Poland trip, third post

May 30:

In the morning, we did another trip around Wrocław, including many beautiful buildings, the Love Bridge, and the University. We walked around the square for a time (including a trip to the local E Wedel for chocolate and a quick lunch), and then took a ride to Ksiaŋz Castle. The castle was built over centuries by the noble family of the region… but during World War II, it was seized, first by the Nazis, who were rebuilding it as a palace and bunker for Hitler, and then by the Russians. Almost all of the furnishings were stolen, and much of the building itself was destroyed, sometimes by new construction, and sometimes by simple vandalism. While the exterior and gardens are still amazing, the interior tour was a bit sad. I got pictures of a few of the best parts.

The structure reminds me of the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville: huge and gorgeous, but clearly a show of wealth and power, and for every person who lived like this, there were thousands of others living in shacks.

Then to the Peace Church in Świdnica. Built after the Thirty Years War in 1648, it is a Lutheran church, built by permission of the Catholics, who imposed restrictions: it could only be built of wood and earth (not stone), and the structure had to be completed in a year. The construction was completed in post-and-beam, wattle-and-daub, like every Tudor house in England. It his stood for almost 400 years. It’s a typical structure of its type on the outside; on the inside, it is filled with decoration, gilding, painting, and two organs. 

We had dinner at a restaurant run by the son of the minister, and took the bus back to the Wrocław hotel. 

May 31

Mostly a long day on the bus. We went a few hours to Torùn, birthplace of Copernicus. They have (of course) a statue of Copernicus, with the motto, “TERRAE MOTOR SOLIS CAELIQUE STATOR” (roughly, “he made the Earth to move, and the Sun and the sky to stay still”). Torùn is beautiful, with much of the city walls intact, buildings old and new in the square (including a Victorian-era post office and guild-office rebuild, both made to look like brick baroque), and statues whimsical and serious. Torùn is also known for gingerbread; we got some, but the chocolate at the E Wedel we stopped at was better.

Above: the tower IS leaning; there's a ground-subsidence issue due to the ground clay drying out in several cities we visited.

Then back on the bus to Gdańsk. When the Germans had it, they called it Danzig; it’s a port on the Baltic, and, as such, of huge strategic importance. It’s changed hands more times than the queen in a game of Old Maid. We took a boat ride on an imitation pirate ship (on the Vistula river? Really?), and then stopped while the guide gave us some WW2 history. 

Some of the first shots of the war were here. The Nazis sent in a huge ship to the river, supposedly in tribute, which then opened fire on the five guardhouses protecting the harbor. A force of 180 men were outnumbered almost 20 to one between the ship and land forces; the Poles had small arms and a mortar that fired three-inch shells; the Nazis had a battleship with four cannon that shot eight-inch shells. The small garrison at the guardhouses got the order to hold off the Nazis for thirty-six hours so that naval vessels in a nearby city could get away to Britain. After six days, the Poles were still holding off the Nazis. Each day on the radio, the message would go out, “Westerplatte broni sieŋ jeszcze” – “Westerplatte continues to fight”. It was a huge inspiration to the Polish at the beginning of the war, and I still tear up about it as I write these words. 

June 1:

In the morning, to the old town in Gdańsk. TEW has decided she LOVES Gdańsk (and is apparently unfazed by the clear superiority of Torùn). Gdańsk has been a major port on the Baltic for over a millennium, and many of the buildings in the old town reflect this: granaries (and buildings restored to look like granaries), and one of the first clocks in Europe, with only an hour hand, visible from the sea (it’s HUGE), because the ports were only open from 10am to 6pm. There is a huge basilica here, to Mary (of course), with a (15th century?) mechanical clock inside that, at noon, has a show where scenes from the bible appear, as do representatives of the major contemporary trades. The organist plays to accompany, and takes a break for Adam and Eve to strike the hour, then resumes as the figures parade off, and a figure of death takes their place as a memento mori. I didn’t get pictures of that, as the camera battery had memento mori-ed shortly before. We saw the guild hall (very ornate), and a statue to Poseidon – this is, after all, a port city.

In the afternoon, to Marbork Castle. Beginning in about the 14th century, Poles began building with brick instead of stone: stone generally had to be imported, where good brick could be made of the local clay. Marbork is the largest brick fort in the world. Built by and for the Teutonic Knights, a fighting monastic order, after the Crusades were over, it was bought by the Polish king at the time (which eliminated the problem of having to take it by force; after all, the loyalties of the many mercenaries inside at the time were directly tied to whoever was providing the funds that paid them).

Marbork is in the part of Poland that went to the Germans during the partition, and they rebuilt it to their needs. Then the war came, and much was destroyed (there are pictures, but you can largely tell by the lighter color of the reconstruction bricks), and the Soviets did nothing to restore it – all of the restoration has been done since Poland achieved independence. (I’m impressed by how much time, energy, and money to Poles put into restoring their heritage, with little thought to how it would enrich individuals).

Above, what it looked like after German, and then Russian, occupation. You can see the rebuilt parts by the color of the brick.

Because it was a monastery, albeit for a fighting order, it reminded me of my seminary days: there’s a cloister to walk around as you say your daily prayers, a fancy chapel in the best part of the building, a common room where the official and political business was done (including preferred seating for the most important offices). I kept thinking, “deus, in adjutorium meum intende; domine, ad adjuvandium me festina”, “God, come to my aid, Lord, make haste to help me”, in the doggy church-Latin (with the j’s) of my 1970’s education. 

June 2:

Many-hour bus ride from Gdańsk back to Warsaw, broken up by a “Be Our Guest” lunch (I think this is a Trafalgar Tours policy) at the Kwaśne Jabłko (that last word is so hard to pronounce, that even the Poles usually elide over it) farm and orchard. This is run by the cutest farming couple, deeply serious about the organic quality of their food, and sourcing locally. All of the food we were served was raised by farms within about a ten-mile radius, and they spoke eloquently (even in a second language) about the importance of multiple varieties of produce, keeping the land restored, and local eating. The unpronounceable name means “sour apples”, because they use the apples that grew “wild”, locally, to make hard cider. They say that while there are about sixteen varieties of apples sold worldwide in groceries, they have over forty on their farm, after decades of allowing apple trees to cross-pollinate. The owners were brilliant, and delightful.

Above two: I'm not generally one to Instagram my plates, but these were locally sourced and produced, and delightful.

And then in the evening to another Chopin concert, by chance at the same small hall we’d been to on the second night we were here. The pianist, another Japanese young woman, was technically flawless, but the woman we heard last week put on a better show. As we were leaving, TEW was able to get the name of the woman we’d heard last week, and may pursue the CD now.

Tomorrow, onto the plane to go home.

Poland trip, second post

 

This is the second of three posts about our trip to Poland. 

May 26:

Up early and on the bus to go to the shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa. The icon here is painted on wood, and then the figures are then “dressed” in jewels, gold, and fine fabrics. 

The story is that St Luke, who wrote the gospel, painted it on a table used by the Holy Family. Subsequent research dates it to a few hundred years later. There are at least two stories of attacks on the icon, the most dramatic of which the two slashes on the cheek: in the 1430’s the Hussites tried to destroy the icon. One swordsman struck the icon twice; before he could strike the third time, he himself was struck dead, as by divine intervention.

Whether you believe it or not, clearly many people have, and there is clearly something going on here that I am not tuned in on. The chapel of the icon is packed with medallions, medals, silver plates with images of people, crutches, metal arms and legs, crutches, and whatever else, from people who apparently were aided by prayer to or through the icon. People were praying devoutly, and, being the season it is, there were first-communion recipients in the usual white,, with their families looking on. While we tourists shuffled through with various levels of embarrassment and cluelessness, the faithful were connecting with something here. I’m not at all a believer anymore, but it reminded me of my experience at the giant redwoods last year: there’s something here that, as I said, I’m not tuned into… but that doesn’t mean nobody is.

From there, we went to Krakow. As I write this, we’ve been in Krakow for about 24 hours, and it is simply the most beautiful city. We got a tour from a local of the Vavel Hill, the many churches, the history, and the effects of both the Nazi’s and communism.

In the evening, we took a walking tour of the Jewish quarter and the Krakow ghetto, with many references to the Schindler’s List movie. Unfortunately, rain kept us from completing the tour, but it was arresting.

May 27th:

Today, up early to go to the salt mine at Wieliczka. Salt has been mined here for centuries, due to the lack of ocean front in Poland; at one time, the salt mine counted for up to a third of the Polish monarch’s considerable fortune. We saw how the mine worked… but, especially in the last century, miners have created sculptures of the salt, and cut out special rooms, including chapels, a “cathedral”, and meeting rooms and a restaurant. The salt mine was among the first UNESCO world-heritage sites.

Later, back to Krakow to walk around and gawk. We caught the heynał at noon at the Maryacki Basilica (a trumpet call played on the hour; legend is to remember the intrepid trumpeter who climbed the tower and played the brief melody to the four cardinal directions to warn of some attack or other, until an arrow to the throat interrupted the melody). Then a leisurely lunch, and then to the historic clock at the Jagellonian University, to see the parade of clockwork mechanical canons, intellectuals, military figures, and royalty who come out several times a day, as the clock strikes certain hours. Then some shopping, and a visit to an E. Wedel chocolatier… and then back to the hotel for a nap. Which is what I intend to do now.

May 28th:

We were up early, and took a final walk around Krakow. TEW says you can’t do Krakow appropriately in fewer than five days (she may have decided by now that it’s up to seven), and this visit has apparently been a note-taking exercise for a longer city visit she intends for the future. 

Then onto the bus for a visit to Zakopane in the Tatra mountains. TEW tells me that there is a mystique to the highland dwellers in Poland, for which she wasn’t able to find an adequate comparison. Still, Zakopane is a tourist destination, and the center of the city has an active open market and many shops of various types; I was able to finish some of my Christmas shopping here (and to replace an umbrella that broke in the Krakow ghetto). And despite the presence of a E Wedel in town, we did NOT stop in, suggesting that even TEW has her limit for chocolate, a condition I would not have otherwise believed.

The Tatra mountains are not high in comparison to mountains elsewhere, but here in late May, the highest peaks are snow-covered, and the mountains make their own weather. In response to the mountains, the locals have developed a unique style of architecture, with high, sharply-pitched roofs, and unpainted wooden outer walls. This was baffling to me; the softwood of which these outer walls are made should rot and fall to pieces in ten to fifteen years. Our local guide tells us that the locals scrub the walls, once a year, with soap and water, and some of these buildings have stood for a century and a half, with only this treatment. The pictures show a famous local chapel and some other buildings. TEW was also taken with the cemetery, where one can only get buried if one is sufficiently noteworthy, either as a mountaineer or a Polish citizen; the criteria reminded me of Père LaChaise in Paris.

In the evening, we stopped at a local restaurant for an authentic local meal, accompanied by a trio playing Tatra music on two violins and what appears to be a three-stringed cello. Some of the music was fast and complicated, like Irish or Cajun tunes; other pieces reminded me of music of the late medieval period or early Renaissance, or what Händel might have written, were he writing music of shepherds or other rustics.

And to bed. Early start tomorrow; on our way to Auschwitz.

May 29, 2025:

Auschwitz. I took no pictures here. The pictures in this post, and the blog generally, are thing I find beautiful, interesting, funny. Auschwitz is horrifying. Auschwitz, and the surrounding camps (because there was a whole system of camps associated with Auschwitz), are what happens when people in power, and the mass that follows them, see some other group, not as people, but as a problem to be dealt with. Like the Chinese and the Uighurs. Perhaps like the US and the Latin-American immigrants.

We were lucky to have a long bus ride to Wroclaw after the tour here. I could come to some kind of peace, however uncomfortable, with what I’d seen and heard in the morning.

We got to Wrocław (say “Vrotswav”) late in the afternoon, and did a brief visit around some of the islands (Wrocław is on the Oder River, and the several islands in the river at the city have been connected by bridges for cars or pedestrians). We saw some of the Renaissance and later buildings, and a courtyard where had been hung neon signs that were one of the few colorful legacies of the Communist era.

I’ve had a thought about Poland. Poland was a force for almost a thousand years, but beginning at the end of the eighteenth century, it disappeared, having been divided between Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Reconstructed after the first world war, Poland was divided between Germany and Russia during the second world war. Nonetheless, it is full of beauty and culture, of much of which I (for one) was unaware. History, of course, is written by the winners, and in recent centuries, Poland has not been a winner. But that doesn’t mean that there is nothing here, or that the spirit of these people should be lightly discarded. I think that is true for other cultures that have not been dominant, as well. Just because they have not been dominant, doesn’t mean they are to be washed away.