Kazimierz Dolny

28 Sept.
Today we traveled by bus to Kazimierz Dolny, a town some 50 mi. from Lublin, on the Vistula River in the direction of Warsaw. Gary has been to Kazimierz several times in previous years, most recently last year with Irmina and Jarek, Andy and Ian. Previous visits were in the summer, when the town is crawling with tourists, artists, summer residents from Warsaw, and those employed to sell things to them. As we are now in late September, the town has about 1/10 of its summer peak population.

Crossing the town square after leaving the bus, the first thing we saw was a fire truck with a camera crew on top, a man giving instructions to about 20 young people under a large shade, and a number of (fellow) gawkers. We found out a little later that they were shooting a commercial that day. Hard to tell what the product was, but we did see a young couple (stars of the commercial) in wedding dress.

Our visit was divided between having some ice cream and coffee, browsing souvenir stands, walking up the hlll to the castle ruins and tower, visiting the parish church in K. of St. John the Baptist and St. Bartholomew, having a bit of lunch at a deserted, upscale restaurant, strolling for a bit along the river, and then catching the bus back to Lublin. Our trip to K. was on one of the local minibuses, packed and rather bouncy; the return was on a regular bus, smoother but quite hot—Wendy said I’d promised her a sauna on this trip.

Pictures:

Views of the Vistula River and the town from the tower







Here we are at the tower’s top (long climb) and on top of the castle ruins







Wendy in her Viking helmet, prepared to defend the castle



Gary relaxing at lunch, the church and castle in the background



Exterior and interior views of the church. A sign noted that the organ is the oldest in Poland

Warsaw

Images from Warsaw. We will add commentary when we can, probably not until Sat. 26 Sept.

Actually, today is Sunday 27 Sept. The pix here date from Thursday, when we went to Wilanow, the summer residence of the 18th-c. kings. Very neo-classical, as you can see. We did a quick tour of the interior, then walked about the grounds a bit.



Two silhouettes . . . some spectacular flowers hereabouts.









After Wilanow, we returned to the old town. Here is Zygmunt's column near the royal castle. To the right of the picture is our hotel, the Castle Inn.



Wendy was tempted by some of the watercolors of Warsaw scenes.



Pigeons are a constant feature hereabouts, competing with the European crows for the odd bit of food.



Friday morning we walked down by the river Wisla (Vistula). The symbol on the wall here is the WWII vintage Polska Walczaza *have to check my Polish here*, meaning Poland fighting. During Solidarity it was adapted to have a letter S and anchor points incorporated.



View of the Old Town in the morning.



Gary taking a bit of the local pastry . . .



Image from Wilanow which we thought interesting--the statue seems to be shading its eyes from the sun.



We came to Lublin on Friday afternoon, and are now comfortably set up in Anna and Tomasz Dadlez's apartment. We will catch up later in the week.

Catching up

Not having internet reliably in Copenhagen has slowed down the blogging a bit. The images in this post are from Monday afternoon and Tuesday, but as of now it's Wed. afternoon and we are in Warsaw.

Seeing that Copenhagen is very oriented to bicycle traffic--as you can see from the photo below from outside the central train station--we decided to rent bikes ourselves and tour a bit.



The bikes tend to be basic and sturdy, and come with handy little locking devices which hold the rear wheel in place, thus discouraging theft. Sven the waiter told us that there is a bicycle theft in Copenhagen 2X per hour. With as many bikes as there are, I'm surprised it's not 2X per minute.

One of the areas we toured which is most photogenic is the area near one of the canals (or lakes? They don't seem to join up with the sea).





Later in the day we rode beside another such lake or canal.



There's a long pedestrian shopping area called the Stroget which we explored quite a bit. Tuesday night we explored it to excess, looking for the perfect shawarma stand . . . eventually having to settle for a less-than-perfect one. Plenty of miles on our shoes so far.

Nearby streets have shopkeepers at work maintaining their stands, as with this man.



Later in the day we went to Helsingor, a.k.a. Elsinore from Hamlet. Here's an exterior view of the castle:



The castle's bastions are quite impressive. We took the casement tour underneath this bastion, which was like a large, dank, dark, unpleasant cave. That's where the soldiers stayed in time of war or for punishment. On the tour our guide had to relight a dozen or so kerosene lamps which some young scamps had turned off. We suggested they be imprisoned in the casement for a while as punishment . . .



Here's the castle's courtyard:


Two interior shots, one of the room where the kings met with military officers, one of a fireplace with Wendy and a guide. Kronborg was a real money-maker beginning with Erik of Pomerania, who began charging ships a fee allegedly for protection from pirates. The fee initially was a single gold coin roughly equivalent in worth to a cow; a later king raised the price to 1.1% of the cargo and first rights to buy the cargo itself. Eventually in the mid-19th c. Denmark was paid an enormous sum of money to stop charging tolls.





Here's a shot of one side of the pulpit in the Kronborg chapel.



The better of our two guides--she was very well-informed and helpful about the castle's history--not about its art--and as you can see, she has a very nice smile.




We prevailed on some fellow tourists to take our picture by the cannons.




Dinner at Restaurant Dubrovnik Mon. night. We ate a little late, but it was fairly empty. Dinner here is expensive—a bit of sticker shock is setting in, when you spend $90 on a fairly ordinary, but good, meal, with limited alcohol. Intended to walk through Tivoli after dinner, but we discovered the admission price of 240 DK or $48 US each, which is pretty steep for what we wanted to do (i.e., not ride rides or attend a concert or anything).

Wed. lunch in Warsaw at Restauracja Slowianska--better meal, for my taste, at perhaps 1/3 the cost of the Dubrovnik dinner. It's a measure of the relative economy in both cities.

First day in Copenhagen

Sunday morning about 11:30 Copenhagen time, which would be about 5:30 EDT. The SAS staff have just distributed the Hot Towels. These are tightly rolled, steamed washrags used to freshen up. It is hard to describe how refreshing it is to get a hot towel after maybe three hours’ sleep in a cramped position.

Trans-Atlantic travel affords about four meals in 24 hrs. irrespective of which direction you are traveling. We had a sandwich at the Hilton bar at O’Hare about 4:30 p.m. CDT, boarded the airplane at 9:20, and they served another, large meal at midnight CDT. Now it’s 4:30 a.m. CDT and we’be been told that breakfast is coming. In the other direction you’re living a 30-hr. day and the same routine . . . we’re going to have to walk 20 miles to work it off.

The plaza in front of the Radhuset (town hall) is a good public space for performers (and gypsies). Here are two flute players performing in the evening.



After a good deal of walking, we settled into a brewpub, the Bryggeriet Apollo, for a light dinner and some excellent beer and wine. Highly recommended. This is a picture of Sven, the waiter, at the next table. He had a couple of food suggestions for later.



Another patron, Annike, added a further suggestion for dinner.



Wendy, a few minutes before we had dinner: "FEED ME!"



9/21
First day of autumn. So far the weather has been splendid—yesterday evening about 23 C., which is about 73 F. Today we are updating our blog in a gay bar, Oscar's, near the Central Station. They serve good espresso. We're catching up on post cards and getting ready to rent some bicycles for the afternoon. Spent the first few hours of the morning strolling through the Latin Quarter, Christiansborg Slot and the Stroget... lots of unique little shops and cafes... cobblestone streets, canals... great architecture. So.. we've had our caffeine fix and are ready for the bikes..... to be continued....

Preparations

The bed in the guest bedroom has had piles of clothes on it for weeks now. I had a test run of packing the backpack that I will check, and so far everything fits. However, I keep turning up books which I will want to have, too late to be included in the general mailing. So I think one of my Friday chores will be to go by the PO and send another box o' books.

"Beware of any enterprise which requires the purchase of new clothes," says Henry David Thoreau (an approximate quote). In that case I have reason to beware, as I have several new items: Wendy has put me onto the Ex Officio brand of light, fashionable, durable, outdoorsy clothes, so I have a fleece, long-sleeved shirts, and two pairs of wash-and-dry underwear. In the clothes box en route to Poland are several new ties and shirts, slacks and a suit coat. But I suppose their purchase was not required--the trip served as an excuse to update my wardrobe a bit.

In two days and eight hours from now, we'll be checking into MBS airport. Fortunately, the airlines changed our departure from the original to an earlier time, giving us a few hours in Chicago. We might elect to leave the airport and take a taxi to a decent restaurant nearby, or we might allow nerves to keep us at O'Hare and sample what they have. I've eaten at the Chili's there, and Andy says they have a good hot dog stand.

I've gone all summer feeling pretty laid-back about the whole experience, but as the time approaches, it's getting more and more exciting. The house prep has moved along quite manageably. I cleaned carpets yesterday--not exactly a sign of panic. Guide books have been thumbed. Polish has been studied (a little bit, at least). If I'm overlooking something important, it hasn't come to me yet. Wendy's prep has been tighter thanks to her work schedule, of course, but I think things are falling into place for her as well. We're off, in two days and 7.5 hours now.