Tuesday 19 December 2006

Weekend & beyond!

Well, it's been a busy few days and I now have time to sit and review what we have done. First. we had the best possible day on Saturday. Our tour to Zakopane consisted of only us! We turned up at the meeting point and Dave and Will went off for a stroll as we had 20 minutes to spare. I was just admiring a very smart Mercedes 300 series, shiny black and rather cool, when the driver, who had been lovingly polishing it, came up to me and asked if I was going on the Zakopane tour. It turned out this was our driver!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yahoo!!!!!! A day touring in a Merc! What more could one ask for.

The driver, Stanislaw, took us to the oldest wooden built village in Poland.http://www.zakopane-life.com/guide/Podhale/Chocholow.php This is amazing. It looks as though it is a wooden LEGO village. You MUST visit it! Stas took us to a friend's house built in 1885 and part is a museum with original documents all in German (Austro-Hungarian Empire) releasing the man of the house from the army!! In addition, there are original utensils, wooden artifacts etc.
Then we went into the modern part of the building (1906) where the descendant of the owner is a wood carver! His work is just amazing. of course we bought a few things - with no pressure at all.

Next, we carried on to the top of a hill from where we could see the highest point of the Bieskady Mountains. As if this wasn't enough, as soon as we drove over a hill we saw the Tatras! Although the sun was behind them they were truly stunning. We had the prefect weather - brilliant sunshine and no wind.

I was brought up on tales from my father about escaping from the advancing German and Soviet forces in the early days of WW2, so to see the range of mountains he crossed was truly awesome. They are well worth seeing - even though there was very little snow.

We had a great morning going up in the funicular railway to view across to the Tatras, and then before we had some lunch we went to a cemetery. Now this one is really different. Each headstone is carved in a different way - wood, boulder, marble, stone. Each had a different inscription - not at all like the headstones I saw last year up in Uniejow and environs. We could have done with more time to look at them. Again, if you go to Zakopane you must not miss this place.

In addition, the local church is the oldest wooden church existing here. Everything is wooden - everything. We also saw a tiny church, again of wood, which looked really small from the outside, but when we went in was really large! Again, it was truly beautiful.

The market sold everyting frm cheese (YUMM!) to tablecloths and St Bernard puppies!! Honestly!

Away from wood we saw the four ski jumps where Polish ski-jumpers train. They start as little people on really tame jumps (!!!!) and progress to bigger and bigger, finally reaching the World Championship jump!! I tell you, it is amazing. You have to see it to believe it. I reckon anyone who does this is either as nutty as a fruitcake or incredibly brave!

The drive home was pretty good but as ever it was dark by the time we got back. We decided to try out another restaurant - this time a Ukranian one near Wawel. all went well, I ordered in Polish then came the below the belt blow ^&*()_ in Polish!!!!! Turned out she wanted to know if we wanted potatoes and salads etc. She was terribly confused - thought I was Polish then I uttered the magic phrase "Nie rozumiem" I don't understand. Ho hum! But we got everything.

A word on service... there are a number of places that really need a few lessons in post-Communist service. Never mind... they will get it right and frankly, we have been having such a good time that we can forgive them. After all, the women in the markets smile and are very sympathetic to our Polish attempts and we have been asked for help as well as directions (Will).

And that was Saturday!

Sunday we went shopping in our favourite shopping centre. Will bought a digital camera - prices are VERY cheap here... I am seriously considering a new camera myself. It was very cold and raining so we spent the morning there, had calzone for obiad and then wandered home. Not a very exciting day but there was homework to do and since I had done mine on Friday Dave did his.

Now you are asking about pictures of the Tatras? Okay - I confess I forgot my camera! Sorry! So you'll just have to visit for yourself!! Meanwhile try this:
http://alamy.com/stock_photography/6/1/look+Galeria/AMERT5.html

And that's enough for now. I will do a catch up tomorrow - the last day of school. And coming up -our elder son appears tomorrow, we visit the salt mines and Auschwitz, and Will does the Communist tour of Nowy Hute!

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures!

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