Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Wroclaw

Breakfast at our Poznan apartment, load the car, and we were off in the direction of Wroclaw. Attractive countryside, generally consisting of large fields, neatly kept woods, and the occasional small town. Autumn colors weren't quite up to New England standards (not enough reds), but lovely nonetheless.

We stopped in one of the larger towns as it looked like a good place for a morning coffee break. There was the traditional Town Hall (painted pink and white) in the middle of a square, there were shops on all four sides of the square, and there was a shop-lined street branching off of it. But there wasn't a single place for coffee. And we had learned the word for it by then...kawa, pronounced kava. No restaurant, no coffee shop, nothing! We asked a women if she could help. She thought for a long time and then suggested some place near a sport stadium. It seemed too far to go, and the directions were too complicated. We did finally find a small market and procured enough for a modest DIY juice and donut snack. Sue Anne did a drawing, and Aimée bought lace curtains while in the “town with no coffee” as we now refer to it. She had been searching for lace for a long time.

GPS took us right to the location of our rental apartment (Sleepwalker Apartments) in Wroclaw, though parking turned out to be a bit of a challenge. We did find a public parking lot, and it was a horrible mess of cars crammed in every which way. We survived the glare of a stern-faced man and did manage a relatively proper park, good enough to accommodate the car while we did the final reconnaissance of the neighborhood. That did lead us to the official parking lot for our apartment. It too was none too artistically laid out either, but it was where we needed to be.

And, quite fascinating, it overlooked a construction site that was the subject of a mandatory architectural dig prior to starting the foundations of the new buildings. We don't know what used to be there, but there were exposed remnants of brick cellars a couple of levels below grade. The university professor and archaeologist in charge told Steve that his students were excavating the latrines, customary places for throwing away broken crockery and other stuff that acquires historical value many years later. We rely upon Steve for these sort of details from his constant befriending of the locals.

While we were waiting to get in to the apartment, we savored our coffees and fruit tarts at the Café Fusy across the street.

Check in, get the final details on parking, unload the car, and react with amazement at the great layout of our apartment. Everything brand new. Full kitchen with dishwasher. Balconies front and back. Laundry room nearby. (European washing machines are SO difficult for us North Americans. All the laundry choices are in symbols we don't understand. Picture all four of us squatting down and squinting and doing our best group effort to get something washed.) The apartment was so different from the previous two days in Poznan. It was plush, and large enough to get lost in.

It was an easy walk to the City Hall square. Aimée and Steve recognized a few places from their previous visit here, and we decided on dinner at the restaurant in the basement of City Hall. (It would be the Ratskeller in Germany, but we weren't sure what the Polish word might be.) We did think to check ahead of time whether they accepted credit cards, and the negative answer brought about a quick trip to the ATM as we were all pretty low on zlotys. Then we settled down at our table. The restaurant was utterly beautiful inside. Clearly a source of pride for the city. Dinner was delightful. We did discover that a 'large' wine consisted of a large, full glass accompanied by a large carafe containing at least two more glasses, and a 'small' was essentially the same thing only smaller. As it was throughout Poland, prices were very reasonable, and the food delicious and beautifully presented.

Then a bit more wandering in the square led us to the 24-hour outdoor flower market. Who would have thought that there would be enough demand to make something like this feasible. Are there that many guys who go out drinking with their buddies and need a late night / early morning bribe to get back into the house? For a mere 10 zlotys (a bit over $3) we procured a very nice little arrangement to bring back to our apartment. Sue Anne's estimate would put the equivalent at about $15 back home in the US. (The flowers are still alive and well and have been traveling with us for days now.)

No pix today. It was a travel day. Lots of them tomorrow from our day in Wroclaw. Oh, yes, it's pronounced something like 'Frot-swaf'. But we don't roll the r's well.