More Pictures July 2010 Poland

Random Pictures of Poland, July 2010

Palace stairway, Archives with Michal, country "bar" restaurant, cemetery, typical bathroom which is either called a water closet (WC) or Toilet.

Reconnect with Peggy In Radom, Poland

Pictures top to bottom, l to r: On the way to Radom, we visited where Chopin was born. This is the front of the museum which is on the grounds of the estate where his family lived with the estate owners. 2. Me in the drawing room of the palace with a bust of Napoleon. A typical old building with a thatched roof. My room in Turec. The huge building is of one of the top ten largest sanctuaries in the world that was modeled after the vatican. It is on several acres of land with gardens, paths, ponds, bible verses, etc. where people can come to pray and meditate. I am standing in front of the palace where I spent the night in a room that was at least 20 feet wide and 50 feet long. The night before, my room in Turek was about 8 by 8 and the mattress was only about 3 inches thick. I felt a bit like Nelson Mandela (certainly not close to as bad) when he was in prison. I just wanted to fall asleep as fast as I could so I could wake up the next morning and get out of that room.

Michal wanted to surprise me the next night with the stay at the palace. It is owned by the government now but was once a lavish estate. Napoleon visited this estate in Walewice and fell in love with the countess Walewska and had a son together. Their son became a minister of affairs in the middle of the 19th century in France. We had a tour of the palace and saw the quarters where Napoleon stayed when he visited.

On our way to Radom to meet Peggy at the train station, we stopped in the village where Chopin was born. Michal said that lots of people from Japan visit this village because they love Chopin.

We picked up Peggy in Radom and then drove to the small tourist town of
Kazimierz Dolny whicgh is on the Vistula river. This river reminds me of the Mississippi. The town is so nice. It reminds me of the small tourist towns along Lake Michigan except that there are old historic buildings built in the 16th century. We ate dinner in a lovely restaurant with lots of charm and ambiance. We stayed there for several hours, drank several beers, had some shots of cherry vodka, but were back to the Inn and in bed by midnight. It was fun to just relax, laugh, and have fun.

Peggy's three days in Krakow sounded spectactular. She went to the salt mines that I knew nothing about. Had to descend 800 steps but it is a huge area-masses, weddings, etc. take place in the salt mines. It would be worth a google image search. She also went to Auschtwitz which she said was a sobering experience. There were glassed-off rooms filled with the hair from the prisoners, a room filled with their suitcases, and a room filled with the empty cans of the poisons used to kill the prisoners Michal informed us that many Poish people were also murdered along with the Jews. Peggy walked through the actual gas chamber. There have been times when I get discouraged with pour American government but this experience has really opened my eyes to how really lucky we are for all of our blessings.

July 28-Peggy and Michal are on a walking tour while I am updating the blog. This afternoon we will drive about an hour to Warsaw, spend the night, and the morning of the 29th we fly to Lviv, Ukraine. I expect that this segment of our journey will be the most eye-opening since Ukraine is a much poorer county. We will have a five hour bus trip to Luts'k-I am praying for air conditioning but am not expecting it. This trip should be good for the soul. I am going to post more random pictures on another post.

On Aug. 1 we fly to Munich. I don't know if we will have internet and computer access in the Ukraine so I am not sure when I will be able to blog again. I like your comments. Thanks for reading!

Sandy