Blogs from Katowice, Silesia, Poland, Europe

Comme nous n'avons que peu de route à faire aujourd'hui, à peu près 131 km, je prendrai quelques photos en chemin et lors d'un petit arrêt où les clochers vus de loin sur la route ont attiré notre attention. La boutique photographiée vous montre que tout n'est pas encore très moderne ici... ce genre de boutique se voit partout... Par contre, Auchan, Intermarché et évidemment Carrefour se trouvent dans les zones entourant les villes. Nous ne sommes pas encore entrés dans un Auchan, les deux autres oui mais nous ne nous promettons pas d'y retourner... Intermarché vraiment pas propre du tout... Carrefour n'a pas du bon pain... et finalement la visite d'un petit super-marché du pays, représenté par une petite coccinelle et qui s'appelle Biedronka, propre, assez bien achalandé mais ressemblant un peu a Aldi. Hier ... read more

Where to start?? Maybe with how this trip came about and where we're going.... Today at 3:00 pm, we leave on a trip back in time to be in the places where my father and his family lived, and for many of them, died. Most of the next 11 days will be spent with a planned tour organized by the "Zaglembie World Organization. Zaglembie is the term used for the area of Poland that included the towns of Bedzin, Sosnowiec, Zawiercie, Dabrowa Gornicza, Wolbrum, Czeladz, and the region towns) The visit is a getting together of all generations of Zaglembie survivors who live in Israel and those who live abroad. We shall be 3 full days in Zaglembie, the birth place of our ancestors. Our group will be a special International Delegation to commemorate the very ... read more

Poland will be our final destination for our motorbike tour this summer. But today was another step in the planning stages. Purchased Adventure Motorcycling Handbook by Chris Scott Worldwide Motorcycling Route & Planning Guide or so the blurb on the front cover says. Hopefully we will find some helpful hints in there.... read more

Sorry for the lateness of this blog entry, although I guess alot of you in the northern hemisphere are on holiday anyway. We have been very busy here in Poland. But before that, Thailand. Once again it managed to deliver. We visited Chang MAi in the North, Train there and Plane back. We managed to do a fly by wire in the jungle. The largest of which was 150m high and 300m long. A kind of flying fox for adults in the tree tops. Bangkok was busy with plenty of shopping and the last day spent at a spa . A full body massage, manicure, facial etc. Very nice!!! The other 3 weeks were spent on a Island 3 hrs towards Cambodia from Bangkok, called KOh Samet. I managed a jet ski and we went on ... read more

The first thing we do when we land in a new place is to get a street map and try to get ourselves oriented on it. This involves walking around quite a bit to see what's nearby in every direction from our hotel. So far, in Katowice we have seen lots of apartment buildings, one university, a few churches and some shops and restaurants. This place is not geared toward the tourist and so it doesn't have the pizzazz that can be found elsewhere. It's kinda of refreshing actually. Still, Katowice gives us an idea of what urban Poland can normally look like. A few interesting things have struck our eyes. One is that the fashions here are a bit more of a mish-mash than what we saw in Paris. At least some of the folks ... read more