A little intro to our trip to Poland. Caroline, Emily, Marinda and Ben are the awesomest tour guides (Caroline's Polish isn't quite up to scratch yet, but then neither is mine, Jenkwiah or however it's spelled).
Some of the Polish reenactors for a scene from the Arnheim bridge operation in which Poland participated (A Bridge Too Far). Yeah, that's Emily now recovered from the shock and awe of the pyro and small arms firing.
And here's a group of the Wehrmacht reenactors getting into position; I thought the sidecar was a great touch.
Here's Ben with the Uprising Museum director (right) and one of the remaining survivors of the Warsaw Uprising who went through the museum with us--was a courier for the Resistance fighters at 13 years old. What an honor going through with him--and Ben had arranged it along with a personal guided tour in English.
Marinda found a great restaurant in the Warsaw old town square--notice the excess of 'atmosphere' which was even more impressive once the sun went down and the lights came on. Emily was very impressed by the atmosphere too.
Meanwhile, Caroline wasn't very impressed with the atmosphere, but fascinated by the elderly lady in the background feeding the pigeons on the square.
Couple old toads caught on the walk toward Charles IV bridge--he was the Holy Roman Emperor back in 14th Century and designated Prague as his capitol city. Prague was spared most of the Nazi destruction in WWII so there was lots of old stuff to wander around (that doesn't include Mom and me--the old stuff I mean).
Prague has lots of marionette action, and Emily was fascinated by this little moving parade of puppet animals going around in a circle--the blue dragon just going by was of particular interest.
Ben and Marinda on Charles Bridge watching a group of Czechs playing bluegrass--notice the steel guitar. They were good, too.
View of Prague from a restaurant we found on the hill up to the Castle--that's Charles Bridge again.
All the womenfolk checking out the street kiosks along a street in the Jewish quarter. Mom bought a collapsable (sp?) giraffe for the little girls; Caroline promptly fell in love with chewing on the giraffe's tail and it seemed to get longer as the trip went on.
We rode the train (like a cable car) up to the fortress hill overlooking Prague and enjoyed the gardens--got some great photos of Emily enjoying the roses and Caroline dragging Ben all over the gardens (she's getting very close to walking these days).
Mom and I in the Wawel Castle in Krakow. The shorter dome in the background is reportedly covered in real gold. Fascinating church with the gothic ceilings covered in dark blue with gold stars. And we saw mausoleums for kings and queens that reigned back in the 10th century and earlier. Now that's old stuff (unlike the two in the foreground).
This street performer was hovering just in front of the main church in the Krakow main square. Thats Mom holding Emily (in yellow shirt) in the background.
Yes I still have challenges working with the photos--just save it to your machines and fix it for yourselves. It's a great shot of all 3 ladies as we walked through old Krakow while Ben and Marinda took a day off to go see some other part of Poland.
The crew headed underground into the salt mines. I guess the end of the trail is close to 400 meters below ground--the initial descent is something like 380 steps and then you go down more during the 2 Km walking tour. Fascinating place!
At least we got to ride the elevator up--it's what the miners used so was a real trip going up with 8 people crammed into a #2 packing crate and rising 400 meters in about 20 seconds. No big deal for Emily or Caroline (that's her in the foreground).
And then reality set in when we had to return to Fort Leavenworth and all our other responsibilities and opportunities to excel. What a great time. Thank you Marinda and Ben and your whole team--doing such great things for the church and our country. See you soon.
Glad Steve was able to come and spend some time with us--though his selection of traveling clothes remains flaky (Iron Maiden hat).
