September 20 to 28

Lodz. If I have ever been looking at places with such anticipation and wonder, certainly this took all the prices. This is where my bobe comes from. So I got her on my soul and together we walked this city. Of course she did not recognised it!. That exquisite boulevard with all the cafes and its tables outside, the shops, the elegant reconstructed buildings. I stopped to buy a few little bath ducks for her next granddaughter who is due to arrive in November, in the time when go to Argentina. On both sides of the boulevard plenty of houses "as is", untouched, and further down and crossing the whole city the new railway is in motion. It is a big city. I always image this place as a quiet village!. I know that this city like so many in Poland have been totally destroyed during the war and what has not being destroyed has not being repaired in full. Instead lots of shopping centres are popping everywhere...

We headed down to Lower Silesia, the region of castles and fortresses.

Now, Wroclaw... what a beautiful place! The "Venice" of Poland; it has so many bridges and churches and monuments in baroque and Gothic (with bricks...as it was in this part of Europe..as opposed to stones), we run in its beautiful forest and kayaked in the canals. We heard the many stories of this place and look for the "gnomes", the little statues that adorned the whole village. And the biggest town square in the whole Europe!! It is a square inside a square with squares on the side ...hahaha There is such a great atmosphere. It is a university city, with more than 140.000 students! So of course, bars and cheap restaurants and pubs and "romantic places" a galore

The next few town, all so charming....Swidnica with the biggest wooden church in Europe, Walbrzych with its impressive castle and Klodzko where we discovered the town underneath the town...a series of labyrinth and tunnels that was built for defence.

Driving from town to town, crossing entire pieces of worked land; I am amazed at how many beautiful houses we found everywhere. I would say that they are from the last 10, 15 years max... As we are about to leave this country I stopped to reflect. I am so pleased that we come here and even happier that we took a good time travelling through this country. The journey in Poland has been an emotional one. The stories have moved us in so many different ways. So much despair and sadness, but also so much pride for their people for the way they have rebuilt their lives, their homes. 

Border between Poland and Germany