Another Day In Poznan

Well I think we have exhausted what we can do in Poznan.  Today we were going to visit one of the museums.  We thought that we could probably spend a few hours walking through and reading the displays.  We went through the first one which was for the time period of 1918-1919.  That took us about 15 minutes and I am being generous.  Absolutely nothing in English except for a 1 pager the person we meet at the reception gave us. She could only speak German besides Polish.

There was another one near by so we thought we would try that one.  We walk in and the lady motioned to us that there were two floors.  Excellent this should be good.  Well two floors of guns and military uniforms is not my idea of a good museum.  Needless to say that took us 20 minutes.  A total waste of time.

I am not sure where there National Museum of the History of Poland is, but neither of those museums fit the bill.  Poznan is the total opposite to Krakaw.  Krakaw was completely set up to handle tourists with tours and enough people that speak English well enough to get information.  We probably should have stayed in Krakaw a few more days.  Of course I had not internet there.  Sometimes you just can't win.

So tomorrow we might try one other museum that we found while walking around.  I was not up for another museum disappointment today so we thought we would wait until tomorrow.  We might also walk to a lake that is near by.  It seems to be an tourist attraction.

We ended up at the mall again.  I took a picture, but I am too lazy to post it today.  Something to look forward to tomorrow.

I ended up taking a nap this afternoon and then we walked to Subway for dinner.  A few more hours and we will be hitting the hay.

Back in Poznan

This morning we returned the rental car.  What should have taken only about 20 minutes to get to the airport ended taking a little over an hour.  I thought I could easily navigate from the hotel onto the street that leads to the airport and ended up and a strange neighborhood.  I made a few corrective moves and ended up on a freeway.  We sat in traffic there for quite a while so I was pretty sure I made another wrong turn.  It actually turned out to be the correct street to get to the airport.

Once we were on the correct street our next concern was finding a gas station to fill up the vehicle.  Well we drove to the airport and no gas station so we had to drive back to find one.  Finally found a gas station, filled up the vehicle and made the trek back to the airport to drop off the vehicle.

With the vehicle dropped off we took a taxi back to the hotel.  It was around 10:00 when we got back so we killed some time because it was too early to head to Market Square to watch the goats.  I worked on the blog and mom read her book.  About 11:15 we started the walk over to Market Square.  I managed to get the video of the goats at noon.

I attempted to post a video of the goats butting heads at noon at the Market Square, but it does not seem to work.  I suspect it is because it is too big.  Oh well you will all have to wait to see the video.

We walked to the mall and it is quite amazing.  We having nothing like it back home.  The mall is build in a converted brewery.  It was too much to take in on the first trip and try and shop so I will have to go back and shop later.

Not much else to report for today.  It isn't very warm outside.  It is sunny, but gets quite chilly when you are not in the sunny.

Travel Day to Poznan

Today was a driving day back to Poznan.  We left the hotel at 9:30 and we expected to be on the main highway and heading to Poznan by 10:00.  Wishful thinking.  What I thought would be an easy way out ended up being blocked due to construction.  I think we drove for about an hour before we finally got our of Krakow.  It was insane.  You just go in circles in downtown Krakow.  Cars parked all over the place, people walking in front of you and then there are trains going down the street you are driving on.  I am still not sure how I got out.

Of course once we were out of Krakow the next issue was getting onto the freeway.  If we had gotten onto the free way it was pretty smooth sailing all the way to Wroclaw. As you can tell we did not make it onto the freeway.  As a result we ended up driving through one very small town after very small town on a road with a speed limit between 50 to 70 kms/hr.  I have no pictures of any of this drive.  I must admit that I am pretty much seen my limit of rural Poland.  It is very pretty, but I have seen enough.  At least for this trip.

After about 2 hours of curvy roads and round abouts we did manage to make it to the freeway.  The scenery is definitely not as nice, but it is much less stressful.  We arrived back at the hotel around 5:30 and I went in to make sure they had a room.  I had originally planned to be back for Tuesday night, but we decided to head back to Poznan a day earlier.  They had a hotel room, but it is not as nice as the one we had before.  Very much the same except we have a crappy TV and only 1 channel.  We thought it was bad before because we had quite a few channels, but only 1 English channel.  We were complaining about that English channel because it was just news and every broadcast was the same.  We now would kill for the one English channel.

We didn't go out at night and I worked on organizing the pictures I have taken and started working on updating the blog.

Salt Mine

St. Kinga's Chapel

Auschwitz - Taking me a while to write this one.

Saturday (April - 14, 2012)  Today was our trip to Auschwitz.  The bus picked us up at 10:15.  It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get to Auschwitz from Krakaw.  During the drive they play a video that tells you about Auschwitz and what went on at the camp.  

Auschwitz before the Germans took over was an abandoned army base.  It was originally built by the Polish to assist in re-populating the area after the WWI.  The building are all built like apartments and there are formal streets between each building.  The Polish people eventually left and that is when the army took it over.  Eventually it was left empty.  

At the beginning of WWII the Germans occupied Poland and took over Auschwitz and began holding Polish citizens.  Generally individuals that were educated and influential people from the cities.  The Germans wanted them out of the way to prevent resistance.  At the entrance to the camp there is a sign which in English means "Work Will Make You Free".  Little did those that entered Auschwitz know that they would never leave and working would not bring them freedom.  

In the beginning, Auschwitz was not a dead camp, but just a Concentration Camp.  Prisoners there were made to work and were in fact worked to death.  Most prisoners lived only 2 months with few living up to a year.  

As the prisoners were marched into the camp an orchestra played.  The reason this was done was to keep them in step and it was easier to count them.

This is how the building looks today.

The prisoners were marched into the camps along the streets between the buildings and were processed.

Each prisoner was photographed and recorded like inventory.  In the beginning the Germans took three photos of each prison similar to police mugshots.  They found it to expensive and they switched to numbered tatoos on the forearm.  

The camp did have a hospital, but no one was ever cure once they entered.  If you became sick and had to enter the hospital you were subject to experiments and if the experiments didn't kill you a lethal injection of phenol would.   

Initially, phenol was injected into a victim's vein.  Before long, the technique was changed to injecting the phenol directly into the heart. It was thought that the change was made because the veins were sometimes hard to locate, but the real reason was that death was much fast and effective when administered directly into the heart. Patients injected by vein might linger for minutes or even an hour or more.  Concentrated phenol was inexpensive, easy to use, and absolutely effective when introduced into the heart so that an injection of ten to fifteen millilitres into the heart causing death within fifteen seconds.

Phenol injections were given in Block 20 and the prisoners were brought in by two Jewish prisoner assistants, sometimes two at a time and positioned on a footstool.  Usually the right arm covered the victim's eyes and the left arm was raised sideways in a horizontal position.  The idea was for the victim's chest to be thrust out so that the cardiac area was accessible for the lethal injection and to prevent the person  from being able to see what was happening.  The person giving the injection, most often was SDG Josef Klehr, filled his syringe from the bottle and then thrust the needle directly into the heart of the seated prisoner and emptied the contents of the syringe.

Krakow

Well we made it to Krakow.  I was not sure we would make it.  We missed our turn off to avoid going through Warsaw and ended up going right through the middle.  I thought how hard could it be to drive through Warsaw.  I am not exactly sure how long it took us.  Mom couldn't find any of the streets on the map.  I ended up just driving in one direction and thought that it would eventually lead use out of the city.  After we got through it was relatively smooth sailing until Krakow.  

Not a very good picture of the Krakow castle.  It was very nice when we arrive on Friday night and started off nice on Saturday morning, but ended up raining the rest of the day and then again

The next three pictures are of the Market Square.  I took these Friday night when it was actually very nice out. 

Internet Problems

Now I am just ticked.  This hotel has crappy internet access.  Lost my entry so I will try again.   In Krakow and will try and get an entry in.  Second connection lost!  Ready to snap.  Hopefully more tomorrow if I don't throw everything out the window.

Kolno & Zabiele Trip

We made it to Kolno and Zabiele.  It isn't far from Lomza.  We left Lomza at about 10:30 and were there by 11:30.  

This is the sign when you are entering the Municipality of Kolno.  The town in the background is Zabiele.

Zabiele is made up of a bunch of farms just off the main road.  There are actually quite a few homes, and new homes, here.  We did attempt to talk to an older lady and probably her son.  If we would have been able to speak Polish, German or Russian we would have able to communicate.  Unfortunately the little German I know was useless.  Needless to say we weren't very successful.  That being said we did manage to confirm one thing, provided I understood what she said, that he last name was Rainko.  The cemetery did have several Rainko's, but not Rainka.  I can't say for sure, but there is a very good chance we are related to these two people.

We also found a head stone at the cemetery with the last name Bajno.  That was Mark Rainka's mother's last name.  There is no doubt that we found where Mark Rainka came from.

All the farm buildings are close together and at first look don't seem to be used, but that actually are.  Several of the farms we saw have dairy cows.  

This is a photo of Kolno coming back from Zabiele.  The two places are very close together.

The farm land looks a lot like the farms back home, just smaller.  The farm machinery is much smaller than we are used to seeing.  

This part of Poland looks just like Manitoba.  

So we decided that we will be leaving Lomza on April 13th and driving to Krakow.  It is a 6 hour drive, but we will be able to go see Auschwitz and the Salt Mine.  Auschwitz is about an hour and a bit from Krakow and the Salt Mine is about 30 minutes.

We will likely head back to Poznan on April 16th instead of the 17th and spend an extra day in Poznan.  With everything being pretty much closed and the weather being rather cold and wet over the Easter weekend we really didn't get to see everything yet.  

Europe's Orchard

This is the area just north of Warsaw.  Lots of agriculture.  Here is a picture of a farmer doing some field work.  

Took us a while to figure out what these fields had planted, but later at the hotel I did some checking and this area is considered Europe's Orchard.  Poland produces 2.5 million tons of apples annually and is the first producer of apples in Europe. Apples represent more than 80 % of the fruits production of the Country.

We didn't get any pictures, not sure what we were thinking, but there are fields and fields of strawberry's.  Definitely not what I expected to see in the northern part of Poland.

Made it to Lomza!

The taxi picked us up at 9:30 from the hotel and took us to the airport to pick up the rental car.  I had booked a car for around $250 cdn.  The insurance cost was on top of that and it was more then the rental.  I probably didn't have to buy so much, but since I can't speak a word of Polish I thought I better be safe than sorry.  

We left Poznan about 10:45 and arrived in Lomza at about 6:00.  The drive should have taken us about 5 hours, but we managed to drive through every small town from Poznan to Lomza.  It was probably a good thing we left the freeway.  We hit three toll stops.  It cost us 47zloty ($15cdn) and we didn't travel very far from Poznan.  

Well this is a picture from Pultusk, Poland.  It is north of Warsaw.  We decided that it would be fast if we bypassed Warsaw and went north straight to Lomza.  We stopped only briefly to take some pictures.  

By the time we got to Lomza I was ready to just find the hotel and relax.  Needless to say I was a little grouchy.  We stopped and put gas in the car and bought a map.  Fortunately the hotel was not far away.  

We got to the room and I am pretty sure that even canned sardines are allowed more room.  It certainly makes our last room seem spacious and roomy.  

We haven't decided how long we will be staying here.  We talked about staying until Friday and then driving down to Krakow, but we have not decided for sure.  It will all depend on what we see here in Lomza and what we find in Kolno.

Travel Day to Lomza

Today is a travel day.  We are just packing up at the hotel and getting ready to go to the airport to pick up the rental car.  Looking back it would have been smarter to travel yesterday when traffic was lighter, but we should be able to get out of Poznan fairly easy.

The drive is about 5 hours and we will have to go through Warsaw.  I would expect that we will see a lot today.  The next hotel is supposed to have internet access so hopefully it is working otherwise blogging will be a little difficult.

Not much else for now.  By the time everyone is awake we should be in Lomza.

Old Market Square - Goats

I was hoping to post a video of the goats butting heads today, but for some reason the clip did not work.  I guess I am going to have to try it again next week when we are back in Poznan.  This is at least a picture of the goats.

Not too much exciting today.  We expanded out walking area and ventured a little farther and came back around by the train station.  Everything was pretty quiet today and everything is closed.  

The train station was pretty empty compare to Friday when we were here.  

We found the mall.  I don't know how I missed it before.  It was closed today, but we are going to have to go back either tomorrow or next week.  There is also a shopping street on the other side of the mall too.

Really not too much to show today.  Tuesday we will be heading to Lomza and I am going to try driving.  It is going to be about a 4 1/2 drive.  We will probably leave around 10:30 and head to the airport to pick up the car.

The weather is looking pretty good so far today.  Yesterday was quite cold and rainy.  We are going to be doing another walk around today.  We will likely make it back to the Old Market Square again.  It was pretty overcast yesterday so it will be nice to get some better pictures.  We don't expect much will be open today being Easter Sunday.  We were told that everything would be closed on Good Friday, but there still seemed to be a lot open.  I guess we will find out.  

Today was quite cold and rainy.  We stayed at the hotel for most of the day and didn't venture out until about 4:00.  It seems to clear off and didn't seem as windy.  We walked over to the Old Market Square which was built in 1253.  

This area was established as a market area and has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt over the years.

After 1945 this area became a residential area with shops on the ground floor selling souvenirs.  In the 1970's bars, cafes and restaurants opened. In the 1990's banks and more restaurants were located in the area.

Between 1880 and 1955 trams ran across the square.  Since 1970 the square has been closed to traffic.

We haven't seen the goats yet, but at 12:00 noon a small door opens in the tower above the clock and two mechanical goats butt one another 12 times.  The story is that during the preparation for a feast at the town hall the main course was over-cooked and burned.  The cook that burned the roasts grabbed two billy goats from the street and intended to cook them.  He was in such a hurry that they managed to run away as he was heading into the kitchen.  As the cook was explaining to his guests why there was not going to be a main course, the guests noticed the two billy goats butting heads below the clock.  The guests laughed and forgave the cook.  

I forgot to post this picture yesterday.  This is one of the trains that you can take to get around central Poznan.  Today we are going to Old Market Square.  That was where we were planning on going to yesterday, but couldn't find it.  Now that we have a map we will be able to find things a little better.  

This is the Ikar Hotel we are staying.  It is close to everything.  We have spent the last 6 hours walking around. We managed to find the train station.  It looks like we are going to take a train to Warsaw rather than driver from Poznan. It is crazy on the streets.  I am not sure I ready to attempt driving.

Here is a park that we stopped to take a break.  I am still trying to figure out the name of the park.  We picked up some maps so we are trying to figure out where we walked and what we actually saw.

Many of the building are being renovated.

Well we made it.  No problems at all.  The flight from Chicago left on time and was excellent.  The Frankfurt airport is quite a maze, but relatively easy to get around in.  We only had a couple of hours wait in Frankfurt and then off to Poznan.  The Poznan airport was a bit of a surprise.  I expected something bigger.  Extremely easy to get around in.  The plane lands and then you jump on a bus which takes you to the airport.  You get dropped off and walk right into the baggage area.  Within about 10 minutes your bags show up.  I stopped to get some information about renting a car.  I am not surprised, but if I was to rent a car at the airport the rate was 65 euros ($85cdn) and if I book online its 15 euros ($20cdn).  We walked out the front door and grabbed a taxi.  15 minutes later we were at the hotel.  

I did not expect to be at the hotel so early.  I thought for sure we would be at least a few hours before we got to the hotel.  We ended up there at about 10:30 and check-in is at 2:00.  We had to wait, but ended up getting our room by 12:00.  Needless to say about 12:05 we were sleeping.

Planning out the schedule for the next couple of days.  Tomorrow is going to be a walk to the Town Square and the Poznan museum.  We might actually wait until Saturday to do the Poznan museum.  Most of tomorrow will we walking around and checking the area out.

So far no problems communicating, but I don't think I would want to go too far off the beaten path without speaking Polish.  Oddly enough somehow you end of communicating.  It just proves a lot of communication has nothing to do with the words you speak.  

At the airport leaving at 7:53 to Chicago.