Early Spring in Central Europe -- Poland

Two years ago, we were booked on a Gate 1 tour of Central Europe that was canceled a couple of weeks before our planned departure due to something called COVID-19. After moving to Portugal, we had hoped to reschedule in 2021. But...COVID. In February of 2022, the invasion of the Ukraine put our trip up in the air once again. But, even in the face of our friends looking at us with great concern, we departed for Poland to start our tour in mid-March.

As soon as we landed, we were met at every turn by the overwhelming support of Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees by the people of Poland. Our driver from the airport pointed out that the Ukrainians were their brothers and sisters. They share the same blood. We saw families at our hotel (with remarkably well-behaved children) and Ukrainian flags everywhere. It turns out that visiting at this moment in history was especially meaningful.

WARSAW

Will and I arrived in Warsaw two days prior to the beginning of the tour. This allowed us to explore and learn about the area where my father and his mother were born. This was a profound experience for me. We explored the Polin museum which is a comprehensive history of the Jews in Poland.

The breach in the outer wall of the Polin Museum symbolizes the impact of the Holocaust on Polish Jews. Before the war there were about 3 million Jews in the country. Today, there are fewer than 50,000.

In the background of this photo, you can see both the Polish and Ukrainian flags flying.

Outside Polin, there is a memorial to to Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Inside the museum is a synagogue from the 16th or 17th century. There is also a staircase with street names from the Ghetto in the order they were cleared in 1943. The street where my paternal grandmother was born, Wolynska Street, was one of the last streets eradicated. Fortunately, she had taken my father to the United States over 20 years before that.

The next day we visited the Warsaw Uprising Museum which details the 1944 uprising during which Poles fought back against the Nazis for about three months. In retribution, Hitler implemented the "take no prisoners" policy and basically leveled Warsaw. Almost the entire city has been rebuilt since the war. Poles are proud of the symbolism of the Phoenix rising from the ashes to represent current day Warsaw.

After the war, Stalin gifted the Palace of Culture building to Warsaw. It barely escaped being torn down when Communism ended in 1989. It is still the tallest building in Poland. It is referred to as Stalin's Penis.

One of the popular Polish dishes is pierogies. They come in many varieties with many fillings. I think I tried most of them in my attempt to have pierogies at least once a day. We enjoyed one dinner during which we were served by waitresses wearing pieorogie dresses. Many of the restaurants around Old Town still had their Christmas lights displayed.

Old Town Warsaw was rebuilt brick by brick to create an exact replica of the section as it was before the war. It is a lovely and lively place. The weather was quite warm and sunny and the Old Town Square area was bustling with tourists, locals, and Ukrainians.

Our tour started with a city tour of Warsaw and an excursion to the Wilanow Palace, which is a beautiful baroque 17th century palace of King John Sobieski III. The sculpture in the photo grouping below is of Chopin.

KRAKOW

On our way to Krakow, we stopped at Częstochowa, which is known as the spiritual capital of Poland. Millions of pilgrims visit each year to see the icon of the Black Madonna. Outside the cathedral area is a statue of the parents of Pope John Paul II.

Our Krakow city tour started with a stroll through the Jewish quarter. What once was a rather dodgy area has become trendy with restaurants and bars. I loved the menorah design on the fence around the park. There is another memorial to the Jews lost in the war in this section of Krakow. While en route to Krakow our guide showed us a video about Jan Karski, a diplomat and resistance-fighter. Although he was a gentile, the Jews revere his memory and have installed a beautiful sculpture of him in the Jewish quarter. His is a great story.

From there we visited Wawel Royal Castle high on a hill overlooking the city. It was the residence of kings for centuries. The dragon is a mythological symbol of the Avars and their victims. He breaths fire every once in a while. Karl Wotyla, who later became Pope John Paul II lived and worked here.

In what was the Krakow ghetto, there is another moving memorial to the people who died in the Nazi extermination camps. It consists of an open square with 33 empty bronze chairs. They are arranged in rows to symbolize the rows that ghetto residents had to stand during roll calls. They chairs represent those people who did not return.

Will took a great photo or one of the chairs in shadow.

Our visit to Krakow's Old Town Square was brief and left us longing to more time there. This is a city that we definitely want to come back to.

Our afternoon was spent visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps which are outside Krakow. Our guide explained that the Poles make an important distinction. These are not Polish concentration camps. They are Nazi camps in Polish territory. There are no road signs to Auschwitz. There are only signs to the town in which the Nazis built the camps: Oświęcim. While this is a difficult place to visit, we both felt it was important to remember and honor the 1.3 million people murdered there.

On our way toward Hungary, we had a stop at the wonderful small town of Orawka in the Tatra mountains, to view an old wooden church. A local woman was our host with our tour guide, Martina, translating for her.

So that you don't actually perish from boredom, I'll pick up the narrative in the next part.