Blogs from Poland, Europe - page 13

Bonjour à tous, Heureux d’avoir entendu la Marseillaise. Celui que je félicite le plus c’est Deschamps, pour avoir su gérer cette bande de footeux, souvent à grosses têtes. Celui qui va en tirer le plus profit, c’est Macron. Et il a déjà bien commencé. Pour le reste je pense qu’on est dans un délire total. Je me calme. Je quitte ce matin Vilnius où j’aurais passé presque 3 belles journées. A 8h30 le temps est très incertain, les 22º sont très agréables. Je fait une trentaine de km lorsque je vais avoir 2 surprises. Dans ces pays aux noms compliqués, pour nous, je gère ma route avec le gps, et beaucoup moins avec ma carte. Ce matin, je me croyais sur une route, alors que j’étais sur une autre, sur l’autoroute qui n‘est pas finie. Je ... read more

World War II and shipping history to be precise. We’ve spent the last couple of days in Gdansk with Aidan and Nicholas and had a very interesting time. Although there is only so much of the grim realities of war that you can inflict on 11 and 12 year olds. So we skipped a bit and finished with a couple of real tanks, a US one and a Russian one. The Museum we visited is the very new (opened last year) impressive Museum of WWII. The architecture is stunning with a large central glass and steel structure with a long low building following an actual street that was destroyed. The section for children is very well done following the fortunes of two children living in an apartment and showing what happened within and, using video projection ... read more

This years anniversary break was always going to be problematic. ? We believed that James was still going to be in the midst of his GCSE's and the week was oversubscribed at work so we were limited in what we could do. The initial plan was to stay in the UK and began looking at Kent and North Wales. Amazingly everything we looked at was either booked up or very expensive so back to the drawing board then. ? Next thought was to check the departure boards at East Midlands Airport for inspiration. Lodz leapt out at us - somewhere we haven't even heard of but we knew we liked Poland from previous visits. The Lodz flight was approx £30 so all good, until we realised there was a flight going to Warsaw at the same ... read more

We have been in Kunowice for a few days now enjoying the hospitality of Agata’s parents Ella and Ziebie. Agata, Sean, Aidan, Nicholas and Alexander are in their new house just along the road. The setting is absolutely beautiful overlooking a tranquil, small lake teaming with birdlife and I understand fish. Alexander likes fishing with Ziebie. When Ella and Ziebie first arrived they never realised the lake was there as it was surrounded with lots of old trees. They cleared the surrounds and replaced the old trees with new ones which by law you have to do. We realised they have already visited NZ as on the wall is a carving of a New Zealand tiki. There is a resident stork which, if you are quiet you can sometimes catch wading in the reeds. It spends ... read more

Friday, 15th June 2018 From Krakow, we took a 2-hour bus ride to the Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps and arrived in good time for our admission. There was no cost to enter the premises as long as we had a reserved ticket. When we visited, there were plenty of free shuttle buses which could bring us to the Birkenau Camp in the afternoon. Auschwitz functioned as a work camp that housed mainly Jewish and some Polish prisoners in the Second World War. There were rows and rows of red-brick buildings that doubled up as sleeping barracks for the prisoners and offices for the SS Officers. In my opinion, our visit wasn't as overwhelming as expected since we had visited the Dachau Concentration Camp the year before. Nevertheless, the exhibits were chilling to a certain extent. ... read more