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Final Post

On Sunday, we went back to the Polonia Palace hotel breakfast buffet before leaving for the airport. I gave the extensive list of items on the buffet in my last post, but noticed on Sunday that I had missed a few items: there was also oatmeal, olives, radishes, peppers, and pickled herring along with a few other unidentifiable kinds of fish. After breakfast, we headed to the airport. We had a really good day of travel - flights were on time, no problems or issues. First we flew from Warsaw to Heathrow Airport in London. At Heathrow, we made the connection to JFK in New York. The flight from Heathrow to JFK was 8 hours, and Denise and I were fortunate to have no one sitting in the entire rows where we sat. So we were able to lay down across the three empty seats and sleep. Also, I discovered the Steelers game on the monitor when there was 4 minutes left in the game. I could have watched the whole game had I known it was on. I did get to watch the Patriots-Jaguars game after, and so pa...
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Warsaw

On Saturday, we began our day with the hotel breakfast buffet which was included with the price of the room. The buffet consisted of the following: eggs (scrambled, boiled, fried, omelette), bacon, sausage, kielbasa, frankfurters, ham, prosciutto, salami, a number of different kinds of cheeses, tomatoes with mozzarella, baked tomatoes, mushrooms, fruit (melons, apples, banana, grapefruit), yogurt, cereals, pastries (muffins, croissants), baked apples with cranberries, baked beans, potato wedges, pancakes, breads, lettuce, cucumbers, tomato chunks, 4 or 5 kinds of block cheeses, coffee, tea, milk, and many different kinds of juices, including beet juice. After breakfast, Denise walked around Old Town Warsaw.  Joe was feeling a little worn out from all the walking the past few days, as he is still recovering from surgery, so Joe and I took a horse carriage tour of Warsaw. Some of the things we saw on the tour: the Royal Castle, the Presidential Palace, Copernicus monument, Marie Cu...
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Our Lady of Czestochowa

On Friday, we visited Our Lady of Czestochowa, which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Krakow. Our Lady of Czestochowa is a miraculous icon, a painting of Mary holding baby Jesus. This icon is considered miraculous because many miracles have been attributed to it. The image is hanging in a chapel behind the altar on the grounds of the Jasna Gora monastery. When we arrived, there was a group in the chapel praying the rosary. Shortly after, there was a Mass in the chapel. Apparently the chapel is filled all day with various groups praying the rosary, having Mass, or some other type of prayer service. Between the rosary and Mass, we had an opportunity to view the icon up close. There was a line. While we were waiting in line we were looking around at the beautiful chapel. On one wall hung crutches, so many that they covered the entire wall, presumably left there by people who had experienced miraculous healings here and no longer needed the crutches. After viewing the icon up close, we w...
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Auschwitz and Birkenau

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On Thursday, we spent a very somber morning visiting the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. We went to Auschwitz first, which is about a two hour drive from Krakow. At Auschwitz, we first entered the main gate, over which are the German words "Arbeit macht frei", which means "Work will set you free." After entering the compound, we walked around and saw the barracks, the mass execution sites including a long bar used for hanging ("the collective gallows"), the "Death wall" where prisoners were lined up and shot, artifacts such as shoes, eyeglasses, hairbrushes, luggage, Jewish prayer shawls, and an entire room full of hair that was collected after the prisoners' heads were shaved. Also on display were the ruins of the gas chamber, crematorium, and some human ashes.    In one of the barracks, we saw the room where St. Maximilian Kolbe died. Maximilian Kolbe was a Catholic priest who had been sent to Auschwitz. After a prisoner ha...
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Krakow

On Wednesday, we walked to the Old Town section of Krakow, which is the most popular tourist destination in Poland. Here there is a central town square, cafes, shops, churches, etc. all situated along narrow cobblestone streets lined with buildings of medieval architecture. Our first stop was a visit to the church of St. Peter and Paul. St. John Paul's parents were married in this church. (St. John Paul was from Krakow.) Our next stop was the Wawel Castle and the Wawel Cathedral. Being the Cathedral, this is the church John Paul II would have been at when he was Archbishop of Krakow, from 1964-1978, at which time he was elected Pope. Needless to say, John Paul is extremely popular in Krakow. All the churches we visited had John Paul chapels within them. The Wawel Cathedral was beautiful. It has many side chapels on either side of the main nave. There were many large tapestries hanging in the church. Many Polish kings are buried in the crypt beneath the Cathedral. Our next stop ...
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Four Small Towns and a Salt Mine

On Tuesday, we left Lublin and headed toward Krakow. Along the way, we drove through some small Polish towns that Joe and Denise's paternal grandparents were from. The first town was Harklowa, where their grandmother was from. Then we drove to Lipinki, where their grandfather was from. Next was Libusa, where we think the grandparents got married. And then we went through Gorlice, which is where they lived at one time. It was very interesting seeing these places where family members had lived. It made us feel a connection to the area. As we continued toward Krakow, we stopped along the way to tour the Wielieczka Salt Mine. The Wielieczka Salt Mine is one of the oldest salt mines in the world. It began mining salt in the 13th century, and mined continuously until 2007. Today it is just used for tours. We began the tour by descending many, many steps down a wooden staircase into the mine. By the end of the tour, we had climbed down 435 steps. The salt mine is no longer working as ...
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Bialowieza National Forest

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On Monday morning, we took a private tour of Bialowieza National Forest. Our tour guide, Maria, pointed out all the different types of flora, and gave us a bit of history of the area. There is a place in the forest where there are some crosses. They are a memorial to the Jews that the Germans had killed here in the forest during the war. At one point on the tour, we were close (about 3 miles) to the border of Belarus. We saw a wolf cross the trail in front of us right before we exited the park. After our tour, we drove to Lublin, which was about 240 km (150 miles). The roads here are not very good. It took us about 4 hours, not counting stops. Along the way, and in fact all over Poland and Lithuania, we have been seeing Storks nests - lots of them. They are huge: they can be up to 6 feet in diameter and 9 feet deep. They are made of sticks - very large sticks - and are built on top of telephone poles. Because they can weigh several tons, the telephone companies have to reinforce...
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