Yesterday was my parents 30th wedding anniversary. Thirty years ago, almost to the day, my parents were married, and four short months later I was born. My dad cleverly covered up this little known fact during their celebration yesterday stating that “Sławek is with us now as he was with us then…” everyone laughed… almost…
From the town of Bacharach we drove down along the Rhine towards the city of Koblenz; a name that originates from the Latin word ‘confluence’ or ‘merging of rivers’. Of course it was named so for a reason and the city is build where the Moselle river and Rhine merge together. The exact place where…
In Bacharach we tasted a simple yet delicious take-out meal known as currywurst. Currywurst is a hot pork sausage, cut into pieces, and served with ketchup seasoned with curry and spices. Awesome in its simplicity, it was really tasty. The invention of the currywurst is attributed to Herta Heuwer who obtained curry and other spices from British…
I’ve been keeping really busy lately and haven’t had much time to post for which I must apologize. I have plenty of pictures to share but can’t quite fit in a sit down with the laptop and write about all the great places I’ve visited lately. I’ll try to keep my posts short, and perhaps…
After our tour of Idar-Oberstein we drove over to Nohen, a small town some 10 kilometers away. Nohen is the town where Karolina and her family lived from 1988 to 1999. The house you see below is THE house and the top floor was all theirs. Nohen really doesn’t have much to offer besides peace…
Last week Karolina and I traveled 830 kilometers (515 miles) due west to the beautiful wine region of Germany called Rheinland Pfalz, also known as Rhineland-Palatinate in English. Rheinland Pfalz is one of 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany and borders with France, Luxemburg, and Belgium. It is Germany’s leading wine producer and…
Count Aleksander Fredro, born June 20, 1793, was a Polish poet, playwright and author. His best known comedy, The Revenge, was turned into a movie in 2002. Fredro died on July 15, 1876 in Lwów (Lviv) which at the time belonged to Poland. His monument was created in Lwów by Leonard Markoni and was displayed…
A while back I wrote about the great bike rental system in place in London and how such a system wouldn’t work in Wrocław. Well, turns out I was wrong. Nextbike, a German company with bike rentals already in place in Austria, Germany, Latvia, Switzerland, Turkey, and New Zealand, now added Wrocław, Poland to their…
When we were still looking into booking our trip we had to choose between two hotel options; all inclusive or not. It was explained to us that “all inclusive” included alcohols as well as all other drinks (coke, water, etc.), while with the standard option you paid for it all out of your own pocket.…
Kempten is the largest city in Allgäu, a region in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany only 26 miles away from Austria. It was also my recent business trip destination, a short 500 mile drive from Wrocław. Short, if you consider the 140-150 mile per hour speed on the autobahn we were traveling to get there. But first things first;…
Going to the beach is not what it used to be; take the 405 freeway to the 10 and about 35 minutes later cruise the Pacific Coast Highway on a beautiful SoCal day. The beach has moved quite a bit for me now, 284 miles away to be exact, a 7 hour drive through beautiful…
There is nothing that will warm you up faster on a -16° Celsius night than a warm cup of wine. Well, I suppose I could think of one other thing, but certainly not in the middle of a crowded city square. Mulled wine, or Grzaniec as it is known in Poland, originated in Germany and…
Berlin’s Tegel airport was opened in 1948 to accommodate bigger planes necessary for the Berlin Airlift, a humanitarian mission led by the U.S. and allied forces to bring help to people of Berlin. The airport then grew to become western Germany’s hub for all international flights. It also played a huge military role during the…
Well, kind of, after all Marlon Brando did play a Polish immigrant named Stanley Kowalski in this 1951 classic. Baba Jaga (yaga) is one of Wrocław’s oldest operating streetcars, and on a beautiful Sunday afternoon Karolina and I decided to take a ride down the memory lane. Designed in year 1913 production started in 1924,…
Lubin, a city 40 miles west of Wrocław, has by far the largest car swap meet in the region. Wrocław has its own of course, but it’s much smaller in both actual cars for sale and parts available. Winter is coming up fast and I did my best not to look surprised one day when…
The reason the last couple of posts are from Warsaw is my very first Polish wedding since my return to Poland. Karolina was invited by her friend Julia, and I was invited as Karolina’s arm candy. I played the part fine…for a while, because as it turns out you shouldn’t mix champagne, red wine, and…
With surface area of 367 square miles, Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central Europe. Because Hungary is landlocked, it’s been often referred to us the Hungarian Sea by the locals. But to the three of us visiting the lake… we’d just say that it was “ehh”. Maybe it’s the fact that I lived…
Nalewka (Polish term) or nalivka (Russian term) is a traditional Polish and East Slavic category of alcoholic tincture. The alcoholic beverage is usually 40 to 45% alcohol by volume and is made by maceration of various ingredients in alcohol, usually vodka or spirit. Among the ingredients often used are fruits, herbs, spice, sugar or molasses.…
We visited Meissen during our trip to Germany a couple of weekends ago. It was a charming little town in the heart of Saxony. We saw the Meissen Cathedral build in year 1260, as well as the castle build on the same hill which made the cathedral one of the smallest cathedrals in Europe due…
Dresden was the European center of art, culture, classical music and science prior to its destruction at the end of WWII in 1945. While the bombing led by British RAF and US Air Force destroyed 90% of the city, even then no one knew exactly why such heavy bombing took place in this very cultural…
