TravelStream™ news feed for member jkroll1952 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/jkroll1952 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:34:57 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jkroll1952/1/1214517600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jkroll1952/1/1214517600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jkroll1952/1/1214517600/tpod.html Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:34:57 -0400 The 2008 Kroll Poland Trip

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Czestochowa, Southern Poland, Poland

After we left Warsaw, we took to the Polish highways and made our way to Czestochowa, which is about 160 km and about 2/3 the way from Warsaw to Krakow. We are quickly finding that driving in Poland is a bit of an adventure. Drivers are agressive, and they tailgate with less than one car length at 100km per hour speeds. They pass into oncoming traffic. Yielding at unmarked intersections is whoever is boldest and fastest. Trucks cross over the lines around curves and sometimes your choice is to jam the curb or jam the truck tires. Motorcycles zip though stopped traffic inches from car mirrors. Kind of like driving in downtown New York or Chicago all the time. Best thing to do is match the agressiveness with the same.

David has done most of the driving so far, (he hates it, but prefers it to sitting in the front seat helpless while I drive). I have done the map reading and navigating and so far we have not gotten lost for very long. Our sidetrips down alleys and though markets and back streets with dead ends have been interesting, though.

The monastary of Jasna Gora, (Bright Mountain), in Czestochowa is remarkable! This complex is significant and is much more than another museum. It is the primary pilgrimage site for Polish Roman Catholics and other Catholics from around the world. Jasna Gora ranks 5th in the world for the number of visitors and pilgrimages behind such well known destinations as the Vatican, Mecca, and Fatima, to name a few. Thousands of people come to Jasna Gora to see the Black Madonna who is purported to have miraculous healing powers.
The basilica and the chapel of the Madonna are over the top ornate. There are many confessionals staffed all day with priests to hear the confessions of visitors. Masses and services run continually. Altars are staffed continually with priests reading the Gospel. Around the exterior of the complex, from on top of the walls, a priests leads worshippers on the Stations of the Cross continually.
Dad sat through two serivces, all in Polish, and received communion. In between services, visitors showed their reverence for the Black Madonna by traversing a route of about 150 feet around the sanctuary of the chapel ON THIER KNEES. Dad, because of his robo-knee walked around this with his cane. Several people overwhelmed by the experience were seen crying.
We spent the evening at Jasna Gora and went back for more pictures in the morning before leaving for Krakow. It was moving, to say the least, to see the intensity of the devotion of visitors to Jasna Gora. Dad was deeply touched by the experience, which he thought was going to be just another art museum. I was struck by the importance of the roman catholic church in the lives of the Polish people. Catholicism is the predominant religion in Poland. I can say that I did not see any protestant churchs during our travels, and only a few Jewish synagogues while we stayed in Krakow. This part of Polish culture was carried to the United States by my father's parents and was also a large part of my upbringing in Indiana.
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Warsaw, Central Poland, Poland

It is Wednesday morning and we have decided that we would visit the National Museum and the Polish Army Museum this morning before we head out to Czestochowa. Dad and Paul have opted for the Polish Army Museum and David and I decide to go to the National Museum. They are right next door to each other which makes it easy. We tried to visit the National Museum yesterday afternoon, but it is closed on Tuesdays and since we got to the Polish Army Museum right before 4pm, we were told that it closed at 4pm, so we missed that too.
No pictures were allowed in the Polish Army Museum, but they were in the National Musem, so most of these pictures are from there, although I took a few outside of the Army Museum.
I am struck by the historical Polish religious art. The sculptures are in wood, in contrast to the renaissance stone works of Italian origin. The wood sculptures have a distinctive earthy feel and appeal to them, more dramatic than the Michaelangelo versions of the Pieta, for instance. The emotions on the faces are more intense. The gore is also more in your face. There are also great examples of 13th and 14th century "tryptic" altar pieces, but here again most with wood carving figures rather than paintings.
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Warsaw, Central Poland, Poland

Not a lot of jet lag for most of us. The apartment is very nice, and had two bedrooms and a sofa bed. Last night, Dad slept in one room, Paul on the couch, since he wanted to watch TV til the wee hours, (couldn't sleep), and David and I shared a bed. David kept me awake half the night with shaky leg syndrome so I know I didn't snore.
Today, we went to the royal castle and also went by the memorial to the Warsaw Uprising, which was where the citizens of Warsaw rebelled against the Russian occupation in WWII and the Nazis came in and crushed the uprising and killed 180,000 Poles and, after the rest of the Warsaw residents evacuated, leveled Warsaw, while the Russians watched from the other side of the river. Old Town and the Royal Castle have been completely rebuilt since then. Hope you enjoy the photos.
Tomorrow, we will go to the National Museum and also the Polish Army Museum.
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Ojcow, Poland, Poland

On Wednesday, July 2nd, we left our apartment in the Jewish quarter of Krakow called Kasimeirz and traveled by car back to Warsaw, since we were flying out the next day. On the way, we took a side trip to a little known and little, ( in area), national park. Ojcow, (pronounced Oycoove), means of the fathers and the name is apt since the rock formations bring to mind the fathers of our past.
The area was small, but striking, with quaint buildings and a restored castle along the way. The trip took about an hour and a half from beginning to end, and I was glad we were able to see this piece of the polish landscape.
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Medrzechow, Southern Poland, Poland

Our first full day in Krakow and after the Salt Mines, we take to the country to visit the ancestral villages of our father's parents. These are the villages of Medrzechow and Kupienen about 80 km east of Krakow. We took a quick visit down the country roads to see the towns, about 4 miles in all, and then went to the cemetery in Medrzechow. There we found a mausoleum for Michael Swiatek, dad's maternal grandfather, which included also his daughter Katharine Balala and her husband. We could find no reference to either of Michael's wives, so I don't know if they were buried there with him, or somewhere else in the cemetary. The mausoleum was the only one in the cemetery and by far the largest grave in the cemetery, so Michael must of been a successful farmer.
We then went to the only parish church and inside found a stained glass window that was dedicated to Michael and Marianna, (Szajor), Swiatek when the church was built in 1917, probably for their donations. After that, we visited with the parish priests who called Jan Mamulski, whose mother was a Swiatek, who came down to the rectory, and we all sat around and managed to figure out that we were related and that Jan's grandfather and the Kroll boys grandmother on Dad's side were brother and sister. We visited with parish priests Boguslaw Pasierb and Josef Grabowski and when I asked for pictures, father Pasierb wouldn't be photographed in his tee shirt and he had to run upstairs to put his collar on.
After that, we travelled a couple of kilometers and visited the farm where Grandma Krol grew up, which was still being farmed by Jan Mamulski and still in the family. What a day! Enjoy the photos!
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Wieliczka, Southern Poland, Poland

Whose says that vacation isn't work? On Friday morning, our first day in Krakow, we travelled about 10km south to the suburb of Wieliczka, where the famous Weiliczka Salt Mines are located and followed the steps of miners of old and went down in the salt mine.
We had an english speaking tour guide for our group, who was kind enough to wait for us as we helped dad along with the stairs and tunnel walks.
Our first suprise was that what we thought would be one flight of stairs down to the elevator lobby to go down into the mines, ended up being about 150 flights of stairs going to the bottom of the mine in what was the equivalent of descending the stairs of a 30 story building from the top to the bottom.
Then, it was almost 2 miles of walking through tunnels and large rooms in cool 57 degree air during the 2 hour tour. There were more stairs along the way as we worked our way to the very bottom, and after a lunch down at the cafe about 300 ft. down, we took a very small two level elevator back to the top.
Dad hung in there, but was worn out by the end of the tour. He even fell, but did not hurt himself, (other than a sore knee later).
The mines have 300 km, (180 miles), of tunnels in all, and I am glad we did not have to walk all of those. We did see some equipment and reinactments of how they got the salt and water out of the mines. The salt was actually dark grey, due to the impurities that were later culled out before selling the salt.
There were several sculptures and statues that were carved out of salt by the miners over a period of time on their off time. You would think that after working all day they would want to get out of the mines, but some were passionate about their work and the mines enough to do their artwork.
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Oswiecim, Southern Poland, Poland

The trip to Oswiecim, the polish town where the Nazis set up their largest concentration camp is only about 50km west of Krakow, so although we knew the experience would be sobering and not a lot of fun, we felt we needed to experience firsthand the horrors that occured there during the second world war. This memorial is a world heritage site and is free to the public, most likely to make the experience available to the widest spectrum of people.
What happened at Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II, (Birkenau) simply defy all realms of human decency and by visiting the sites and being exposed to the horrific details, which I won't go into here, the hope is that the world will not allow a madman like Hitler to gain control of a country and its forces ever again. My opinion is that if we ignore history, we can never hope to learn from it.
Auschwitz I started as a prison camp for POW's and polish political prisoners in 1939, after the germans defeated polish forces trying to repel the invasion by the Nazis. The Nazis incorporated the area around Oswiecim into the 3rd Reich, cleared the entire area of its population, and used materials from the towns buildings to build the camp. The camp eventually expanded in its scope and cruelty and was the site of the "medical experiments" on detainees and also the site of the development of the use of Cyclon B, the cyanide compound that was used in the gas chambers. Auschwitz I also had one "temporary" gas chamber in which thousands died.
Birkenau, about 3km down the road from Oswiecim, was the killing factory. Situated on 425 acres of ground hundreds of wooden and brick buildings with dirt floors were built to house Jews and others brought in by the Germans on trains, while they waited to be led to the gas chambers. Over a million people died at Birkenau before the Germans torched the camp in front of the advancing Soviet army near the end of the war in 1945.
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Krakow, Poland

We arrived in Krakow Thursday afternoon, and checked into our apartment in the Kazimierz, in the Jewish section of Krakow. That being said, we are within walking distance, (even for Dad), of the Wawel Hill Royal Castle and Cathedral.
Yesterday, Dad took a day off and rested while David, Paul, and I went our various directions for initial explorations. David went out to art museums, Paul went to the Engineering museum of Krakow here in Kasimierz, and I updated the blog in the morning. In the afternoon, we walked over to Wawel Hill where the complex of walls, plazas, cathedral areas, the royal castle, and various other buildings were. We only had a little time so we decided to visit the cathedral.
The church is significant due to the fact that most of the polish kings from the 13th through the 17th centuries are buried either inside the church or in the crypt rooms under it. Unfortunately for us, no photos were allowed inside the church, although I did take a couple of shots of the Sygmunt Bell, while out of the sanctuary area and in the bell tower. The Sygmunt Bell is named after Sygmunt the Old, one of the more significant kings of the above eras, and the most significant side chapel in the church is in homage to him. The Sygmunt bell is the largest bell in Poland, and measures in excess of 6ft. in diameter at its largest.

Krakow as a city and especially Wawel Hill were spared destruction by the various occupations of the major world wars and also by the Austrian empire during their occupation during the period of the partitions. This the period of about 130 years when Poland ceased to be a country and was occupied by the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian empires. As a result, Krakow has many significant historical buildings and areas for city of its size, and is being known as the "New Prague" as a most important cultural city in Europe.

We also couldn't take interior pictures of the state rooms and private apartments of the Royal Castle at Wawel. However, we did take a city tour and spent time in the Rynek Stary Miasto, or Old City Market square, which was bustling with city life, eateries, and tourists. By the way, southern Poland, including Krakow, is the tourist destination for Polish travelers in the summertime.
We also toured Kasimierz, a formerly separate city which is now part of Krakow, and is home to Jewish citizens of Krakow. Significant synagogues, Jewish Market squares, and other buildings were seen. In one former market square, we walked by the home, now a restaurant, where Helena Rubenstein of cosmetics fame, was born and raised. Also, very nearby, the home where Steve Spielberg stayed while filming Schindler's list. In that same plaza was a monument to the 65,000 Jews from Krakow and Kasimierz who were taken and killed at Auschwitz by the Nazis.
Krakow is a vibrant city, full of life, with universities that are home to in excess of 100,000 students while in term and in excess of 800,000 permanent residents. Enjoy the photos!
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Chicago Ohare, Illinois, United States

At the airport
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Montverde, Florida, United States

This is the first entry in the travel blog that will become the sum of all of our entries on this trip to Poland. The trip is now two weeks away and preparations are underway. David and I have taken a prep course on driving while in Poland, and have we have rented a tank to be prepared and survive any accidents. We have gotten our international driver's licenses which will serve to identify us if need be.

I think I have this website figured out, and if you are reading this, you have received the information to log on and read about our daily escapades. When how to send and receive email and upload comments to this website is discovered, I will post that information here.

More later....
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