Beer Me

Today was Beer Day. We signed up to go to the Pilsner Urquell Brewery in Plzen (pronounced Pilszen). It is about a one hour drive from Prague. There is also a museum there and some caves about ½ way there. The tour included stopping at the caves which we thought at first were associated with Pilsner Urquell but they are just nice caves.
We hit the museum first which had some really nice examples of old time beer making equipment, and beer bottling equipment and capping. We also got a small coin which was used in payment in olden times. Workers with this coin were entitled to a beer. We turned in our coins to get a nice beer. As we were running behind, our guide asked if it was ok for us to eat here as well. We each got a nice bread bowl full of goulash soup and then a plate of bread dumplings and sauerkraut. Didn’t really care for the dumplings and sauerkraut but the goulash soup was great.
Then on to the brewery. Pilsner Urquell has been purchased by a conglomerate, the South African Brewers or SAB but Pilsner Urquell has also become their flagship as it is such a good beer. It was our misfortune to be there on a day when they were cleaning the lines in the bottling and canning part of the plant but one line was running so we saw the bottles scuttle past on their way to being filled.
We wound our way through the plant and saw a multimedia presentation on the brewing of Pilsner Urquell. They mash it or boil it three times which is unusual. They also hop it three times. Using Saaz hops from the region. A few years ago, there were several natural hops disasters plus a large hop warehouse fire and the worldwide hop supply was dwindling while growers had to replant. Now the hops are back and it isn’t quite a crisis anymore.
We are finally down to the cellars after going past the large copper covered tanks where the beer is mashed and hops added. Down here we are treated to a new beer. It has not yet been filtered and pasteurized but boy is it tasty.
Our trip through beer land at an end, we climb into the van to go to the Koneprusy caves. They are living caves with three levels but we can only visit 2 levels. Lots of steps, around 500. My legs are quite irritated that I went through the whole cave. Thought to give my hip some rest today by going on a tour. Opps. Forgot walking in caves is never restful for arthritis.
Fun day

Prague Day

Had quite a nice day just wandering around Prague. Had to spend the morning doing our chores this included going to the U.S. Embassy to get papers notarized. Nice embassy as it is in an old palace or at least an old mansion. We were the only ones there which is quite unusual but lucky for us, another couple arrived and were able to be our witnesses. Then we helped them by getting them their “ticket”. You pick what services you want and get a ticket. Without the ticket, you sit there and wait forever. They didn’t realize this so we got their “ticket” for them.
Afterwards, we had to go to the doctor. We followed the guide book and went to the best place they recommended, Canadian Medical Care. It was out in the suburbs but was good to go and find out I had bronchitis and no problems with my ear (had been worried after my diving attempt in Iceland), and that my hip is probably just the arthritis kicking in due to all the walking we have been doing.
After the doctor, just headed towards the main part of Old Town and stopped for a sausage and baguette. It wasn’t quite as good as the one we had yesterday. Wandered over to Republic Square where the old city hall is with the clock tower. We went into several of the churches around the square. They are beautiful old churches but no photos. I try and respect this but there’s usually someone in there sneaking photos with either their tiny camera or cell phone. Today was no exception.
We did go into the Old City hall but with my hip, we were not going up the tower to get the view. Supposedly there was an exhibit on the first floor of the old city hall but only one room was open on the bottom floor that had beautiful mosaics on the upper walls and ceilings.
Afterwards we walked over the Charles Bridge. It is very popular and now even more crowded because half of it is being renovated so it is covered with scaffolding and tarps. Don’t think we have ever been in Europe without something being covered in scaffolding. When you think about it, most of Europe that tourists go to see is so old that it must be renovated all the time to keep from falling apart.
We crossed over the Charles Bridge then came back and walked along the riverbank back to the hotel. Was a very nice walk. So sort of a short day for wandering. A really nice day for walking around as Prague is such a great city. I think we like it a lot better than Warsaw. It is a more tourist friendly city than Warsaw. That is good and bad. Can hardly walk around without someone wanting to offer you a tour, a concert, or come to my restaurant. But this can also be good as you are not going to miss much. We liked it.

Mind over Mucus

Another witticism by my funny husband. He has quite a lot of them and I’ll trot them out bit by bit to keep you all in suspense for the next words of wisdom.
Today started out badly and just got worse. Got up and my cold was even worse than before. Really a stuffy nose and runny nose at the same time. Don’t have the proper cold meds to really load up on stuff but have to keep going so took as much stuff as I dared to be able to function.
Looking for laundry today. With today’s luggage limits on planes, the most I can travel with is 6-9 days worth of clothes, even less when they must include winter clothes. That means we have to wash clothes at least once a week or end up smelling less than fresh which I hate. Yes, hotels will be happy to wash your clothes for you and in a good many hotels I do that. But the Hilton? Come on! It doesn’t take someone $25 to wash a blouse, $30 for a pair of pants or $10 for a pair of underwear or socks. So rather than wash it myself and string it out all over the bathroom, we go out to find a laundry mat or laundry service. Sometimes this is not as easy as it seems. I remember in ’92, my daughter and I traipsing all over Rome, carrying our dirty laundry in our arms, and never did find the place to which everyone directed us with great glee. Finally we did do everything in the sink there. Today we were in luck and she was open even though it is a holiday. So back to the hotel to get our laundry and come out again to bring it to her.
Then disaster struck. My hip went out. Do NOT know what happened. Being a bit older and having arthritis in knees and ankles and hips, some things just don’t work as well but today, it was a full fledge “I am not working for you today” hip rebellion. Dropped off the laundry and hobbled back to the subway so we could go to Old Town and see something – anything!
Up to Wenceslaus square and figured out where to get to Republic Square where the neatest old buildings are located. We are walking as slow as a toddler who has just learned to take steps. And every few steps, I need to stop and cough or blow my nose. This is just not how I pictured seeing Prague which is such a wonderful old city. Buildings really are old, houses picturesque, crystal everywhere, old towers, old churches, and clocks, just something to see and look at on every corner.
Not sure if it’s because of the holiday today or if it is ordinary but were many stalls in the squares selling rolls, wine, sausages, souvenirs, etc. Guess we'll see tomorrow if it is an everyday thing. Made our way through the alley to Republic Square and I’m in serious pain so we opt for a city tour on a small van. Lucky us – NOT. The bus speaker system was faulty so it was like having someone yell in my ear for 2 hours and the man driving was cold blooded so the interior was very hot that everyone was sweating. When we got up to the castle where we were supposed to wander about for 40 minutes, the Pope was in the process of leaving so we couldn’t get out of the van. The driver had to circle the castle for 20 minutes before we could get back. Then I could walk past the gate so sat next to the honor guard and studied his expressionless face and wondered how long they have to train to be so still and not react to anything.
Finally we are back to Republic Square just in time to watch the town clock. Crowds gather all the time to see it do its little thing, and it is a little thing, but fun. I’m really hobbling now and blowing my nose like crazy and stuffed up and head like a fat balloon so I’ve got to head back to the hotel. My husband gets to joy of going back for the laundry himself.

It's good to be Gold

Arrived in Prague today. We are staying at the Hilton which won the best hotel for 2009. it is very posh. What's even better is that my husband has finally accumulated enough points through business and leisure travel to become a Gold Hilton Honors Member! Yahoo. That means we get a very nice room, we get to use the executive lounge for free which has drinks and snacks all the time, free breakfast, free internet (although that is only in the lounge and only for 20 minutes at a time - not near long enough), and very friendly staff. One of our favorite sayings is "It's good to be king" and we can adapt that to whatever the situation. So here, "it's definitely good to be gold."
Point of interest in Prague today is the Pope. He is visiting here for 3 days. He arrived yesterday and leaves then Tuesday morning. I seriously doubt we'll run into him but you never know. More likely things will be blocked. There are many reporters here in the hotel plus a lot of cassock frocked men wearing crosses.
Our lovely waitress in the executive lounge tells us that guests in this hotel (Not the Pope) have been the Bush entourage, "Lady" Clinton (I'll just bet Hillary loves that title. I think it fits), the Obamas, Madelaine Albright, and we think she meant also Colin Powell. A real who's who in American politics.
Tomorrow we have to hit the local clinic as my cold is worse and my ear is acting up. As I am diving in a few weeks better get that fixed.

Polish Tidbits

White Women:
Not an ethnic reference but a clothing reference. Apparently it is a custom here for brides and grooms to take wedding photos about the city. We saw two different couples in Gdansk strolling about with a photographer. In Krakow, even more. We could hardly walk about the city without finding a woman in a beautiful white wedding dress and a tuxedoed groom posing for photos. Most of the time it was just the couple and a photographer. Only once did we see a couple with an entourage of the bridesmaids and groomsmen. I can well understand the thinking as Krakow has such beautiful sites to photograph and it would be fun to have a wedding photo in these spots. Haven’t seen any yet in Warsaw but I hope to see one or two.
OK! Today we saw one. Bride, Groom, Photographer and that’s all. But they were not in a picturesque area of town but the main shopping area.

Mini Bars:
I wrote a piece a bit ago about how I missed mini bars in hotels as they have almost disappeared. Not the case with the 5 star high end hotels. They still have them. But unfortunately they have changed. We used to go out and buy some beer and drinks and snacks, maybe some cheese or yoghurt, at the local market, unload what was necessary to fit our items into the mini bar and then as we used up what we had purchased, put back the hotel’s items. Now there is the automatic mini bar. Once you pick up an item, it is automatically charged to your account. The items are all triggered by weight/location in the mini bar/whatever so that any movement of items means ca-ching!, a very expensive coke, beer, chocolate, whiskey, whatever. Guess mini bars that I like are disappearing.

Mermaids in Warsaw:
The symbol of Warsaw is a mermaid, of all things for basically a landlocked city (there is a river). One of their princes was wondering in the area and got badly lost. A mermaid rose up out of the swamp (swamp, not even the river) and showed him the way out of the swamp by firing burning arrows, one after another, until the prince followed the arrows and found his way out of the swamp. Thus the city was born and the mermaid was honored.

Pretzel necklaces:
In Krakow there are many pretzel sellers throughout the old town and various city squares. They sell big pretzels as well as small ones on thick threads. Apparently you buy these little ones and wear them around your neck and pop a pretzel into your mouth whenever you feel hungry. Should have done it.

No Pomeranians:
Poland has a state called Pomerania. I figured that Pomeranians must have come from here but unfortunately we didn’t see a single Pomeranian the entire time in Poland. That was very disappointing to us. I have seen a Lhasa Apso in Lhasa. I have seen a few Scotties in Scotland. We’ll keep looking.

Mauling the language
Polish is a difficult language to pronounce as there are many different accents marks and while it isn’t like a language where we can’t even recognize the letters. Still, we tend to look at words and make them into something we can say and recognize in order to navigate and find places. They make sense to us. So Al Solidanosci (remember I don’t have any accent marks on my computer) became Solidarity street. Swietokrzyska is Swowetoski. Al Jerozolimskie is easier as Al Jeezera. We renamed many of the streets and squares and buildings. But we never got lost, really.

Last Polish Day

Our last full day in Poland as tomorrow we move backwards (in the only fly east genre) and move to Prague, Czech Republic. We wandered about the city, getting a late start again. Problem with traveling with a computer, you always feel you have to check emails and such, especially when you are also trying to buy a house and are about 6 hours time difference from said house.
Following the “Warsaw in your pocket” guide, we decided to hit a Tex-Mex restaurant for lunch. Asking for directions from the bell captain, we decided it was a bit too far to walk and too many twists and turns from our hotel so took a cab. The restaurant was Blue Cactus. While it wasn’t authentically Tex-Mex to two people who have lived for many years in Texas, it wasn’t horribly wrong. There were a lot of people there holding a party though so we had to suffer through the kids popping the balloons off and on during our lunch.
As we had no idea where we were in relation to where we wanted to go, we asked the restaurant to get us a taxi and had the taxi take us back to the Palace of culture and science. This is a huge old soviet built building that is probably the biggest building in Warsaw. It’s also quite a gaudy affair. One side has been given over to a cinema. Not sure what is in the rest of the building but you can buy a ticket for the 30th floor viewing platform. Quite some lovely views of Warsaw. We could identify where we have wandered and could see the red roofs of the old town, the Royal Palace, the Church of the Holy Cross and more.
Decided we had time for one more museum so set off for the Ethnographic Museum which stays open until 5 on Saturdays. There were having some sort of celebration and we got in for free. This was a museum I really liked. It wasn’t as large as the fine arts museum plus it had more interesting stuff. A good collection of ethnic items from around the world and then also a good collection of Polish items as well, folk art and religious art and old tools and photographs. It also encourages me that someday our daughter will be able to find a museum that will be happy to take all the various stuff that we have collected over the years. Several of our friends have called our home a museum.
Afterwards, we hit a microbrewery for my hubby to taste their wares. He is a connoisseur of beer though and unfortunately the Polish brews have not been up to snuff for the most part. Here’s hoping Czech beers are better.
We’ve had a good time here. Next time we will spend a lot more time in the country side as there are palaces and castles and landscapes and hiking. I’m still not sure how I feel about the rebuilding of old towns so we’ll get out of the cities where they didn’t have to rebuild.

Hiding the sugar

In our hotel room, we have coffee service. Usually means a coffee pot, cups, sugar, creamer and a coffee filter full of ground coffee. It also means you are at the mercy of the cleaning staff and how much coffee, sugar, and creamer that they leave you each day. We have discovered that there is never enough sugar and never enough creamers. Haven’t figured out how to get more creamer yet but sugars are available in the bar. We slip a few into our pockets each time we go down to use the “free internet” (which means you buy a drink and get the pass code for free). Now we have enough sugar for one cup but if we leave it in the coffee service area, we won’t get our usually allotment for another cup. SO, we must hide our nefariously obtained sugar. Best place is the safe. So safes are good for your passport, your extra money, important documents and sugar packets.

Wandering around Warsaw

Wandering around Warsaw
Had a couple of days now to wander around Warsaw, the capital of Poland, and see the sights and take in some of the culture and palaces. As neither one of us are feeling the best right now, we are wandering slowly, very slowly. Late starts, early ends to the day. But then a lot of work too on the house. People preparing the paperwork don’t always listen to everything you tell them then there’s tell them again, email back and forth again taking another day. It will get done eventually or not. Not going to worry about it.
We figured out were we were on the map and wandered to the old town. A lot of our information is coming out of “Warsaw in your Pocket” which the hotels and information centers provide. We also used them in Gdansk and Krakow. They are quite good and give good information. We get to the “old town” and it looks quite old and natural and been there for hundreds of years. It is amazing that this is not actually the case. The Nazis got quite Pod’s at Warsaw and the Polish people after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and systematically set about destroying the city. By the end of the war, over 90% of Warsaw was destroyed and most of the Old Town was gone. All of Warsaw lay under tons of debris.
Slowly and methodically, using old photographs, drawings, memories, and anything that could be found, Warsaw was rebuilt. Some of the buildings are more Soviet style than pre-war Polish but most of old town looks as it did long before WWI and WWII. It’s rather odd to wander through the beautiful squares and realize I am the same age, more or less, than these buildings. That’s an old kick in the head figuratively.
A lot of the bricks and furnishings and such came from Wroclaw apparently to the detriment of Wroclaw even causing them to tear down some of their old buildings that were fine after the war.
Today we went into the Royal Palace. The apartments have been restored quite well. Some of the ceilings are painted but I imagine that most of the ceilings would have been painted originally. Like the palace in Krakow, the furnishings have probably been purchased at auctions or donated from collectors. The paintings were either rescued before the war or hidden or when reproduced, the new artist is given credit with what he has done to reproduce the painting. It all looks like it’s hundreds of years old.
Passing by a park in the morning, a ceremony was just starting. A military band led off a group of maybe 75 young men marching in formation into a large park and past a reviewing stand. We asked one of the police what was the occasion and he told us it was a military graduation.
Wanted to go into the church of the Holy Cross. Part of the problem with touring out of high season is that things are being renovated, cleaned, moved, whatever. Such was the case today with the Church of the Holy Cross. The sanctuary was scaffolded and plastic sheeting hanging off to protect walls. A sign in English and Polish said that you could get in through the bottom floor. Apparently there is an urn there that holds the composer Chopin’s heart. Not sure if it is the ashes or the heart moldering in there. We went into the bottom floor through a dark hallway and into a makeshift chapel that looks like they popped it up in the crypt so worshipers could have someplace to come. Confessions were being held on either side of the room with a priest in one chair and the parishioner seated next to him in a chair just being separated by a small screen. People were there worshipping and there wasn’t a sign that said “this way to Chopin’s heart”. There had been a sign outside but once inside, guess you were expected to find it. We didn’t and we don’t like to disturb people in churches so we gave up without seeing Chopin’s heart’s urn.
We retraced our steps back through the newer area this afternoon to find the National Museum. It is more of a Fine Arts museum with a lot of 9th century plasters and frescoes taken off of church walls. Some of them are in good shape and others you must use your imagination to figure out exactly what it is. It also has quite a nice collection of altars and religious carvings. Then we get into the paintings. I’m not that good in museums. I can usually last through 3 maybe 4 galleries and then I’m done. Sure enough, after the frescoes, the wooden religious carvings, and two painting galleries (plus two small photograph galleries), I took a break and sent text messages to my daughter complaining; “I’m bored!” Things just start to blend together after awhile plus so many of the early paintings and renaissance paintings are so dark that it’s hard to make out the details. And as a lot of things were not in English, was hard to hold my interest. My husband lasted longer but worried about getting to an internet to send documents back and forth during the day time in the U.S.; we bailed out of the museum early and headed back to the hotel.
One more day in Warsaw. Tomorrow there appears to be a marathon as tents were being erected around the Royal Palace so we will avoid that area tomorrow and head for the new parts of town where there are a few more museums we want to see and some churches.

Polish Tours

Our city by city course in Poland was Sopot, Gdansk, Krakow, and Warsaw. Sopot is a small seaside resort so not a whole lot of need there for tour guides. Gdansk had tours guides but most of the time they seemed to be in Polish. It wasn’t until we’d been there almost a day before we ran across the electric cars that run you around the city with stops in front of each place of historic interest.
Krakow was a real hoot. You couldn’t swing a stick there without hitting an information office or an electric cart to take you on a tour or a horse and buggy. Every corner had someone there to see if you wanted help in seeing the sights. In the afternoon, the electric carts started trolling as well. Now you can’t even walk down the street without them going by you to see if you want help. I think at that point you could probably negotiate them to take you anywhere you wanted to go. But as we are out of the summer season, most things shut down by 4.
Krakow also has half dozen or more companies that will take you to the spots outside of the city. Most people take the tours to Auschwitz and Birkenau and possibly also the Wieliczka Salt Mine. You can also take tours out of Krakow to see the birth place of John Paul II or a trip down the river that borders Slovakia (I’ve been on that river and it is quite pretty). The tour that we thought the most interestingly advertised but we did not do was Zakopane. The brochure calls this Poland’s best mountain town. It further goes to say, “Whatever the season, this is a great place to walk, hike, ski, bike, raft, fly, eat, drink, be merry and spend truckloads of cash.” Finally, truth in advertising.
Warsaw is a bit more problematic. It’s not the tourist town that Krakow is so we didn’t find so many tours available or so many guides sitting along the square waiting for the tourists. In fact, we only saw two horse drawn carriages and no electric carts. The only tours we found offered for day trips were to Krakow. Well, Warsaw has an abundance of things to see anyway so we’ll do just fine without electric carts, information booths, or day trips.

Polish words I have learned

Well, let's say Polish words I think I have learned.
Tak = yes
Lody = ice cream
Gofry = waffle
piwo = beer
Now those are probably the only 4 that I will remember after leaving Poland until I return. Hopefully I will return because it is a beautiful country and very historic and now also very dynamic.
A lot of words are surprisingly Latin based since it is not a Latin based language. But I'm thinking that these words are more recent into the lexicon, like computer and engineering terms.
Ulica = street or boulevard or something like that
Restauranjca = is pretty recognizable as restaurant
Jana Pawla II = I think, John Paul II in honor of the Polish man who became Pope
Stare Miastro = old city

I could go on but mostly I can't spell any of them but can figure out what they mean when I see them such as exit (usually also has an arrow thank goodness).
Still, I'm not such an expert that I could get around without a map or directions or the kindness of local people. When are we going to get the universal translators from Star Trek? I need mine now.

Riding the Rails in Poland

We love riding trains in Europe. Usually they are comfortable, somewhat clean (depending on the country), and people are nice and helpful and usually friendly. So rather than hop from city to city by plane in Poland, I found Polrail on line (very good and useful site and helpful) and purchased tickets from them for our two inside Poland train rides, Gdansk to Krakow then Krakow to Warsaw. I had hoped originally to book tickets from Warsaw to Prague but that took too much time as did the Prague to Venice route, with too many changes of trains. Changing trains is never fun as you may only have a few minutes to get off one, figure out in the unknown foreign language which platform, drag your bags down one set of stairs and up the other set to get to said platform, and hop on the next train. No, not near as much fun as just arriving at the train station and getting on one train and staying there to your destination.
Poland is in the throes of remodeling, upgrading, reconstructing their rail system. We saw several European Union signs in various stations where it shows a whole lot of money being spent to modernize. A lot of zeros after that Euro sign. This has affected our rides a bit as the train must slow for construction or be shunted onto a side rail as another train passes through. Stations have detours getting in and out of them. As a result, none of our trains have run on time. The one on our arrival in Poland was totally cancelled and we were rerouted via bus and several other trains. In the end, it will make travel in Poland so much better I think and easier for the casual tourist to say nothing of the many Poles who use the rails as their main transportation.
We have enjoyed our riding of the rails. One gets to see the charming countryside. In Poland, there is a lot of countryside, a lot of farm land, and a lot of trees. Being officially now fall, some of the trees are changing color. Most of the fields are harvested except a few very ripe, very yellow rape fields. We mosey through the small villages. People on the platforms watch us pass as we are an express so do not make many stops. The girl comes by with a coffee cart and you can also get snacks and sandwiches, candy and chips. Sometimes the compartment even has power for the computer. No Wi Fi yet but it mght be coming with the system upgrades. There aren’t a lot of business people who travel without their computers these days. Today is my husbands last train ride on this trip. I have several more in Uzbekistan and the Ukraine. Hopefully they will be as nice.

Wawel Castle

Our last day in Krakow was another late start because of the necessity to check emails and do paperwork. We had chosen Wawel Castle as our must see so we made our way there arriving around 11:30. Walked up the hill to the ticket office and realized immediately that we were quite lucky that we are not in the high tourist season. A board outside the ticket office showed how many tickets were left for sale to each of the tours available. Had we been much later or had there been many more tourists in the city, we might have left Krakow without seeing one of the major sites. As it was, there were 138 tickets left for the Royal Apartments and it didn’t look like 138 tickets would be sold before it was our tour at the cashier. We are reading the signs as we are waiting in line and it also appears that each tour has a time stamp, you can’t enter the tour until your time arrives. We still felt we had time to do all the tours, Royal Apartments, State Apartments, Armory and Treasury, and an added bonus for 1 Zloty (about 30 cents) would be the Lost Wawel, an exhibition telling of lost items and history from the castle.
We get to the cashier and check to make sure the timing will allow us to get through a tour and make the next one in time. She assures us we will be fine. We get our tickets and make our way to the castle inner courtyard which is huge. There are fantastic drain spouts around the upper level. Also on the third level is a frieze but it is only a partial in that it covers one and ¼ walls. The courtyard isn’t too full of people waiting for their tours so we sit and relax for a few minutes until we see a large group of teens heading for the treasury and armory tour so we walk rapidly across the courtyard to beat them into the room. Yes, I admit it; we’d rather not have a bunch of chatty teens trying to do the same tour as we are doing.
The treasury and armory is very nice. There are some lovely gold pieces, some silver pieces, and again the weapons of destruction are remarkable in what people can do to each other. Two pieces in the armory stick out in my mind. One is armor like the one we saw in Gdansk that has feathers attached to the back. I’ve really got to look up and see why that is. The other piece was a tiny cannon mounted on a carriage that could be pulled behind a soldier. Yes, it was a cannon and destructive and capable of maiming or killing someone but immediately I got this picture in my mind of a huge hulking man pulling this tiny little bitty cannon behind him like some kid pulling a toy duck on a string.
The treasury and armory did not take too long so we were in plenty of time to go to the State Apartments for our next tour. On each of these tours we had to put our belonging through a security scan. Good thing I had thought to remove my pocket knife from my purse.
The State Apartments were full of tapestries and paintings and most rooms had a frieze around the ceiling. A lot of the topics were hunting for the friezes. A lot of the tapestries were dedicated to different scenes from the Bible, the most pervasive being scenes from the Great Flood and Noah and his Ark. The nicer tapestries had a great deal of detail in them and expression in the faces. Later we saw some tapestries that had been commissioned or purchased after the war for the reconstruction of the castle and they were not nearly as elaborate, elegant or detailed.
This castle had been destroyed and gutted at different times during its history, by the Swedes during a war, by the Nazis, by neglect. In all cases, the ceilings were usually left alone and didn’t need as much restoration. The ceilings were magnificent. Some had 8 or 9 layers dropping down to create boxes along the ceiling in which were gilt and gold leaf flowers. One room had 30 faces. This was another place where you were not allowed to take photos of the castle inside. I would have loved to photograph these faces as all of them were different, comical, humorous, serious, realistic, interesting, and representing characters possibly based on the people of the time.
We are finally done with the State Apartments and wait for our Royal Apartments tour. This tour is guided so we have to wait until exactly our appointed time and our guide comes. At first we are the only ones but 4 other people join us before we have gotten very far into the castle. She offers us a lot of history of the castle. She explains the difference in the tapestries that are original and the ones that are more recent. She also explains that because much of the treasure and furnishings of the castle have disappeared over the years, the Polish government and people have donated money to purchase furnishings that come up at auctions and private sales throughout Europe. So the Royal Apartments aren’t decorated so much as when the kings lived there but are more representative of the different styles of furnishings and architecture of the times of the kings.
We also got some history of the kings and how they became elected officials from the aristocracy, of which there were a lot in Poland. That explains how Augustus Ii of Dresden was able to come in and get elected king. We’d heard his story in Dresden. At one point they also had an Italian queen who brought a lot of Renaissance style in clothing and furniture and decorations to the Wawel. It was a very nice tour.
At the end, we got some hot dogs for lunch. There came with a bun and were more grilled than boiled so tasty. We now have the Lost Wawel and also the Cathedral for which we need to get additional tickets. Decided that the Cathedral probably was well worth a visit so we went to get tickets. As soon as I had the tickets in my hand, a young man says to me, step to the rear booth. Momentary shades of secret police and such as I couldn’t figure out what I had done to be made to go to the rear of the building. But they were just trying to sell me the audio guided tour. In the end, we got the audio guided tour and it was good at pointing out the main treasures in the cathedral and directing us from place to place to see the main treasures and caskets and monuments to saints and kings.
Our groups of teenagers were in the cathedral by this time and being allowed to take photos but as they are all locals, we obeyed the rules of no photos. We had gotten to the tour point where we were to climb 70 steps to go to the bell tower and see their famous bell when the teenagers started flowing into the small room like a crashing wave. We abandoned the ascent and went to the other chapels instead. We returned to the bell tower later and it is lucky that we had not tried to go up with the teenagers. It was a very narrow set of stairs, very steep, tight turns, and very little room at the top where you could view the bell. Coming down was more difficult because you could smack your head on the lower bell if you weren’t careful.
We now have left the lower crypts and we are there during the teenager invasion so we had to wait for their guide to explain it all to them. Being teenagers, only half of them, if that, were paying attention. They others were sitting on the stairs, lolling on the gates, chatting with each other, taking funny pictures in front of the caskets when they thought no one was looking.
Leaving the cathedral, we make our way over to see the Lost Wawel and alas, it is too late. We have missed it and will never know what was lost and what was found or hope to be found.
Wawel Castle has a dragon history. We have been looking all over the castle for the dragon but it isn’t anywhere. We did hear Prince Krak had killed the dragon finally by feeding it empty cow skins stuffed with sulfur. There is one last chance to find the dragon. There is a cave below the castle called the Dragon’s Den so we made our way to the cave only to see that we needed tickets for it also and needed to purchase them from a machine that accepted coins only. It was only 3 Zlotys each but we didn’t have it and there are only 15 minutes left to get into the den. I ran back to a souvenir shop, bought the cheapest post card I could find and got the required change.
The den’s entrance is down a spiral staircase inside one of the castle wall towers. On reaching the bottom, you are in a large cave. The cave wanders for maybe 100 meters and then you exit be the river. The cave is not so much. It is still a living cave so we water dripped on us several times as we walked through. On exiting, as we climb the steps – there it is! The Dragon! Finally! Huzzah! And as we come up the stairs, it spouts fire! Oh what a lovely dragon. There are dragon toys and statues and medallions everywhere so we were quite thankful to finally find it.
As we left the dragons den, we were attacked, figuratively. We had not even put our feet onto the top step when a young lady approached us to take a tour on the river for ½ hour. She explained what we would see and how nice the weather was and how calm the river was. Sounded like a good thing so we waited for the dragon to spout fire again to get a photo and then followed her to the boat. We were the only customers so we had a boat to ourselves and went downriver for a bit where we saw a lot of kayakers and rowers or people crewing sculls. Then back upstream past the castle to where the tourist balloon rises. Saw the river side of several nice churches along the way. That pretty much ended our touring of Krakow. Once again, not enough time for everything. Too many wonderful things to see and visit. Now on to Warsaw.

another collection

I think I have another photo collection! If you are reading my blogs, you might remember that I am collecting tectonic plates, or rather photos of them and the ability to stand where two or more of them meet. I've done this now in Iceland and in Djibouti. Today in Krakow we visited Wawel Castle and there were some fabulous drain spouts. We already took some drain spout photos in Gdansk. Now we've got some dragon drain spouts from Krakow. I have drain spout photos from other cities so I think I've got another photo collection going! Love it! I also have a door photo collection. Many doors in middle eastern countries are gorgeous so I take photos of them. Now the drain spouts. ohhhh, just wonderful.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Our second tour of the day. The pickup was at 4 p.m. and our van was prompt and it was a much roomier van so our knees weren’t squashed like the van in the morning. The drive shorter too. We got to the Wieliczka Salt Mine and waited while our tour leader got our tickets and waited for the English speaking guide. We had a chance to use the toilets which were free. While I wasn’t in need of a toilet at the moment, I visited anyway just to see a free toilet in Poland as usually they cost something.
Our group heads into the mine. Right away it is to be 375 (or thereabouts) steps down into the mine. One nice lady, Muriel, from Cape Town, South Africa, was already walking with a cane. She thought she could do it but the guide was pressing her to take the life down to meet the group because she said they would be walking down the steps quickly and had to keep pace. Muriel was not happy about going down in the lift by herself but her companion did not want to use the lift. As my knees are never totally thrilled about steps, I said I would go down in the lift with her. The rest of the group disappeared and we walked to the lift. The lift is a small metal rattle trap. More about it later. We were down quickly though and sitting on a bench having a nice chat when the rest of the group appeared.
The Wieliczka Salt Mine has been in operation for hundreds of years but due to a flooding on one of the lower levels in the 1990’s, its license to mine was revoked and now it is just one of Poland’s biggest tourist draws. It’s really quite worth a look too. The mine has 300 kilometers of tunnels in 9 different levels and 200 rooms cut into the rock salt. The tour only visits 3 levels, 3 kilometers of tunnels and 20 rooms, just 1% of what is there. Wouldn’t it be cool to go down to the deepest level? Maybe some day.
As it is now, it is still a remarkable place. The entrance tunnels have all been shored up by wooden logs so that you don’t really see any salt for a bit. But you finally get into rooms where there are wonderful carvings from the salt. It is rock salt and so not white like you would expect but in the dim lights from the mine, seems green or black sometimes. We saw a salt carving of Nicolas Copernicus, their Kind Wieliczka for whom the mine is named, several rooms containing carvings of workers performing various mine tasks, (one of which was burning off the methane gas seepage along the ceilings of the rooms), and several chapels with both rock salt carvings and wooden carvings.
One of their main chapels is incredible in that the walls are all carved with scenes and stories from the Bible such as the Last Supper, the Nativity, Angels, and more plus a large carving of Pope John Paul II who visited the mine before he was pope and was coming back but became ill and died before he could.
The mine tour takes a couple of hours and it’s walking down steps to the various levels BUT you get to ride the lift up after you reach 165 meters below the surface of the earth. At that level you are still above sea level because the mine is in the mountains. We were at the 165 meter level when my cell phone rang! Wow, didn’t expect that. I can hardly get a signal in the hotel sometimes but 165 meters below ground and someone calls me. Amazing.
Finally at the end and we are going to take the lift back to the surface. Our guide said that it is a multi lift meaning there are 4 cages on top of each other. 9 people fit into each cage then the lift moves up for the next 9 people until all cages are full. The lift then takes 45 seconds to get to the top but the first cage goes past the landing so that the bottom cage is unloaded first. People into the first cage are unlucky in that they are first in and last out. Our cage had 9 people, two of which were large people. We had to squeeze to get the doors shut and before that happen, a mine official got in with us so we are ten in the cage, squeezed so that we cannot move, and have to wait for 2 more cars to load before we go up. Then the tiny metal doors have to come in again for us to unload. The rather large man had to lean on me for the doors to open, I had to lean on my husband, and he was pressed against the metal cage. Wasn’t the best elevator ride ever but was exciting as the cages bounced and hopped on their way to the top.
Our guide said that the number of visitors they are having has diminished greatly this year and last. This mine has been one of Poland’s greatest draws for tourism for years. We didn’t even know about it until talking to some people in the train. I hope that any guide books leaving it out will put it back in because while it is very touristy and almost tourist trap-y like, it is still quite an interesting place and we enjoyed the visit a lot. Don’t get to go into mines that often.

Oswiecim

The Polish name of the town and the camp synonymous with fear and also known as Auschwitz. Today we visited here. A good part of the camp was destroyed after the war but a good part of it has also been reconstructed or revitalized or revamped for it is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and also a big tourist draw for Poland. I wanted to visit because I am a believer in knowing the history that has come before so that we don’t make the same mistakes. I also like WWII history. Knew it would be a sobering visit as it is not a place to go lighthearted and gay. But as so much has already been written about Auschwitz and WWII, I’ll just keep my blog more on the actual visit itself rather than history and information on the camps.
The set up is so completely “get them through, give them the info, and get them back on the bus” that at times it was hard to get a feel for the enormity of the crimes committed here. Groups are passing through the blocks steadily and each person has a set of headphones and a receiver set on the channel of their guide. Otherwise it would be a cacophony of incomprehensible sound as guides would try to shout over each other. This part is actually pretty good though as you can lag a tiny bit behind for a photo and not miss any of the information being imparted.
We passed through the infamous gates with the slogan “Albeit Mach Frei” which I had always been told that it meant “work makes free” but our guide translated as “work makes freedom”. Passing into the actual camp means under this slogan, past electrified barbed wire fences, two of them with several feet between. I could picture patrolling guards and dogs between these two fences.
It seems like all the blocks in Auschwitz are still standing. This was Auschwitz I and it is not that large of a place. We walked through the whole of the camp and entered 4 of the blocks to view the exhibitions on display. Often the exhibitions are just photographs taken of prisoners or of a free people being herded into the camp to die and away from their lives. One building had piles of possessions taken from the Jewish people who arrived at the camp. Piles of shoes, suitcases, clothes, hair, combs, hairbrushes, shaving brushes.
A visit to Block 11, the death block. Block 10 next to it had boarded up windows so they could not see the executions by firing squad in the yard next to them. I’m sure they could hear it. Block 11 had chambers in the basement where people were starved to death, asphyxiated, or died of exhaustion from being forced to stand in a small cell with others for days on end.
As we walk out of the camp, we pass into the area where the gas chamber was and the crematorium. These have been reconstructed but even if they are not the original item and weren’t used, they are on the location and made from the original materials and chilling to enter and see.
The whole visit takes about 1 hour 40 minutes or so and I think that is due to having to wait for other groups to get out of the way. Were I able to visit on my own, I think it would take more time because the meaning of the blocks and photographs and piles of possessions and barbed wire fences would have more time to sink under my skin and mean more. My husband thought the guide sounded bored but I’m not sure how a guide could be enthusiastic about such a place.
After Auschwitz I, we are taken a few kilometers away to Auschwitz II or Birkenau. It is so much larger. We got a very short tour here. We could see other tours moving towards the forest where the crematoriums used to stand and groups going to the end of the barracks but we just went into two in order to see the rows of bunks where prisoners slept. We stood at the fence to see the field of chimneys where each two represented another barrack. We stood at the railway lines where trains passed into the camp bringing loads of desperate doomed people.
I’m glad we went. It’s hard to know what to think and feel about the concentration camps without seeing at least one. It’s hard to describe as well and I don’t think I’m doing a very good job but that’s about as much as I want to say about it now.

apologies for delays

yesterday I was unable to post anything because we did two tours. One was to Oswiecim or Auschwitz and then in the afternoon went to the salt mine. As we got back rather late, still had dinner to eat and then some business to attend to regarding a house we are hoping to purchase, just couldn't get back to the Internet in time to add anything. I will keep up the "daily" blogs but on occasion, they won't be posted every day. Several then might be posted at once. I expect that once I am in Uzbekistan and then the Ukraine, I may not have Internet access every day. might surprise me and might have it but I'm thinking more along the lines as major cities only and then depends on where the tour stays the night. So haven't deserted my posting. thanks for reading.

Wandering through Krakow

Very late start today as we had to pursue a printer, scanner, and post office in order to accomplish some business back in the states. Took us a couple of hours to download and print our documents, locate a 24 hour post office but turns out they don’t do express mail, so then back to the internet place to scan the documents and email them. Not bad for a couple of hours since that really meant we had to go back and forth between the internet, the tourist office, and find kind people who spoke English at the post office.
After all that though, we went to one of the electric carts and choose a tour. They do a timed basis so you can get to see the Old City for ½ hour and then start adding bits. You can add the Jewish Quarter, the Ghetto, a drive by the Wawel Castle, and a drive by Schindler’s factory. For even another ½ hours time, they will let you out for one of the stops and you can go inside. We did the drive by everything and will then decide what to go back to visit for longer periods of time.
These tours are not a bad introduction to the city and give you a good idea where everything is and how to get back to some of the places. We enjoyed it but it had promised to be a warm day so we’d left without our jackets. Would have been fine except these little electric cars can go fast enough to create a breeze. By the time we were finished, we were chilly so back to the hotel to get our jackets which we then did not need again the entire day.
A stop for lunch at one of the many kebab places. It is really more of a schwarma, or a gyro, or a donner, depending on which culture you learned it. Got a good helping of vegetables in it as well. It’s one of those sandwiches where you have to eat the first half out of your pita with a fork because there is no way you can open your mouth wide enough. We sat in the smaller square to eat our sandwiches and there was a transportation exhibit there. A bus, a tram, an old bus. Kids were all over the place climbing into the buses to sit in the driver’s seats. There were also a group of people talking photos (isn’t there always in a tourist location?). These people were probably students as they had various lighting devices and seemed to spend their time wandering around the square taking photos of each other by holding up their devices.
Finally we are ready to go into something, anything. Closest thing to visit at this point is St. Mary’s Church. While it is Sunday, the services have been completed so we go to the visitors entrance on the side and pay our admit fee plus a camera fee. It was beautiful inside as are so many churches. Without being allowed to use a tripod or flash though, it is always difficult to get wonderful photos with just a small point and shoot but I do try.
Coming out of St. Mary’s we walk to the Barbican which once was the gateway into the city and had a moat around it, drawbridge, more than one hundred arrow ports, plus the ability to drop boiling water or oil on anyone managing to get across the moat. It sits outside one of the three remaining city gates. Nowadays it is used mostly as a theatre for different events but you can still go inside and walk the walls. For a pretty small place, it did its job and managed to keep the city safe for many years.
Walk back through the city and down the royal street where the kings walked when they were going to Wawel Castle to be crowned and where they were taken when they left the castle after death. Along this street are many small squares and cafes and churches. Interestingly, there is an art exhibit in one square put up by one man who felt Leonardo de Vinci’s painting of A Lady with an ermine was not getting the proper respect and attention that it deserved. So he covered the square with small ermine statues. The kids love it.
Ended up down the road at the Wawel Castle. Our driver had warned us that we need to allow 3 or 4 hours at least to see all of Wawel Castle so we just did a walk around. It overlooks the longest river in Poland which starts in Slovakia and ends up in Gdansk into the Baltic Sea (Sea of Gdansk really). As it was Sunday, there were many locals enjoying a walk around the castle as well.
Lovely day all around. Krakow is a delightful, lovely, friendly city.

One should be careful

when one makes vows. I should have checked the map more closely or been better at geography. Knew that I would be making some side trips and sometimes moving up, down, back, forth. So what should my blog have been? "Trip in which I vow to Mainly fly East", or "Trip in which I vow to Sometimes" fly East", or "Trip in which I vow to Move in a basically Easterly Direction". Or perhaps "Trip in which I vow to "go in any direction but at the end will have moved eastward around the world". Very hard to say what would have been the more catchy title. Needless to say, I am moving in all directions. Today we went southeast and then back towards the west to end up in Krakow. But it was by train so maybe it doesn't count as not closely following the vow. Can't use that excuse later when I move totally west to get to Prague and then south to get to Venice. Then I use Istanbul several times as a base to go East to Uzbekistan and then west back to Istanbul then a different direction to get the Ukraine and then back to Istanbul. After that though, it's pretty much east, well, mainly east, well, still a couple of backtracks as I don't have the entire thing finished yet. In the end though, I will have circumnavigated the globe and that was the original intent. OH, how about "trip in which I vow to circumnavigate the globe". That would have been best.

Soporific Sopot

Have spent every day of our vacation running about seeing monuments and museums and building styles and churches and old towns. Today is our last day beside the seashore before a 7 ½ hour train ride to Krakow. We thought to take it easy today. Slept late, went to a wonderfully chocolate restaurant for breakfast, determined from the hotel staff that there is no such thing as a coin Laundromat in Poland, and determined to just spend a lazy day by the seashore.
The weather today is great. Not too cold if you are in the sun. We checked our email messages last night and discovered that we might have purchased a house in Florida, if we can get all the paperwork and such done long distance. As we have done this before, shouldn’t be a problem. Just getting all our ducks in a row and going to whatever U.S. Embassy might be close enough to sign documents.
So out into the sun and down to the pier. The pier here is quite famous. It is 500 meters long and has had a checkered history. It survived two World Wars and also survived misguided intentions to just pull it all down. Now it is being revived again with a marina scheduled to open next to it in a couple of years. For now, locals and tourists like to spend time walking along it and sitting on the benches and taking in some sun. it’s just a lovely pier. There is a side pier that is gone and only the pilings are left. Cormorants and seagulls and mallard ducks make this their resting place as they dry their wings and contemplate feathers before jumping in the water again for another snack of fish. A few brave men jump in the water and swim around before hauling out and acting as if they are not at all cold. Some Poles sunbathe as it will not be long before the weather is too cold to sit outside in your swimsuit.
After walking off the pier, we go for a walk on the beach. The beach extends for miles in either direction. I would imagine it might be possible to walk to Gdansk down the beach and Gdynia up the beach. People stop and gather sea shells although there are precious little offerings in this area. A few families have their children stripped to the diapers and the young toddlers play in the sand and want to get buried like big brother. There are sailboats on the horizon and an occasional wind surfer but not a lot of wind today so they are moving quite slowly through the waves. An eyrar of swans guard the shore in one area and are quite miffed that we passed without an offering of bread. Several people stride along the shore close to the water with walking poles. Hubby thinks they are cross country skiers practicing. As some of these people are quite old, I am not sure. More power to them. We sit at a café on the beach and have a drink. As the sun goes lower, the breeze picks up and it gets chilly. We choose to walk back to town along the bike/walking trail that runs next to the beach.
As we walk along, we pass some magnificent old houses. Sopot was once and might still be a lovely seaside resort for Poles with money. Some of the other old houses have turned into museums and bed and breakfast places. We pass a “lody” place. We know that this means ice cream so get a soft serve cone. Hubby has a cappuccino as he is cold now from being out of the sun. As we get closer to town, we pass a man selling smoked barbequed cheese. It is delicious. What a treat. We thought at first that it was covered in something but it is nothing but the cheese. It is so fresh that it squeaks when we chew it.
Back to the hotel to get our jackets before venturing out for dinner and an evening promenade. What a lovely easy place.

Deliciously Decadent Drink

I am not a hot chocolate drinker. Maybe one or two Swiss Miss packets in a 2 or 3 year period is about enough for me and then I need enough marshmallows to totally take over the chocolate. So a couple of years ago (already!), traveling in Croatia, one of the other tourists (Thank you Heather!), got a cup of hot chocolate at a roadside restaurant. I was intrigued to see that it came very thick, almost as thick as chocolate pudding. I tasted hers and it was like chocolate pudding! As the drink cooled, it got thicker and thicker. They bring a spoon along with it so that you can finish it to the bottom of the glass. Yum!
Yesterday we are walking up the square in Sopot, Poland and I notice people sitting in a café with cups of what looks like this same chocolate. Oh heaven. This morning we headed directly to this café to check it out and to share with my hubby what a wonderful delicious thing this is.
While the Polish drink is not quite as decadent as that which I had in Croatia, it comes with so many more choices! You could get chocolate with coffee, with raspberries, with whiskey, Contreau, orange, strawberries, milk or dark, white chocolate, and on and on. Oh the menu made one drool. My husband got a classic. I went for the white chocolate with raspberries. Deliciously decadent. How do these people manage to go to work each day? Just sit in the café and have one delightful flavor of chocolate after another. Swiss Miss has been relegated to the back pantry, possibly forever.

Gdansk revisited

Back to Gdansk today to see if we can get into some of the museums that we missed yesterday because everything is closing early these days. Tourist season officially must be over but there are still plenty of tourists around the area. We are now almost experts on moving about on the trams so got to the main tourist street quite quickly. The amber museum was still not open. It is housed in the old prison and torture cells but while the sign outside shows lots of things to see inside, there was no entrance gate or ticket seller.
As we are walking into the old town on the pedestrian area, a young tourist guide approaches us. She gives tours in an electric car for ½ hour, an hour, or 1 ½ hour which includes going up to an overlook of the city. As I always go UP, it sounded like a good deal plus we had been looking for a guide yesterday and just couldn’t find any in English. We hope into her little electric golf cart vehicle and she plays an explanation of each of the historical buildings from mpg files on her cell phone. Sure can’t get my cell phone to do anything like that. We had already seen a lot of the things she took us around to see but she also gave us information that we had not had yesterday and showed us some new areas that we had missed. It was a good little tour.
She had told us a good place to eat baked potatoes too. We headed for that. On the way though we passed the Uphagen House which has furniture from the period when it was a viable house. It was open so we ducked into it and got a free ride with our tourist passes. The top floor had some paintings that were enjoyable. The next floors had furniture from the period including some wonderful old ceramic tile stoves from floor to ceiling. We even got into the kitchen. Usually you don’t get to see the kitchen.
Back on track to go get baked potatoes. I had a Mexican and hubby had a cheese. They were quite tasty. Not exactly Mexican like I know Mexican but it was very good.
Finally we got into Arthur’s Court or Artus Court which was a gentlemen’s club basically. It was inspired by the Knights of the Round Table so a lot of the decorations were related to that era but also plenty of hanging ship models as most of the men of that time made their money through shipping. It was quite an interesting place. And for once, I was allowed to take photos. Took a lot of photos.
Things close up in a hurry so that was the last museum we were able to visit. Next was the shopping part of the tour. Mary’s street, or St. Mary’s street, wasn’t sure which, is behind St. Mary’s church and has a ton of amber shops. I found a cute little necklace with a cat pendant where the head is a piece of green amber. Hubby found an amber elephant which was a bit pricier than he desired but he hardly ever finds anything for a souvenir so it is going home with us.
Wandering and wandering back around the town, through the market to pick up some food for the train trip on Saturday and back to Sopot and the hotel. Tomorrow it will definitely be ocean viewing and pier walking.

Doughnuts, Waffles, and Bread, Oh My!

We have observed a phenomenon across several countries now. Doughnuts are not breakfast food any more in much of Asia. We’re used to Dunkin’ Donuts being open by 6:30 or 7 in the morning so you can stop on your way to work and pick up coffee and doughnuts, either just for yourself or for everyone. If you are traveling, you stop at a waffle house for breakfast.
We learned when we were living in Korea that Dunkin’ Donuts never even opened until 10 or 11 and it’s busiest time of day was afternoon to early evening. Donuts and coffee are the new “tea and cake” in the afternoon snack. Gofry (pronounced Gofree, I think) are waffles in Poland. We had seen several restaurants yesterday serving them in the early evening. Mistakenly I wanted some for breakfast. Not to be. Couldn’t find a single place open in the morning that was serving gofry. Funnily enough, I could find places to get ice cream in the morning, a nice ice cream soft serve or a regular cone. Later in the morning though the gofry places started opening up. A waffle all by itself is rather inexpensive, about $1. But you have to add the whipped cream and fruit to make it especially delicious. Gonna have another one tomorrow

Gdansk is gnice

Touring Gdansk today. Didn’t get an early start as we were tired from all the traveling yesterday (what is it about traveling that wears you out when you are just sitting all day anyway). We wandered to the train station and got our tickets into Gdansk and found our way to the post office there as we had to pick up our tickets for our onward journey. That was harder, finding the post office, but we managed it.
We have the Poland Eyewitness Travel book so we are following it to find the sights. First we see several churches that are all impressive. Then it was time for a break with waffles! But we really wanted to see the wooden crane that was capable of lifting 4 tones during it’s time. We get to the water and zero in on it and go for a look. It is really awesome. The crane was run by men walking on the great wheels to turn the cranks and raise the load. We were able to go into the crane as it is also a maritime museum. I wanted hubby to get into the wheels for a photo but when he started to get in, the wheel moved. As we didn’t want to damage anything, he didn’t get it. Drat. I’m sure other tourists have done it but oh well. It was still an awesome crane.
After we left, our posse found us! These were the well meaning and kind ladies from yesterday who made sure we were on the right bus and right train in order to get to Gdansk. They were touring around and heading for a boat that would take them around the harbor. They wanted us to come along but unfortunately, the tour was just in German so we might have seen the sights but wouldn’t have understood anything. Not as much fun. Been there and done that already in other German speaking towns.
Had some pierogi for lunch. It was good but very reminiscent of Korean dumplings. Continued following the map and book to get to the main tourist street, Dlugi Targ. The houses along this street are gorgeously decorated. Just beautiful. However since we started rather late and had to go after the train tickets, the museums were closing. We’ll have to hit them another day. Made a dodge over to St. Mary’s and climbed the tower which pretty much wiped us out.
It was a very good day in a lovely city.

Go Up, tourist, Go Up

I have always maintained that some of the best things to see when touring are up. You go up the hill, you climb the wall, you climb the tower, walk up the castle, up minarets, up lighthouses, go to the top of the city, the top of the tower, whatever it is, you go up. So far, I’ve never been wrong in that the panoramic views, the scenes of grandeur are always up. Don’t get me wrong as I often believe you have to go down also, crypts, basements, catacombs but that’s specific and you aren’t getting views.
So today in Gdansk we found that you can climb the tower of St. Mary’s. Usually my hubby does not accompany me on these jaunts up to wherever, content to see the photos when I come down. But for some reason, he decided to go along today, maybe because the climb up the Protestant Church in Potsdam was very easy so he figured he missed that one so he’ll go along.
We start the tower climb by going up spiral stairs. Someone has very kindly indicated where you are in the climb – 10 steps, 20, 30, etc. It was around 110 up the spiral stairs. That was not the end though. Now we climb around the room where the bells are housed. We worry that they might be rung while we are there but they are not. Now we are over 200 steps. We didn’t think to ask how many steps it was but we can’t quit now. Finally we get up where we can see sunlight streaming down the last small flight of steps. It’s 400 steps in total.
The view is great. We can see down the streets of Gdansk and out to sea and through the harbors and the boats and the lovely houses with their steep roofs hidden behind facades. Each corner of the small viewing platform has a metal flag as well with a date. Some important dates to the church I’m sure but we didn’t find a reference to them anywhere.
Always good to go up but that means you have to go down too. Again, because of some kind soul, we knew we had 400 steps to go. At the end, we both had jelly legs, sore knees and hips. I will continue to go up until I am unable to do so anymore. My hubby might pass the next one.