13 nights

8 hotels

1250 miles in the car

Tomorrow morning we leave on our Belgium/France/Germany trip! I am especially excited because we are going to visit the cities where I served my mission! It has been ten years... I can't believe it.

Pat and Nancy (Grandpa and Grandma) came to visit us about a month ago. It had been about ten months since we had seen them! Don't they look like nice people? That's because they are.

One of the first things we did with them was attended a Battle for Warsaw reenactment at the citadel. This WWII watershed event in Poland is a big part of their national identity, yet is not well known outside of Poland. If you want to learn more about it, you can read this book:

I haven't read it, but Ben has and he was enthralled by it. Warning: it's a beast. Basically, the story is of the Warsaw underground that organized and planned an uprising against the Nazis. Confident that the Soviets, who were making their way to Warsaw, would come to their aid, the Poles bravely rose up against the Nazis and fought for their freedom. The battle lasted 63 days while the Soviets sat on the other side of the river (orders of Stalin) and watched the whole thing unfold without lifting a finger to help. The Nazis savagely retaliated and when the smoke was cleared, about 250,000 Poles (civilians!) were dead and Hitler ordered the systemastic destruction of the city. It was 90% leveled to the ground.

So, the reenactment:

It was REALLY loud. I don't know what they were using but it sounded like real machine gun fire, so C and Em weren't having the best time:



I caught this man watching the whole thing from a distance. I couldn't help but wonder if he was actually there...

There were also some 101st Airborne enthusiasts, and since Ben was actually a part of the 101st, he received celebrity status. Check out how gun ho the kid on the left is.

And on our way out, we came across these actors... perhaps on their way to reenact the Battle of Grunwald? That would have been exciting to watch, and probably not as loud.

Zakopane

One fun thing Ben and I got to do while his parents were here was take a day to visit the Tatra Mountains, a range in southern Poland that borders Slovakia! Beautiful! The only major downside of our day was that our video camera got stolen! Grrrrr.... This was just moments before I broke out into song, "The Hills are Alive..."


I got to admit this is a cool pic of me... I think I'm going to make it my new profile pic on facebook.
Once we got to the top of this particular peak, we walked along the ridge and this was the view from the other side...

Stopping to Smell the Roses

I LOVE summer! Especially here in Warsaw. The past four summers we have spent in the DC area and TN where it has been unbearably hot and humid. I mean, when you can't even go outside or you'll evaporate hot and humid. So far the summer in Warsaw has been very mild with the majority of the days being in the 70s. And I just love this time of year when the days are so long and you can be outside until 9:00.

Ben has been gone the past two weeks (he just came home last night, thank goodness). So, the girls and I went to one of my favorite places in Warsaw, Lazienki Park. There are always people relaxing on the benches and just taking time to pause and soak it all in. With all the vast space in America, I wish we had more public places in the cities to just go and relax. That's one thing I love about Europe.... their many many parks. They take such pride in them and take such good care of them too.

The roses are in their full bloom right now.

And what would a trip to the park be without stopping off for ice cream?
Caroline enjoying her new found freedom... walking!

Once again, I didn't have much subject material to work with... just Em.

Putting girls into swimsuits: 10 minutes

Gathering towels, sunscreen, swim diapers, sandals, change of clothes, floatation devices, snacks, sippie cup, wallet, and keys: 30 minutes

Loading girls into the car: 5 minutes

Driving to the ambassador's residence for the pool party: 15 minutes

Hanging out in the parking lot because we arrived early: 20 minutes

Filling up the floatation devices with air: 5 minutes

TIME ACTUALLY SPENT IN THE POOL: 20 MINUTES

Drying off and changing the girls back into dry clothes: 20 minutes

Driving home: 15 minutes

ARRRGGGHH! Yes, this is my life as a mother of two youngsters. The average activity takes at least twice as long to gear up for than to actually enjoy. This particular outing was made worse by the fact that we were without Ben (who is on vacation...errr... I mean business).

As you can see, the girls had no desire to use their floatation devices intended for them, they simply insisted on using their own mother as their floatation device. This is why we were in the pool for only 20 minutes. And this was the exact position of the three of us for that entire time. It was actually a really long 20 minutes.

Some Catching Up...

So, I know I'm behind in my blogging. I'm just getting to the pictures taken in Vienna almost two months ago. We loved Vienna and hope to go back. It was beautiful and classic and clean and vibrant. The architecture was amazing... much of it from the 18th century.

My mom and Mary were enthusiastic travelers. It was Mary's first time being on a train!

Some famous dude (you can see I'm quite the connoisseur of Viennese history).

Mary at the National Museum

We learned about the long reigning Habsburg family (who I knew nothing about before). This is Franz Josef and his wife Elizabeth (Sisi) who were both fascinating figures.

This gold centerpiece/table runner is from the Habsburg era when they would put on lavish dinners. My camera couldn't catch all of it, but the piece on the very left is just the center. So, you can imagine how long this table runner was. Opulent!
Me, dork. But admire the beautiful architecture.

We spent a full day at Schonbrunn Palace, the summer home and gardens of the Habsburgs. It was beautiful to say the least.

So, this random guy approached us and offered to take our picture. He was awesome. My mom thought a picture of him would be a lot more interesting than a picture of us! So, in typical Debi style she snapped a quick photo as he walked off.

The palace also had a great zoo which Em loved.

Some great shots of Em and her blankie and Elmo waiting for the train. She loves the trains.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of our favorite things was attending this live concert that played all the typical Viennese classics... Strauss, Mozart, Schubert. It was just a little chamber orchestra, but they did awesome!

The apartment we stayed at. It had a really cool door. I know, we're dorks.

And one of the best parts of our visit was eating at Cafe Central, which has historically been a famous gathering place for intellectuals (that would be excluding us) and been frequented by the likes of Leon Trotsky, Sigmund Freud, Vladimir Lenin and Adolf Hitler. It was so fabulous we went there twice! We could have eaten there every day and been happy.

Our last night there we orded six desserts among the four of us. Worth every calorie.

Caroline was more interested in her coif than in her food, but what else is new?

Live music definitely added to the atmosphere

We took the overnight train from Vienna back to Warsaw. C was pretty pumped to be on the train.
She is Miss Speedy Gonzalez

And Em was perfectly happy to hunker down for the night, with Elmo and blankie of course. And we arrived back in Warsaw at 7:15 a.m. on Sunday and made it for 10:00 church! Now that's dedication I tell ya.