Germany (part I) and Poland

Having finished with Croatia we went to visit our good friend Axel in Dresden. He's currently preparing for a big trip of his own. He hopes to do a fund raising activity where he rides his motorbike across most of Canada (that's him on his new bike)....



continue across Europe, and down into Africa. His goal is to raise money to help several charities in Africa. If you'd like to help him out with this, a donation would certainly be appreciated. Please check out his website at www.rideforafrica.ca

We only had a day with Axel before we moved on to meet some other friends from Canada who happened to be in Germany at the time. Here we four are at the Nymphenburg palace.



Together we toured Munich and saw, as much as we could with our time. Here's a scary looking skeleton we saw at a cathederal. Check out those eyes - they're spooky!



There were many other sights in Munich like their beautiful rathous (city hall)....



Once we had enough of cathederals, art museums, and palaces we spent part of a day at the science museum. It was really fun. And then it was off to Vienna, Austria. Here's their "rathous" (i.e. city hall)...



and some of the colors of the Vienna...



It was then time for the night train to Poland. First stop was the former capital city of Krakow. We had intended to visit Warsaw, but everyone said to skip it. Apparantly it was razed in WWII, and there's not so much to see. So we got a private sleeper car and took the night train to Krakow...



And I continued sampling the beers of the world. Believe it or not, this beer is actually pronounced as "jee-vyets"



Sure tasted good. Especially with the weather we've had. Have you seen all the blue skies in our pics? It's almost 35 degrees everywhere we go! A guy needs a tasty beer now and then just to see all the sights.

In addition to beer sampling, I'm doing my best to try the local dishes as well. We had a very good pyrogy meal at this nice garden restaurant in the centre of Krakow.



A world tour is not all smiles and good times – there's a good deal of historical education happening at the same time, and Poland has seen its share of bad times. We went to the Auschwitz and nearby Birkenau concentration camps where so many people were killed. Birkenau was particularly eerie as it has been left mostly untouched since the Nazis fled. It was odd to be standing in the very place where so many Polish civilians, Russian POWs, gypsies, and others had been systematically killed. I found it amazing what people can do to each other, and not just that, but after being the victims themselves, I don't understand how today Isreal can victimize the Palestineans. Do we learn nothing from our collective past? Not exactly a fun day, but a memorable one.

This picture shows one of the gas chambers that the Nazis destroyed as they fled before the camp was liberated by the Russian soldiers.



But Krakow has much to offer in its own right. Such as the "Singer bar". No singing happens here – it takes its name because each table is actually an old Singer sewing machine.



And no self respecting European city is complete without its castle. This is the Wawel castle (the "w" is pronounced like a "v", so you would call it the "Vavel" castle). It looked really cool because different parts were added over hundreds of years and they don't have a consistent look to them. But despite its feel of a mismatched lego castle built by a 10 year old kid, it did look great. In fact, it's one of the best looking castles I've seen (which by now is quite a few).



Not far from Krakow is an ancient salt mine. It is still active, and has been in continuous operation for over 600 years. Inside are many carvings made of the rock-hard green and black salt stone. The floor, ceiling and walls are all salt. And yup – I licked the walls, and it tastes exactly like table salt despite it not being white. I decided not to bother licking the floor. There were many large chambres and even a few small lakes underground.



I got a funny look from our guide when I asked him if there were any large pepper mines near by.

Next we were off to Wroclaw (pronounced "Vroslav"), Poland's third largest city. One cool thing about this city is that if you look carefully there are many (hundreds?) of little brass dwarves tucked away all over the city. This one was under a bridge. You can only get a good look at it from a boat. So with our rented kayak, we paddled by and snapped a pic of this shy guy...



I guess he was shy because he's washing his pants.

As with much of our European travels, we were Couch Surfing in Wroclaw (www.couchsurfing.org). Here we're all enjoying a Canadian dish Amanda prepared for dinner – it's maple glazed salmon. Mmmm



Our Couch Surfing hosts took us on a day trip through the country where we stopped at many sights including a small castle. I think it was overrun by invaders years ago, which might not be surprising considering their coat of arms. Check out thte one on the left...



Yup - that's a chicken roasting over a fire! At least it's got a sword through it.

We also went for a bit of a hike to another castle which dates back to the 1100's. Wow that's old. Here's our gang who did this day trip...



After that we jumped on a train to Berlin. Stay tuned as we're en route as I write this...