Wyszków and the White Forest
Wyszków is located on the Bug River, about a 45-minute drive from Warsaw. The towns situation on the River is pretty. This town of about 25000 inhabitants has been around since the 13th century and was founded as a town in the 1500s. Like many towns in Poland, it has been destroyed during wars and rebuilt afterwards - in this case in the war between Poland and the Swedish in 1655. Before WWII, half of the towns population was Jewish. During the Nazi occupation, they used the gravestones from the Jewish cemetery as flooring for Gestapo Headquarters there. Now, those gravestones have been restored and converted into an interesting Holocaust Monument in the city.
The most beautiful thing about Wyszków is the White Forest, which is a large birch forest. There are also many pines there and a lot of wildlife. The white trunks of the birch trees are really pretty during winter - blending in with the white snow and the red trunks and green foliage of the pines.
