The Bottomleys’ and Gaugers’ Trip to Germany, Poland, and Czech Republic: Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Poznan

Despite its unconventional location, all went well in our first night in the apartment near the junkyard and the trolley tracks. We took advice from Iza, our apartment owner, and ate at a nearby restaurant. Delish. Or das schmeckt sehr gut.

Today we made breakfast from food that Iza had provided (eggs, onions, and zucchini), and then we headed into town. We were ill advised and headed in the wrong direction. The problem was solved by Sue Anne and a nice lady conversing in French. Since we didn't really know too much about the place, we concentrated on wandering around, exploring, and hitting the tourist info office.

As was the case pretty much all through Poland, there had been a lot of destruction in WW II, but most cities had chosen to rebuild exactly as the buildings were before the war. The old market square (stary rynek in Polish) was stunningly beautiful. The building facades are amazingly ornate, and the surfaces were cheery colors....pink, yellow, green, blue, and orange too.

Crowds gathered at noon for the local attraction...two goats pop out of the City Hall tower, and butt heads twelve times. Toddlers giggled. It was good people watching...school children, babies, and fashion forward young people. Twenty percent of the population is university students. The young ladies are good at walking on cobblestones while wearing heels. And naughty little boys chasing pigeons. And one clever sparrow who snuck in and stole the loot from right under the pigeons, twice! Then we found a pedestrian street, a very upscale indoor mall (great lunch), and a bead store for Aimée.

Advice we received from a tourist guidebook: If you need directions in English, ask a young person. If you need them in Russian, ask an older person. The instructions turned out to be quite correct as far as our experience with the young people would indicate. We did have one situation with a middle-aged person, however, where French was the language of choice, as mentioned above.

Poznan was the site of the first Polish insurrection against the Russians, in 1956. It set the scene for subsequent protests, ultimately resulting in a form of government that was less tightly controlled by Russia. But well short of home rule. That didn't happen till the collapse of the Iron Curtain. There is a monument in town to the 1956 events, and also one to those murdered in the aftermath of the escape from Stalag Luft III (The Great Escape) which was not too far away.

Beyond this brief description of the day, we'll let the pictures speak for themselves.