Trip to Lublin

After nearly seven months we finally found a day for a trip out of town together. Lublin, about two hours southeast of Warsaw was our destination and getting there via a two lane road on a Saturday P-Day was an experience in and of itself. You see, (as we found out) they not only drive really fast but if they want to pass, you had better move onto the shoulder, (if there is one) because they are going around you like it or not and regardless if an oncoming car is approaching, which there always was. I've never quite seen the likes of it and we felt very blessed to have arrived safely at both ends! Anyway, the city was first made reference to as early as 1317 and century or two later became one of the most prosperous centers of royal power. In 1939-44 it was occupied by the Germans where the infamous Majdanek concentration, (extermination) camp was built. Some 78,000 Jews and Polish met their death in this camp. Beyond this, Lublin became, for a mere 164 days the communist capital of Poland.

The photos of the camp don't even come close to the feeling and emotion you experience as one sees it in person. We have taken just a sampling of pictures of what took place. You will notice the artifacts from the prisioners, the uniforms of the guards, the tubs where the clothes were decontaminated, the showers and then the gas chambers. From here they were hauled to the crematoriam, which if you were walking/driving by on the street, 500 yards from the site you could see the smoke of the burned bodies. This camp was in sight of homes, streets and even a Catholic cemetary, but no one seemed to notice or care. The monument in front is a dedication for the memory of all who were taken at this horrible place. If you look closely, or enlarge it you see it's size when you notice Jean at the base on the left.

Afterwards, we visited the old town, (Renyk) for a look at some of the old, restored buildings and shops. There must have been 85 places to eat so of course we had to find a nice little Jewish food cafe where we indulged in Humas with olives and the freshest pita bread ever put in one's mouth along with a wonderful feta-layden Greek salad with a sweet olive oil dressing. I couldn't get enough!

There are a few photos of the castle which remains after years of turmoil. During WW II the Germans used it as a place to house Polish political prisioners, who after the Germans were forced into retreat by the oncoming Russians killed many thousands as they abandoned the castle grounds.

A final note; the young lady in the photo had just walked out from under the archway and then stopped, looking around as if she was posing for a photo. So of course, I obliged her and was especially interested in how anyone could manuever around on cobblestone streets in what looked to be 6-7" highheels. This, of course, was my one and only reason for snapping this picture..................??

'The Pottery Barn'

The time had come to take a little trip and see some sights. Nola Harber and I decided skip town and go to the small town of Boleslawiec which is known for their Polish Pottery as the best and whitest clay is found there. I picked Nola up in Lodz early Thurdsay morning and off we went. The roads are not your every day freeways but small 2 lane roads involving white knuckle driving with some 4 lanes interspersed in sections. The countryside was beautiful, lots of huge fertile fields with crops already planted. I found out that the fields of yellow flowers were flowers harvested for Canola oil. We arrived in Boleslawiec in the middle of the afternoon and as most places closed at 5pm, we scouted out the places we wanted to hit and then drove back to Wroclaw an hour away for the night.
The next morning again off we went. The weather was perfect for a day of Pottery shopping. There are 2 traditional Polish patterns, one of the patterns is pictured right behind us and the other pattern is all blue and white. The shop in which we spent most of our time and money is pictured with me in front. We were going to take a tour through their factory but due to the Easter Holiday, the workers were gone. Artistic Ceramic (Ceramika Artystyczna) is supposed to be the beest and oldest pottery with a world famous ceramicist. They have 200 workers in their factory. Of course, we ended up buying several peices. We then went to a wonderful glassblowing facttory. called Borowski's Glass Blowing Studio. It is one of Europe's most prestigeous studio located in 100 year old building. There are beautiful handblown glass art sculptures. It is family owned and the father although retired still oversees to a point. Two of the brothers are designers and the other runs the factory. we were lucky enough to see a glass lampshade from start to finish. I tried to get pictures but couldn't seem to get close enough. If you have the patience to scroll all the way down, (one of these days we will learn how to put the picturres where we want them.)you will see the head glass blower in the white shirt, he does the most complex work and the 2 others are not quite as experienced yet. It's amazing, the man in white was making the beautiful glass lamp shade. he started out with a small lump of hot glass which he fired in a fire that was so hot it hurt your eyes to look at it. Then he cools it with water spray then holds the pole up aand blows thrrough it. then back in the fire then he rolls it around on layers of thick newspaper until the shape is where he wants it. This process is repeated several times until it is ready to shape. The process is quite amazing to watch. You will see in the pictures some of the studio's smaller pieces and one outside of 2 alligators with glass heads and metal bodies. They also have an artist who does all thew meetal sculptures. Some off their sculptures are quite large. They had boxes ready to ship all over the world.
As it neared zero hour of 1:30pm we knew we need to go so we could make it home to Lodz and Warsaw. We definitly want to return, maybe next time with our husbands.
Today is Easter Sunday and yesterday as we walked around Old Town, we saw hoards of people, young and old with baskets of all sizes. The custom here is to put whatever you want in your basket, take it to one of the many Catholic churches and havee the Priest bless the basket. We saw baskets with food, eggs, dolls, pictures, whatever you want blessed.
Now, thinking about Easter and it's meaning for Christians all over the World, how grateful Ross and I are for the Risen Christ and the knowledge that He Lives and that He loves us. We are so grateful that we have a chance to serve him on a mission here in Poland.