Erania Hotel, Kołobrzeg, Poland
Visited: September 2008
Myself and three friends from our local stables in Essex were browsing the Unicorn Trails brochure that had been sent in the post. Whilst thumbing through and marvelling at the idea of Botswana and feeling incredulous at the price of those in Iceland we settled on Kołobrzeg, a town on the Baltic Coast of Poland.
The Erania hotel where we stayed was a huge, luxurious red bricked monolith of a building perched on a hill and flanked by meadows and forest. After setting down our bags we were all keen to get going and were shown the stables by our ride escorts for the week, Agnieszka and Rafał, who thankfully went by Agnes and Raf. After a brief encounter with the stabled horses we were assigned our own, given the matching tack, brushes, leg bandages and told to meet out the front. Having never wrapped bandages before this was an interesting experience and the first of many, if not hundreds, of times that we would use one of our very few Polish words, "preszpraszam' - "sorry"!
Due to the location of the hotel the riding opportunities are endless and some amazing memories that will live with me forever include galloping across a breathtaking empty wind-swept beach, riding across an abandoned Russian airbase with deer running out of the way of the horses, and picking our way through forest trails to a staggeringly ancient tree. I was lucky to be able to ride a different horse each day, from an Arab to a Fjord to an Appaloosa. There is a nice spa in the hotel for relaxing those aching muscles after a days riding, with a pool which was often empty whilst we were there, perfect for bombing into!
The Erania hotel where we stayed was a huge, luxurious red bricked monolith of a building perched on a hill and flanked by meadows and forest. After setting down our bags we were all keen to get going and were shown the stables by our ride escorts for the week, Agnieszka and Rafał, who thankfully went by Agnes and Raf. After a brief encounter with the stabled horses we were assigned our own, given the matching tack, brushes, leg bandages and told to meet out the front. Having never wrapped bandages before this was an interesting experience and the first of many, if not hundreds, of times that we would use one of our very few Polish words, "preszpraszam' - "sorry"!
Due to the location of the hotel the riding opportunities are endless and some amazing memories that will live with me forever include galloping across a breathtaking empty wind-swept beach, riding across an abandoned Russian airbase with deer running out of the way of the horses, and picking our way through forest trails to a staggeringly ancient tree. I was lucky to be able to ride a different horse each day, from an Arab to a Fjord to an Appaloosa. There is a nice spa in the hotel for relaxing those aching muscles after a days riding, with a pool which was often empty whilst we were there, perfect for bombing into!
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