Kolobrzeg and its surroundings

---

Celebrating Roland's 60th birthday

We still have one more blog entry to make from this last summer. In August we went to Poland with all of Emma's family to celebrate Roland's, that is Emma's father, 60th birthday. On this trip we were a total of 9 people - Emma and Ake, Emma's parents Inger and Roland, Emma's youngest sister Anna, Emma's other younger sister Ida with her boyfriend Mattias and finally Ida's and Mattias' two daughters Jonna and Julia.

We were away for one week and most of the time we spent in a seaside resort named Kolobrzeg in the northwest corner of Poland. Since this was a family trip rather than a sightseeing trip we spent much more time relaxing and far less time sightseeing that we normally do. That's the reason why this blog entry is shorter than most other blog entries we publish.

The things we did worth mentioning here were the following:

We visited Koszalin one day mainly for the reason of shopping.

Ake and Mattias went to Międzyzdroje and visited the remains of a V-3 cannon from World War II.

While Ake and Mattias were away to look at 60 year old weapons the rest went to a zoo cum amusement park in Kolobrzeg.

The V-3 cannon was a weapon developed by the Germans with the purpose of raining bombs over United Kingdom. During the war the Germans mainly used the V-1 and V-2 rockets to put fear in the British. The V-3 cannon used another technology which allowed the Germans to shoot a much higher number of projectiles towards the British mainland. In Międzyzdroje in Poland the Germans had a research facility where they developed the technology used in the cannon. The Germans had the intension of building a large number of V-3 cannons in Mimoyecques in France. In reality only a handful were ever erected and they were barely put into use before British Air Force bombed the site and made the cannons useless.

In Międzyzdroje today there is a small museum and some concrete blocks that used to be fundaments to the cannons.

Kolobrzeg is in a district named West Pomeranian. The largest city in West Pomeranian is called Szczecin. Try to say that 10 times fast...

---

Photos

The beach in the morning
On this beach we spent some time when we were in Kolobrzeg

The beach in daytime
In daytime you can't see the beach for all the people

Be careful to you don't destroy the train?
It seems to us like the warning sign tells you not to hit the train like the train was more likely to get destroyed than the car

Warning for girls carrying lollipops
The photo is not good but the sign is still funny

St Gertrud's gothic chapel
St Gertrud's gothic chapel was built in 1383

Roland in Poland
Here is Roland, Emma's father.

Julia
Ida's and Mattias' daughter Julia

Jonna
Ida's and Mattias' daughter Jonna

A bunker at Międzyzdroje
In this bunker there is today a small museum

Sketch of the V-3 cannon
At Międzyzdroje the Germans built three V-3 cannons. Here is a sketch of all three

V-3 cannon
A photo of one of the original V-3 cannons

V-3 cannon today
There is not much left of the V-3 cannons today.

V-3 cannon today
The V-3 cannon was a weapon developed by the Germans with the purpose of raining bombs over United Kingdom