Coreen's Day in Poland~

Our first, fully day, in Boleslawiec, Poland!

A WHOLE DAY FOR SHOPPING!!

For some reason the boys did not want to join us...

They made other plans.

We started our day with a typical European breakfast,

rolls, sliced meat, cheese, yogurt's, tomatoes,

cucumbers, bananas and juice.

 This is a small sitting area outside our bedrooms.

They occassionally serve dinner up here when busy.

 The same sitting area, our bedrooms are behind us.

 This is a front view of this charming hotel

made over from a 200 year old barn.

The owners are a married couple, the wife is Polish

and raised in England. The husband is British.

 ~The Blue Beetroot~

How the hotel got it's name:
In the late 1700's the fields were all planted
with beetroots.  Moonshine was a popular use
for the crop.  Besides selling beets for food
it was also secretly brewed into a strong alcohol.
The brew was hidden, underneath the beets,
in the horsedrawn carts going to town for sale.
The legend is that the horses were spooked one
night causing them to bolt and the horses, farmer,
cart, beets and moonshine mysteriously disppeared
without a trace...
The locals say every so often you will see
 a beetroot float to the surface of the pond.
It is a very strange blue color and very saturated in alcohol.

 Heidi and I's first stop of our 

BIG SHOPPING DAY!

This pottery is unique to much of what is in the city.

 A Polish woman running the shop.

 After our first Polish store visit we stopped at a

local glass factory to watch the process of blowing glass.

This piece of glass is being shaped inside a metal mold.

 Here the hot glass is being rolled back forth

as it is cooling so the glass keeps its shape.

 Blowing into the pipe to enlarge the glass piece.

You need to have a good set of lungs for this craft.

 These are some of the unique colored glass pieces.

 These pieces have bodies made of metal 

and are accessorized with blown glass.

 We stopped in close to 10 stores in this little Polish city.

This is a view of only half this store!

 Imagine this! Being 7 hours from Bonn and

running into our friend Jenny!

She was also here for some fun pottery shopping,

her husband and kids along for the ride as well.

 You can find several roofs on buildings in Poland 

decorated with tiles in beautiful patterns.

 After a successful day of Polish Pottery shopping 

Heidi and I drove into the main part of the city.

The pictures do not really give you perspective on 

how poor and rundown some areas of the city are.

You can just make out the tops of this buildings

behind this newer wall.

 This is always the typical front facade look 

for ANY building within an old city in Europe.  

I LOVE IT!!!

 Here is the main town square newly 

redone within the last 2-3 years.

 The COOLEST color for this 

house sitting right on the square!

 A look up the pedestrian walking 

area around the square.

 This church that faces the square

is more than 600 years old.

 A school building built in the last 100 years.

 The city and court offices in this 

building also more than 100 years old.

 In the village just down the road from

our hotel are a variety of homes in 

different stages of age or refurbishment.

I loved seeing these people in front of their property

working in their VERY LARGE garden.

 Just across the road from the gardeners house

are some newer, brightly colored homes.

These cost about $200, 000.

You will find doctors and lawyers living here.

 Back up the road is another view of our hotel.
Cody and I's window to our room is the middle one
on the long/front side of the building.  The Millers
windows are the one just left of ours and the two
framed windows on the end.  We would go to bed
at night hearing a few farm animal sounds.

For dinner this evening I enjoyed another 

traditional Polish dish called Pierogi.

Dough that can be filled with things such as meat,

cheese, potatoes, cabbage, spinach and cheese,

curry or other fillings.  It was reasonable

but needed a little sauce, so I enjoyed some

of the Polish Goulash sauce with this dish.

A GREAT day enjoying Polish culture!

Polish Pottery Trek~

One our fun activities planned during the two

 week school break is a three day trip to Poland.

Heidi Miller and I plan on pottery shopping while

Creed and the boys will find other entertainment.

We left this morning at 8:30, it's a 7 hour drive.

We had a quick stop for lunch before crossing

the boarder from Germany to Poland.  Dresden,

Germany is about a one hour drive from here.

We arrived about 4:00pm.

 Cody in front of his first Polish Pottery Store.

He picked out a piece of pottery...

 At his Mother's encouragement.

 So many choices!

Cody was able to make a choice much quicker

than his Mom. :-)

 Cody's future wife and family will thank him someday! 

 We stayed at the Blue Beetroot Hotel.

A beautifully renovated barn.

There were a variety of delicious meals to choose from. 

 My Polish Goulash dinner, quite good.

 Here are a few pictures inside the rustic hotel.

 Here is the kitchen.

 Cody is one level up from the ground level.

 Our hallway.  Cody and I shared a room and 

the Miller's had the suite at the end of the hall.

After our 7 hour journey and some warm-up pottery

shopping in a couple stores, the boys were ready to camp

out and watch a movie in the our comfortable room.

Beautiful Bonn Blossoms~

We are enjoying the beauties of spring in Bonn.

Instead of just enjoying the pretty blossoms in my head

I finally remembered my camera for my run this morning,

and stopped to take pictures of a beautiful blossoming tree.

It is always a delight as I drive around Bonn and see 

these lush pink blossoms out in all their spring glory.

I just love it!  

If I knew I wouldn't get poked in the face with a 

branch or twigs I would bury it in these sweet blossoms.

 My picture taking never fully gives you the 

"in person" perspective, but they are still wonderful.

Enjoy!

Water Play Day~

Another fun NO SCHOOL DAY!!

Monday, Cody and I rode our bikes along 

the Rheine River, in between watching two 

good movies.  Tuesday, Cody and I joined other 

BIS families at the local indoor pool, which has

 4 or 5 different swimming pools and some great

slides. With the German schools still in session 

it is a good week to come and play. 

 Cody making a big splash from the rope swing.

Cody, Grant and Nash in the wave pool.

Never Enough~

To celebrate the beginning of BIS's two week break,

Cody and Nash decided eating and a movie was a good start.

Since our families are driving to Poland this week we

decided a little bit of a "history lesson" was helpful.

"The Great Escape" movie was filmed in the area we

will be visiting.  We will see a movie sight that depicts

a prison where allied POW's planned an escape from a 

a German camp in WWII.  So with a great movie you

need great food.  Two large Pizza's were ordered-the 

original plan was the two of them sharing 3 large pizzas.

That was vetoed...

Three hours later we had delicious home grilled

hamburgers.  Cody took one bite and felt like he had

 just eaten a Thanksgiving meal.  Nash ate a large

 Donor sandwich around 1pm, a large pizza-single 

handedly at 3:30 pm, and then a hamburger at 6:30 pm.

Seems Nash is about to grow more, and Cody 

seems to be about done-at least on the upward side.  :-)

Easter Tree~

I have happily discovered another German tradition!

For many years I have assumed the decorated Easter Trees

in the U.S. stores were a marketing gimmick to sell things

for the Easter holiday.  Suprisingly I have learned this is

a tradition we acquired from German immigrants moving

 to the Pensylvania Dutch country during the 18th century.

The Germans had their children decorate little "nests" out

of their hats or bonnets and then hide them in the house 

or garden.  The Easter Bunny would then bring them

decorated eggs if they had been good children. 

As Americans we evolved to the traditional Easter basket.

One idea of where these traditions originated were peasants 

making payments to their Lords;  Another thought was from 

the pagan holiday that worshipped the maiden-goddess of

fertility as a way to welcome in spring.  She was know by

various names such as Eastee, Eastre, Eostre, or Ostara.

Many countries throughout Europe celebrate Easter using

the egg as one of their symbols of the holiday.  In Germany,

as in other countries, the eggs are colorfully decorated.  Folk

art specialist's can look at the way an egg is decorated and 

know which region it comes from.  Since I do not have the

eggs I collected in Prague with me I made do with some 

simple ones on these branches.  In Germany Pussy Willow

branches or Forsythia branches are sold so they can be used

for hanging your eggs on.  I asked my friend Lissy, and 

women from church, if they still did this tradition.  They all

do and hang their children's painted eggs and even their

own from their childhood's on these branches.  They said

their parents also had this painted egg tradition as children.

Some culture's eggs are painted a blood red color symbolizing 

Christ's death and sacrifice and other's are painted green to
recognize the coming of spring and new growth and rebirth.

 These are my cute little duck babies I found on my

trip in the Eifel.  I chuckle when I look at them.  

They are so ruffled and touseled looking.

So cute! 

 I found these funny little birds to place 

on some branches of my Egg Tree.

If I was an Easter bird, this would be me. :-)

Next Easter I am excited to be able to use my decorated

 Czech Eggs I collected to hang on my Easter Tree!