Summer 2013 Chapter 5 - Poland and Prague

Wednesday, Jami, Kason, Juli , and I loaded up the Jeep and set out for Poland and the pottery stores.  The town is Boleslawiec in southwest Poland and it is famous for its clay and that is why most of the Polish pottery comes from this area.  It took us about three to four hours to get there – we had to stop at another Ikea along the way to buy Kason and me each an owl puppet.  Juli had bought one on Tuesday and Kason fell in love with it.  I decided that my grandkids also needed one. 

Boleslawiec is not a very large town.  Poland is quite poor compared to Germany.  The roads are terrible.  But, the shops are so fun.  We went to about six or seven.  
 
  Here is Kason in one of them. 
 
 I like this exterior painted like the pottery.  

  The last shop we visited was teeny – in the lower level of a home.  The garage was full of unpainted pottery.  

 This was just outside the little shop.  Cute
 
Here is a photo of a Polish cemetary and the church next door
 
 
  
We ate dinner at the Blue Beetroot


which occupied a 400 year-old barn. 

 
  It was quite charming and they had gluten-free options. 

We stayed the night about 30 miles away at Elim Palace.  

 
 

 It was built during the Renaissance by a German family (the area of Poland was part of Germany at the time).  They are slowly restoring the building.  Here are some of the frescoes they have uncovered.


 Today it is run by a Christian ministry and they have created a sort of hotel/hostel.  We only paid 10 euro a piece for the night and we had a room with three bunk beds.  The shower/toilet was down the hall.  

Thursday we set out southward for the Czech Republic and Prague.  We drove through some beautiful countryside.  
 

 Prague was a nice surprise for me.  I went in with no expectations and I just couldn’t stop taking photos – it was so beautiful. 
 





The Charles Bridge has this dog and you will have good luck and return to Prague if you rub him.  He is pretty shiny - lots of rubbing.


We only stayed for about four hours but in that time, we watched the famous astronomical clock,
 
 we ate hotdogs and gelato in the square, we heard lots of street musicians

 
 
 ,we visited the John Lennon wall,
 
 watched other street entertainers,

 

and we shopped and shopped.  We got back to Vilseck sometime around 8:00, tired but successful shoppers. 

Summer 2013 - Chapter 4 Channeling Johann and Wilhelm

Monday morning, July 8^th, Juli and I set out on our own in Jami and Brad’s BMW to explore an area north of Vilseck but still in the central part of Germany.  This is the area where Bach was born and lived and it also just so happened to be the area where our great-great grandfather, Wilhelm Fraedrich was born.  So, we decided to take two days and see what we could see. 

Our first stop was to find an Aldi grocery store.  

 

 

 Aldi originated in Germany and we have them in the central United States.  I have shopped Aldi for 30 years and I LOVE them.  So, I had to check them out where they got their start.  Aside from everything written in German, and a few more home-goods, it was just like the ones here.  

Our next stop was to have lunch in Wiemar.  Bach lived and worked here for a few years.   

 

We ate our packed sandwiches in front of this building  

  

 that overlooked this square.  There were several people in the market selling erdberries (strawberries) and the smell was delicious. 

 

We didn’t linger too long but drove a bit more westward to Eisenacht.   

  

  Bach was born here and we took a tour of his house.

 

take a look at this experimental instrument from Bach's era - a trumpet/violin! I cannot imagine how someone plays it.  Maybe it takes two?  I just giggle trying to imagine playing it....

 

These are the gardens at Bach's house.

 

 Part of the tour included a small concert of his music performed on keyboards originating from his time period.  

 

 

I have to pause here and talk about how we navigated ourselves around on our own.  We had the Jensen’s GPS on the dashboard.  We had the GPS on my phone (I bought a small international data plan just for this purpose. WELL worth it!).  And we had a large, detailed paper map that Juli bought before the trip.  We used all three at various times and did pretty well most of the time.  We were a little worried when the car GPS sent us to our hotel in Duderstadt that evening.  We entered the town, we left the “civilized” part of the town and it looked like we were going to be camping in a field!  But, no, we rounded a turn and there it was, a big hotel out in the middle of a farmland.  Our room was very nice, as you can see.

 

 

Next morning, it was time to find Steinrode – a teeeeny town where Wilhelm Fraedrich came from.  We plugged the address into the car GPS and we ended up on a farmer’s tracter path!  

 

 I loved these poppies along the tracter path.....

 Maybe it would have eventually gotten us to Steinrode but we didn’t think Jami and Brad would appreciate getting a new alignment and exhaust system so we got out my phone GPS and found a more civilized road into town.   

 

 

  Here is the town nestled among the fields and hills.  So pretty.

We drove around, took pictures of the church.  

 

 

 We found this sign 

 

and, while we don’t speak German, it looks an awful lot like the weather rock that our dad used to have.  Surely you’ve seen them.  If it is wet, then it is raining. If it has white stuff on it, it is snowing.  Certainly more predictable than what you get on TV.

Time to head back south to catch a tour at 2:00 but we had to stop for lunch and when we saw this store – we knew it was the place!   

 

We shopped, we ate, and we had plenty of time to get to Rodental where we took a tour of the Hummel factory.  

 Our mother collected Hummels and all of us children have some of her collection in our own homes now.  The tour was fascinating (and in English!) and we had a hard time deciding which Hummel we were going to buy in remembrance.  (they are quite pricey).  

Our final stop was Bayreuth.  Now, neither Juli nor I are Richard Wagner fans (he has an opera house there) so we didn’t visit any of his sites.  We thought we were going to see a palace called Hermitage with some beautiful gardens and a famous fountain show but I accidentaly plugged the administrative office address into the GPS and we were taken to this lovely palace in the center of town. 

 

  We took a few photos, we walked to another famous opera house nearby 

 

 only to find it closed for renovation.  The time for closing was fast approaching but we decided to drive to the REAL Hermitage outside of town and we were so happy we did.  It was just gorgeous. 

 

 

 Can you tell that this is mosaic? 

 

 

 

We got home in time for a yummy dinner with Jami and Brad and off to bed because Poland and Prague were the next day – and the next chapter.

Summer 2013 Chapter 3 - Vilseck on Saturday and Sunday

Saturday morning, July 6^th, we had a 7:30 flight out of Stansted Airport which is located a ways outside of London.  Because of the earliness, we decided to rent a cab so we would only have to leave at 4:30 instead of 2:30 by taking public transportation!  We flew Ryan Air, a European discount airlines and, wow, everyone uses it because our line to check in was LONG.  But, we saved money and that was OK with me.  We flew into Nuremberg and took an hour-long train ride to Vilseck.  About all we did the rest of that day was rest, unpack, and drive to the commissary in Grafenwohr (20 minute drive away) to buy groceries.

Here is where Brad and Jami and Kason live.  They rent the top floor from a German couple.  It doesn't look very big but it is quite roomy inside.

Here Kason is opening his front door.

Once inside the door, you go up these stairs to the Jensen's apartment

Can you tell a soldier lives in this house????

This is the room where Juli and I slept.  We folded down the futon and put the air mattress on top.  Juli slept there.  I had a twin blow-up mattress that I put on the floor for me.  This room was Brad's military storage area.  I have never seen so many ruck sacks in my life!

Our view from our room

The view from the kitchen window.  What you can't experience is the delightful cool breeze coming in. 

These were on the wall in the basement where the washer and dryer were kept.

Kason showing the washing machine they used.  It is small and it takes about an hour and a half to wash a load of clothes!  They are VERY water efficient. But, it would seem to me that 90 minutes of electricity consumption would cancel out the water savings.  Hmmm

Kason showing the dryer.  It, too, is SO efficient that it takes two hours to dry a load!  Go figure.  However, it somehow extracts water from the clothes because there is tray of water to empty after each load.

This is the view looking down from their home.  At the foot of the hill is a little German grocery chain called Edeka

Sunday was church – back to  Grafenwohr.  It is an English-speaking branch comprised primarily of servicemen and women.  It is a young ward with LOTS of babies and young children.  And I thought Bear Creek Ward was noisy.  But, it is full of really terrific people.  Many are deploying in August with Brad and Jami will have a strong support group there.  

 

The LDS meetinghouse in Grafenwohr. 

After meetings, we drove to visit a concentration camp in nearby Flossenburg (why do they sometimes use “burg” and at other times “berg”???  German speakers, answer me this.) We toured a museum set up in one of the buildings that had been a dormitory.  Then we walked around the grounds.  Gardens and memorials and chapels now exist side-by-side with abandoned buildings of torture.  It is a very sacred place and I couldn’t keep from weeping as I wandered around. 

Entrance to the concentration camp in Flossenburg

Now, everything is beautiful and peaceful where once, unspeakable horrors took place

A church build on the grounds after concentration camp liberation.  

Jewish grave markers in Flossenberg

There are the ruins of a fortress at the top of a small mountain in Flossenburg and after we left the concentration camp, we went there.  It was not a very tall mountain and these old bones managed to get me to the top with only a couple of stop-to-catch-my-breath breaks.  It afforded a wonderful view of the surrounding area.  We were very close to the border so I am sure we saw views of the Czech Republic

Castle ruins in Flossenburg. 

Kason and Brad at the top of the mountain

view of the town of Flossenburg from the ruins

Here we all are (l-r) Juli, me Kason, Jami, Brad