Blogs from Kraków, Lesser Poland, Poland, Europe - page 7

Hello from Kraków! This summer's Summers family holiday is around central and Eastern Europe. First stop Poland, then Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic and France. Kraków (pronounced crack-orf as we learned from the Christophe, the bouncer-sized taxi driver) is Poland's second biggest city and has a long and varied history. From beautiful medieval castle to ugly communist-era tower blocks. We got here late Saturday afternoon and wandered around the old town for a while before the jet lag hit. Today, Sunday, was a slow start but we spent much of the day around Wawel castle and cathedral. Stunning architecture that is nothing we could ever see in the U.S. and a great reason to travel. The weather was warm but thankfully the clouds kept things getting too hot. The forecast ahead is much hotter and I have ... read more

A joke from the Eastern European Yiddish pre-war repertoire: Question: Why is it that when all the other peoples of the world make a toast, they say, "To your health" but the Jews say, "L'chaim - To life"? Answer: First let us live, then we'll worry about our health. While I get this joke, I have tended to disagree with its negative spin on the origins of "to life." I don't want to take it too literally, and I want to emphasize instead the way Judaism insists on the gift, sanctity and blessing of life. Do we not find, after all, as far back as the book of Deuteronomy (30:19) the famous injunction by God to the Israelites to choose blessing over curse, and to embrace life? We are commanded to break any Sabbath restriction to ... read more

Yesterday was a big day. Our Polish cousin Artek (Arthur) met us at the hotel and took us by car to spend time with the family. My father had been with them already on three earlier trips to Poland; my brother and mother had also met them on trips to Poland and on visits that some of them have made to the States. I have vague recollections of my grandmother's older sister Bella from her one visit to New York when I was a child and another of her daughter Irene when she came to the U.S. when I was a teenager. I had never, however, met her children and grandchildren. But despite having never met them until yesterday this remnant of my grandmother's family was familiar to me because of the stories shared about them, ... read more

A long day on the coach coming up, and we get to be in the jump seat today, right behind the driver. Luckily our new driver, Alex is much better than our previous Italian friend. Bags out on time, and we have a relaxed breakfast. On the coach and away we go. Not too long into the trip and there is an accident on the other side of the road - minor prang. Next thing we see is over a 5 km traffic jam - lucky us.... We hear all,about our next country, Slovakia from our tour director (did I mention her name yet, just in case it is Kari Anne - as she says remember your carry on luggage and she is happy - I just go by Kerry-Anne Kennell to remember). She is Norwegian ... read more

Monday 13 July: After breakfast Heather and Zachary Skyped with Zeetra, Natasha, Erika, Alex, and Abi in Tokoroa. There were some issues getting the video link from their end going but it was good to be able to talk to them. After that we packed and had a bit of quiet time before dropping our luggage in the storage room and heading into town. I went to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. This was quite good. It is a small museum that documents the occupation of Latvia by the Soviets, the Nazis, and then the Soviets again. There wasn’t much on the latter part though. Latvia certainly had a trying time on the 20th century and they really had a bad time of it in WW2. Heather and Zachary meantime went to a local ... read more