Monday, April 25, 2011

Memories from Gizycko

We are back in Warsaw now, and tomorrow my mom and sister arrive! But, I just wanted to show you a few more pictures of our little excursion to Gizycko. Overall we had a good time... it was very rural and thus a very different experience than Warsaw. And it was just great to get out and explore! We have been cooped up all winter long... so it was fabulous to see more of the country. The view from our little apartment. The region is called Masurian Lakes, there are hundreds of lakes in the area, and it's a huge tourist destination for the Poles. We were there just before the madness began, so our timing was perfect. We practically had the place to ourselves!

And yes, these pictures make it look like we had the time of our lives, but really, that's where blogs can be deceiving. We actually were all about to kill each other by the end of the trip since our apartment was about the size of a bathroom and Caroline did not sleep the entire time!!! Nope, didn't get any pictures of that.

The Poles are really into crosses.
I also took lots of random shots to catch some of the local flavor...


The Poles really take care of their deceased loved ones. It is not unusual to walk through a cemetery and see a grave decorated like this. Most grave sites have fresh flowers.











Random guy washing a blanket in the river while his wife looks on in her bathrobe. Little do they know they're on the web now. Should I feel bad?
I was trying to get the guy rollerblading, but what's even cooler is the '80s vintage car. Poland's still catching up.
Every morning they served this for breakfast, and every morning I tried to get Caroline to eat some...
but for some crazy reason she prefers this! I don't get it.

This had Ben and me cracking up... yes, the Poles are very handicap friendly. There's no way anyone would survive that descent in a wheelchair.


We LOVED being outside. The place we stayed had a huge great lawn. It has been a looooong winter!



Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter Morn

Easter is my favorite holiday now. We couldn't have asked for a lovelier morning before we headed off to church. Just wish we could have gotten handsome Ben in the picture!

Easter dresses compliments of Nana!

First LDS church in Poland




So, strangely enough, not far from Hitler's headquarters you can find the first LDS church that was built in Eastern Europe... sometime in the second half of the 1800s. Sorry, my facts aren't very specific, but it's kind of hard to find much info on it. At any rate, there used to be a big LDS group here but once communism spread to the area it became harder to practice and many members emigrated. Now it is a Catholic church!
The rustic road where the church is found
Afterwards, we went to a local tavern to ask for directions and sat down to some apple juice.
This was a very strange joint... I wish I could have taken a picture of the owner, but I didn't dare. Maybe his decor will give you a clue to what he was like...

It was one of those experiences where you're like, "How the heck did I get here??" He also had a couple huge dogs wandering around the tables, one was the size of a bear, I swear.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Hitler's Wolf's Lair - A great place to take the kids

As promised, here are pictures from Hitler's Wolf's Lair! It was very eerie standing in the same places where Hitler spent so much of his time. All in all, he spent close to 900 days of the war at this particular location. He had secret headquarters all over Europe... but this was the main one, created as HQ for the eastern front when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. Many notorious Nazi leaders stayed here as well such as Goring, von Ribbentrop, and Borrman. Himmler had his own headquarters not too far away (but we didn't make it over there). The Wolf's Lair is in an ideal discreet location... in a heavily forested area in the northeast of Poland... difficult to detect from the air. It was used until 1944 when the Soviets began to push the Germans back. The Nazis, fearful that the Soviets would use it, blew it all up, but the bunkers were so incredibly thick that many of the remnants are still there.Our very knowledgeable tour guide. He speaks Polish, German, Russian, and English (sort of). I understood about 25% of what he said, so hopefully I report the facts right :)
Our guide describing the layout of the land. The entire complex was about 2.5 square miles... huge!
Guiding us through the forest...
We had to stick to a very clear marked path lest we wandered off and stepped on a land mine! Seriously, since the complex was abandoned by the Nazis, thousands of land mines have been discovered and our guide says they still discover them from time to time!
This is a monument commemorating the Poles who lost their lives clearing the mines after the Germans deserted. According to our guide, the Soviets started out doing it, but lost so many guys that they said forget this, make the Poles do it!
And this was a very cool part of the tour. This panel describes the assassination attempt on Hitler, made famous by Tom Cruise in Valkyrie (which now we are dying to see). Doesn't the guy in the top left corner kind of look like Tom Cruise? He was a handsome staff officer, Claus von Stauffenberg, who carried out the attempt. He placed a bomb in a suitcase on the floor near where Hitler was sitting during a staff meeting, but unfortunately, someone inadvertently moved the suitcase away from Hitler, saving his life. The bomb destroyed the building, wounded several (including Hitler) and killed four Nazis. Too bad the plot failed, because according to our guide, if Hitler had been killed and the war had prematurely ended, 20 million lives would have been spared. Poor von Stauffenberg was caught and executed that very night.
Caroline, an enthusiastic emerging history buff
The very spot of the assassination attempt
So, onto the bunkers. This picture isn't very clear, but it depicts how incredibly strong these bunkers were. The living area is at the center of the picture, and surrounding it is the concrete "inner bunker" and surrounding that is the "outer bunker" all in all 8 meters thick of reinforced concrete.
One of Hitler's bunkers. For security purposes, he changed bunkers every couple months.
See how massive it was? And camouflaged. We could go into parts of it, but many areas were forbidden because it was dangerous.
The Nazis did try to dynamite the complex, but the edifices were so strong that they couldn't be completely destroyed. Check out the rebar from this blast. We could see rebar wrapped around some of the trees from the blast.
Our guide told us that there were up to 10,000 Germans here at one time (although wikipedia says 2000). In any case, most of them were either manual laborers or security personnel. Hitler had hundreds of body guards. They were all there to support Hitler and 30 members of his cabinet who lived there. When I was a 7th grade history teacher and taught about the atrocities of Hitler a student would invariably ask me, "Why didn't someone just kill Hitler? Then all the problems would be solved!" Now after seeing firsthand the pain staking effort that went into protecting the Fuhrer, I feel like I can better answer this question!