KAROL Wojtyla's life started in the village of Wadowice southeast of Krakow in 1920. The basilica there has a 15th-century Presbytery and baptismal fount where he was baptised.

It had already become a major place of pilgrimage on my first visit 25 years ago when he was still in the beginning of his Papacy. The Wojtyla family home is now a museum, and it will certainly grow and expand its popularity in future.

Because there is so much to see here within a short distance, we rented a car, but unfortunately that does have challenges. Check http://stategovtravel.com for Poland and you'll understand why.

There was a great deal of car theft on our last visit and we hoped that situation had been remedied. We used to choose where to overnight based more on the accommodation's safe parking than on anything else. We'd been warned in Germany about car theft and we were driving a Mercedes station wagon. The US State Department warning indicates it's still a serious problem.

But there are many tours that include these diverse sights and your travel agent will be able to tell you about them. That is probably a more comfortable way for a traveller who wants to avoid some of the challenges.

Obviously, you'll want to start with the well-known sights, then seek out lesser publicised but very worthy wonders. Many are close by. Everyone's heard about the salt mines at Wieliczka, but not until seen first hand is the magnitude of the operation realised.

One of the world's oldest mines in uninterrupted operation, it dates back to the 13th century. "Room" after "room" have been carved into rock salt complete with St. Kingas Chapel. Imagine white crystal salt chandeliers.

I remember being told about a Messerschmidt factory installed at its lowest level by the Nazis in World War Two. Visitors will also notice the entrance to a sanitarium which caters to those with lung afflictions. It was felt the salt was beneficial to their health.

Another very unusual but less well-known underground site is in the Silesia district deep in the Sowie Mountains. A network of underground passages not unlike some we've visited along the Maginot Line were begun in 1943. The intent was to establish a factory to produce some of Hitler's secret weapons.

These are actually two sets of subterranean shafts, passageways and caverns at Osowks and Gluszyca near Wolin. These can be visited with a guide. An underground exhibit outlining Hitler's various headquarters and his Third Reich's network of subterranean weapons factories will send a chill down your spine.

Inquire locally about the Museum of the Walim Shafts, a web of bunkers connected by underground tunnels have created what is considered to be the longest defensive system world-wide. Guided tours lead visitors through its eerie passageways.

Be warned part of it is a bat reserve home to 30,000 bats . . . not unlike New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns. Also close to Germany in the Miedzyrecz Fortified Region, a web of war fortifications built at Hitler's direction in 1934-38.

With a Baltic shoreline, Poland shares borders with Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Russia. It's a complicated neighbourhood to say the least and borders have constantly shifted and changed over the centuries.

Our travels stretched in all directions. East to Lublin near Belarus by way of Kazimierz Dolny . . . Medieval, Gothic and Renaissance architecture made both very travel-worthy.

In the West, Poznan received attention as cradle of the Polish state and its Renaissance town hall, royal castle and collection of diverse museums range from those focusing on decorative arts to musical instruments and an annual international violin competition.

There are so many ancient monasteries and architecturally important churches that the pace at which they appear is almost dizzying.

The word ancient is not used casually here. Kalisz, for example, is considered Poland's oldest town and was called Kalisia in Claudius Ptolemy's written in the second century AD. To say it has historic buildings is a given.

The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem built a castle at Tagow Lubuski in 1347. Reminders of the strong presence of the Teutonic Knights come as another surprise. They became so strong and powerful that King Wladyslaw Jagiello fought a victorious battle over them in 1410 at Grunwald. It's re-enacted every year in mid July.

They didn't have just one fortified castle in Poland, but several. The one at Bylow built between 1395 and 1407 is both a museum and headquarters for organising knights' tournaments. Nidzica has another that's now a museum and hotel.

Another well-preserved one at Golub Dobrzyn is surrounded by remnants of mediaeval walls with towers and a moat. An annual programme features a re-enactment of mediaeval jousting.

But it's the brick castle of Malbork, former seat of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, that is the biggest structure of its type in mediaeval Europe. On UNESCO's World Heritage List, it's encircled by defensive walls, gates and towers. It's a museum today and has sound and light shows.

One of the most visited sites in all of Poland attracting millions annually is Czestochowa. This Marian shrine is located in the Paulist Monastery of Jasna Gora (Bright Mountain).

icon of Mary holding the Christ child is known as the Black Madonna. There is much speculation of its origin, some saying it dates back to St. Luke, and it's very much revered here. On each of my two visits, it was not visible around the clock, but a covering is lowered and raised to show it according to a schedule.

From here follow the Trail of Eagles' Nests, a line of castles and defensive towers all the way to Krakow. Yes, we all know Europe has endless castles and churches . . . from the British Isles, across Spain, France and Germany. At times it seems the period between 1000 and 1600 had around-the-clock construction proceeding at full speed.

Those are all reasonably well known. But Poland's remarkably well-preserved collection of architectural marvels have not received that much attention. Challenging economic conditions often slowed the kind of careless bulldozing development that often so disastrously levelled such treasures elsewhere.

It's not unlike what happened in communist Cuba. That country has areas that remain literally a Spanish Colonial time capsule. A lack of investment capital there slowed destruction of architectural treasures. Wrecking-ball destruction often follows real estate developers with little sense of history who start carving things up for quick profit Let's hope Poland's government is wise and prudent enough to see that a runaway tear-down mentality doesn't destroy their great wealth of architectural treasures.

Not to be missed is Zakopane, noted winter sports centre and also a summer favourite overlooking the Tatra Mountains separating Poland and Slovakia. The annual International Festival of Highlanders Folklore attracts travellers in August. Tatra National Park, a registered UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, is a year-round alpine Utopia, a place we enjoyed hiking mountain trails.

We're really only scratching the surface here. There is so much that's little known. Driving through Silesia, you'll find every rocky outcropping or mountain crest has an intriguing castle ? so many, one soon loses count. Just below the Russian border at Gierloz is Hitler's Headquarters, Wolf's Lair.

Sinister is an understatement. Ruins of the fortress, dynamited by retreating Germans in 1945, can be visited. It contained 80 buildings, 50 of them bunkers; www.wolfsschanze.pl.com. The failed assassination attempt on Hitler by von Stauffenberg occurred here in 1944.

about language? This traveller's Polish vocabulary is pretty much limited to gin; good morning; ), thank you . . . the few words I try to learn in every language for politeness sake.

In major cities one finds English usually understood in hotels, shops and restaurants. And somehow I always find there's an international method of being understood, no matter how complicated the language. Investigate the possibility of staying at Kadyny, palace once owned by Kaiser Wilhelm II, now an elegant hotel. Its former farm buildings are a state stud farm; www.kadyny.com.pl.

Promice has a 19th-century hunting castle built for princes set on a woodland lake. Luxurious English neo-Gothic. Baranow Sandomierski is an elaborate 16th-century mansion today operated as a hotel; www.baronow.motronik.com.pl.

Mosyna, an English-Elizabethan style palace of a German magnate, is also now a hotel dating back to the 17th century. It's an equestrian centre with English thoroughbreds.

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