You don't come here to work or catch up on a season of TV series - there is no TV, and the Internet appears and disappears like a lover from your grandmother's favorite soap opera. You come here for a rendezvous with the forest outside the window, for the smell of spruces and evenings during which we focus on the other person. This is where you can talk until the morning by the fireplace, have a glass of wine or by the glow of a bonfire crackling next to the terrace. This is where you cool your head, slow down your racing thoughts, and the forest invites you to the bedroom.
As the world reeled under the weight of the pandemic, we needed a haven. We escaped here with an armful of books and shoulder to shoulder we charged our energy to face reality. We did it and that's why we recommend escaping the city (it's less than 1.5 hours away from Warsaw), romantic fireplace sessions and resin-scented breathing sessions. The area has changed in recent years, so we are no longer an isolated island whose existence is known to a select few, led by squirrels. What has remained unchanged, however, is a large window onto the trees, soft moss for walking barefoot and the proximity of the Kozienicka Forest.
Take your favorite man by the hand and go.
Our forest house is less than 35 m2, but it has great possibilities and we can fit in it:
- living room connected to the kitchenette, which also serves as a dining room (stools at the kitchen peninsula). It has a fold-out sofa that can sleep up to two adults. The sofa is located next to a huge window and in the morning the sun can brutally penetrate the eyelids. Since we don't want to block this divine view just yet, we offer you blindfolds that will prolong the night until you take them off.
- the sleeping area, i.e. a double bed enclosed on three sides, separated from the living room by a curtain. They are accessed by stairs with hidden drawers. In this clever way, the bedroom is integrated into the living room, thanks to the curtain we have some privacy, and when we open it - we are immediately in the forest!
- bathroom with shower.
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Recently, we have a second house, Za Oknem Las II.
We invite you there, just the two of you. The house consists of one room with a kitchen, a living room with a small sofa and an armchair, and a separate bedroom behind curtains. It has a bathroom with a shower.
Our houses are located on plots next to each other, but they are connected by a fence and a gate.
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On cold evenings or those where the soundtrack could be only juicy love songs, we turn on the Bluetooth radio and the goat stove - the temperature immediately rises (both in the house and in us!). In the warm months, we are saved by a fan and air conditioning. We don't have a TV, but the window completely takes over its function - we can sit for hours and watch birds or squirrels racing in the nearby trees. There are buzzing mosquitoes, but we have mosquito nets in the doors and windows and agents that you can spray or apply on your body so that no bloodsuckers can get you.
We recommend packing slippers in your suitcase (we do not have underfloor heating), and warm feet mean a better mood, and it is worth taking wellies, because on humid days the area can be marshy.
Despite the size of the kitchen, you can do anything your bellies crap out of it. He can make scrambled eggs, omelettes, pancakes, you can make coffee and prepare a five-course candlelit dinner. You will find here all the necessary equipment to prepare meals (fridge, oven with a microwave, hand blender, induction cooker, kettle, drip, etc.) and to clean - we have a dishwasher that saves you from the question thrown into the air: "who's washing today?" .
You can go to Białobrzegi for fresh, local products, there is also a Vitaminka store, where you will get dumplings, vegetables, fruit, eggs from the farm, sauerkraut, cucumbers and delicious honey. For dessert, be sure to have Białobrzegi ice cream from the Gruszczyński family - heaven in your mouth! On Wednesday and Saturday mornings (preferably around 7am!), It is worth going to the market for fresh eggs, mushrooms collected in the nearby forests and seasonal fruit. In Mikówka, at Helenka's, you can get sausages, cold cuts, lard, and even a whole pig. Nearby, in Głowaczów, there are slightly larger grocery stores, and for larger purchases we will send you to Kozienice and Warka.
Don't forget to buy sausages, because we have a fireplace where you can prepare "scout" treats.
If you get a culinary laziness, we recommend you Stara Kuźnia in Magnuszewo, serving traditional Polish cuisine, the Italian restaurant Arbaka in Kozienice or the Texas Zajazd in Majdany, Kozienice. We write about these places on our blog, Obieżysmak - take a look if you are looking for gastronomic inspiration.
If you are looking for a place where you want to catch your breath, relax, cut off from the stimuli served by a big city, noise and momentum - you've come to the right place. With us, you can do nothing beautifully and not feel guilty about it. You can read a book that has been put off for months, write your own story, train yourself in a few yoga poses or mindfulness sessions. You can also take your favorite person and give them all your attention that gets lost in everyday chores. We recommend you light the fireplace, open the wine and get carried away by the moment.
If you get bored of looking through the panoramic window and cheering on tireless squirrels, we have a loudspeaker at home to which you can connect and organize a dance competition or take out board games and play until you get bored. If, however, sitting in one place is only fun for you for a while, then we have made a list of places recommended by us. In our opinion, it is worth going:
- for a walk to the village of Łukawska Wola, and from there you can go along a narrow path to the forest (in the autumn baskets for mushrooms are necessary!),
- on more and less known paths in the Kozienice Forest,
- to Kozienice itself (the Palace in Kozienice with a stud farm, the pride of a lamb,
- for a one-day kayaking trip on the Radomka River (start at the bridge in Brzóza, finish line in Ryczywół - the distance is not large, but small, charming beaches on the way tempt and encourage you to take a break),
- over the Brzeźniczki Pool in the middle of the Kozienicka Forest (a little-known bathing area),
- to the vineyard in Borek,
- to Piastów to take a walk through the beautiful manor park,
- to Jedlanka to see the old Załuski manor house,
- to the Wsolski manor house, which houses the Museum of Witold Gombrowicz. It is here that the writer created, among others "Diary of adolescence" and "Ferdydurke",
- to Jedlanka to see the painting of St. Nicholas (donated to the parish by his uncle Fryderyk Chopin),
- to the Regional Museum in Iłża or the Museum of the Radom Countryside,
- to Iłża and visit the gothic castle of Krakow bishops or the late medieval knight's nest of Mikołaj Powała (the Sandomierz sub-table, immortalized by Henryk Sienkiewicz on the pages of the "Teutonic Knights"),
- for a bicycle trip along the Vistula (necessarily a vantage point near Kępeczki and the bank of the Vistula near Piotrkowice),
- if you visit us at the end of the carnival, you can witness the "Beheading of Death" unique on a European scale, which takes place on the Jedliński Market Square on the last Tuesday of the carnival,
- in turn, in September, the Baked Potato Festival takes place in Ludwikowo. Fans of pancakes, fries, puree are very appreciative!
- Fans (and fanatics) of fishing will be delighted to learn that you are only 8 minutes by car from the 3 Ponds fishery in Goryń.
What’s there for children?
Here, children play at being conquerors of wild lands, explorers, travellers, detectives, zoologists and ant trainers – it all depends on their creativity! You can build secret bases, huts, hidden houses, watch birds and lizards, leave nuts for squirrels, throw wood into the fire and learn the constellations arranged in the black sky above the trees.
For toddlers, we have moss for crawling, a huge area for picking mushrooms. If the heat gets to you, pack up in the car and go to Kozienice. There is a guarded swimming area, swimming pool, equipment rental and playground. It is worth taking bikes and organising trips around the area, and in case of bad weather, take out toys, books and board games to sail away to the land of fantasy. Believe me – it is nice to take a break from TV cartoons.
We do not have facilities for infants (you have to bring potties, bathtubs, highchairs).
What’s there for employees?
Our internet in the Za Oknem Las I and Za Oknem Las II cottages can be temperamental. Sometimes it can run Netflix, but sometimes it's just enough to browse websites (data reception usually ranges between 8 and 15 Mb/s).
