Hi, All. Gayle here.
Tony didn't have a chance to update last night, but hopes he has time tonight. In the meantime, I talked with him this morning, and here are a few things he said.
--Yesterday, they visited Nazi concentration camp Gross-Rosen. It was a forced labor camp at a granite quarry. So while there weren't mass executions, the life span of most people was a month or two. They died either from hard work and/or starvation. The visit was quite sobering. This was part of a chain of over 100 camps in southwest Poland that included Auschwitz.
--On a brighter note, they also visited a pottery factory. Polish pottery is a big thing in southwestern Poland.
--Today, Friday, they are touring Wroclaw. The city has a very rich history. It has changed hands many times, it has been part of the Czech/Austrian Hapsburg Empire, then the Prussian Empire, then the German Republic that evolved into the Nazi regime, then, in 1945, finally part of "independent" Poland but really a Soviet satellite until relatively recently. Many cathedrals.
--The city name is spelled Wrocław, but you pronounce it like 'vrotswav'. (That isn't any normal "L" after the c, it is called a Dark L and sounds like a W). (Wroclaw in Wikipedia). Also, the city was known as Breslau when it was considered part of Germany.
--Tony twisted his knee this morning stepping off a curb. It's still working, but they are allowing extra time for walking, which there is a lot of.
--A lot of the Polish population he sees are blond. And if you see anyone overweight wearing bright colors, you can almost guarantee that they are a tourist.
--They are all suffering a bit from jet lag, but doing well.
The pictures below are from Thursday, Sept 4.
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| Yesterday, Tony talked about the low ceilings in where they stayed. Here is Tony for scale. |
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| And here is too tall "little" brother Marty. |
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| Pottery factory |
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| Polish pottery |
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| Jarek, their guide with the van they are traveling in. |
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| Lunch at a pierogi place. Rustic with a real thatched roof. Good food. |
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| Concentration camp museum |
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| Wroclaw Town Hall on the town's main square. |
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| Here, we call a sampling of beers a "flight". There, they call it "beer on a board". |
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| Dinner at a craft brewery named the "Zloty Pies" which means Golden Dog. So all their beers have dog names. Good food. |
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| There are little bronze gnomes all over the city. There is an app with their locations (google Wroclaw gnome map) and it's a thing where people go out to find as many of them as they can. This is the gnome at the Zloty Pies where the gnome has a dog as a drinking companion. |
Now some pictures from Friday, Sept 5.
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| Took a golf cart tour of the city. |
--Just one example of many churches and cathedrals we saw. This is the Katedra Sw. Jana Chrzciciela, or in English, Cathedral of St. John the Baptist,
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| Pretty much every church we saw was so tall I couldn't get decent pictures. |
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| Inside. The photos can't begin to show the splendor of the place, the carvings, the windows. |
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| This was the church Frederick Chopin attended. |
More Wroclaw tomorrow.
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