Pictures

I've finally had some time to start sorting through the 3000 pictures we took while away. I'll try to have them all linked here by the end of next week (so check back!).

Prague:

Kutna Hora:

Krakow:

Wieliczka:

Zakopane:

Auschwitz:

Sopot:

Malbork Castle:

Gdansk:

Hel:

Westerplatte:

Wroclaw:

Legnica:

Boleslawiec:

Czocha Castel:

Jawor:

Ksiaz Castel:

Ksiaz And Beyond

Strangely, castles are starting to become normal now. I guess that's a sign that we've seen our fair share of them (but really we didn't even see the tip of the iceberg). Although sadly this is the last one we'll see for a while. Tomorrow we head back to Prague for the last leg of our trip. Not sure how blogging will go from here. We'll see. If this is it, then thanks for following and check back in week or so for a link to a few of our favourite pictures.

Home Away From Home

Legnica is where Karolina was born and where her mother's family continues to live. There's a massive supply of copper under the city which is what put it on the map and made it a prosperous city hundreds of years ago. More recently, it was one of the biggest Russian settlements after WW2. There's a big graveyard here honouring the Soviet soldiers who "liberated" the city near the end of the war. It's a nice change of pace here especially because of the family connection.

This wasn't the biggest castle we've seen, but it was impresive just the same. Over its 700 year life it's accumulated some interesting legends. Among them is the story of a jealous man who killed his wife's child (believed to be that of another man) and cemented the body behind the fire place. The bones were recently verified to be there via x-ray. Apparently the mother can still be seen (and the boy can still be heard) in the room trying to reunite with her baby. If you're interested, you can find out for yourself and stay in the royal room for a cool 900 złoty.

Family

Yesterday we were greeted in Wrocław by some of Karolina's family, and got our own private tour of the city. Wrocław is a very bright and colourful city, we loved it. We also loved getting a plate a pierogies for less than 2 dollars! We can finally start showing pictures from our camera as we now have a computer at our disposal (by the way karolina's grandpa has a fiber optic Internet connection!). Anyway, it's really late here so I'll save todays blog for tomorrow...

South Bound

Today is our last day on the Polish coast. The last few days have been increasingly hot and we (especially Nick) have the farmer tans to prove it. Tonight we take a train to Wroclaw, but this time we have a couchette so we should sleep well. Tomorrow we're meeting up with Family which will be nice after staying in various unfamiliar places for the two weeks.

Hel And Back

It was hot in Hel today. But I wouldn't want to be there when it freezes over. Fortunately for the residents those puns only work in English. Hel was an old fishing town before reinventing itself as a quaint little beach town looking out into the Baltic sea. It's a really nice place that we'd definitely stay in longer next time. The water's extremely cold, but not cold enough to keep two Canadians out of it.