ‘defensive war’ with a planned genocide. Just over two weeks later, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. Kraków’s army was crippled by the end of the month. Their leadership went into hiding as the Polish Underground State.

After the end of the war, Poland lost lands to the east as they were taken by Russia, but were given some German lands to the west in repayment. The same agreement also had Stalin bring the leadership to Moscow to go on trial, and install his own government as they were now to be a satellite state of the USSR.

The Polish People’s Republic, and later the Polish United Workers' Party, lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union, and at this point gained their own freedom from Moscow’s influence. They were finally free, and the Third Polish Republic was born.

Today, Poland still bears some of the scars and reminders of the horrors of the Second World War, and the Cold War. Wrocław had become a fortress city in 1945, and has plaques and memorials for the siege that took place there. Kraków on the other hand still has buildings that people will be all too familiar with - you can see Oskar Schindler's Factory, and the nearby concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. They are places that survive in notoriety as reminders, just as the Genocide Memorial in Rwanda is, of “Never again.” A promise the world has so far failed to keep.