Hey Hey Hay

Or - Timber and steam all the way to Germany. We are sure that Poland provides most of the world's hay. There is so much of the country around here being harvested at the moment - and the yield they are getting is amazing, so we see thousands and thousands of large rolled bales - some still drying throughout the fields and some stacked. Every couple of days when we speak with Gen, she begins with hey hey hey, so I couldn't resist the title today!!

The Poznań Tourist Bureau puts out a series of information guides that are based around trails or routes of the best things to do in the area. We followed one the other day when we went to Biskupin and today as we head away from Poznań for the last time we are going to follow another - 'The route of wooden churches and buildings' before we make one last stop in Poland at a town called Wolsztyn and then turn west to Germany and 'Western Europe' once again.

We have left Fancy House in Poznań and already miss it. A home away from home, which, when you are travelling for a long time is not always easy to find. Thanks to Gosia and Kris for such a wonderful time. You have some new long-term friends who will wait for you to visit Australia some time.

We are following the one tour of the 'Wooden Churches and Buildings' route that does not take us too far from the route that we must follow to get to Berlin from Poznań. Except that we are following it in reverse of the suggested direction. We start with the Church of St Martin in Granowo, arriving just after 10 am when the morning sky is still a rich deep blue. The timbered church stands out starkly, but in such wonderfully sharp relief against this background. And there is a rather fancy bell tower adjacent to it. At first we don't think that the church is opened - but we eventually find a door that will open. Inside, the body of the church is grated, but we can see in to a rather plain church, with some baroque fittings but not with walls painted like the one we saw recently.

And so on we push. Now, the towns on this route are typically 15 - 20 kms apart, so we are able to get to see a few in the few hours we have. Next in line was Grodzisk Wielkopolski. At first we can't find it and instead have a look at their old market square with the town hall at its centre and a much later baroque church with some wierd dude atop its rotund tower. Then, as we are about to leave town we realise that the car is facing into the street with the timber church. But even the gate into the yeard is heavily padlocked. A pity really - the Holy Spirit Church is very plain and angular outside, but is the oldest on our trip today - dating back to 1633! A timber chuch that is still standing after almost 400 years.

Ruchocice is our next stop. Just off the 'main' street, St Ursula's Church is very nicely kept and in a beautiful garden of trimmed fir trees - the healthiest I have ever seen. It is obvious that this church, built in 1730, is still in regular use, but again we find the doors firmly closed. Hmm, maybe the locals don't like to share! There is not anything else to see here apart from some old barn buildings. The settlement is quite small.

In Rakoneiwice it is not a church we have come to see. Well, it is not a church any more! Instead, it issues deliverence from a different sort of hell. Once an Evangelic Protestant church (boy, they weren't taking any chances!) built in 1763, this building is very different to the others we have seen this morning. It is of post and beam construction and inside boasted two storied balconies. But we will never know whether it was as plain as we find the interior or whether it had been richly decorated. For today, the building houses the Museum of Fire-fighting in Rakoniewice!

You know, sometimes the quirky and different hide lots of little gems. And this one is no different. We enter, unable to find anyone and just start to walk around. The architecture of this once church is quite stark. But now, it gleams with polished brass of a very different nature! In this building there are fire engines that date back to 1786 when terrified horses were used to get water to the seat of a fire. Can't help but imagine that there were not too many fires that they would have reached in time!! Banners from the brigades of past hang from the two balconies - never to flutter in the breeze again.

This unique museum is this quiet little Polish back town has also got equipment from states and cities far away including Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Lithuania, Belgium, Hungary, Ukraine and Russia. Wow - what a collection so far from anywhere. By now, I am back in the car (sorry, there is only so much fire fighting stuff a girl can take - I think its another of those bloke things) when finally a young man working for the museum comes in. I don't think that they get too many visitors, so he is keen to show Michael personally around their collection. Thank you Hubert Koler - your generosity was really appreciated.

The other thing that Rakoniewice has are four colonnaded houses that look into a large market square. In the late 1700s the market square was surrounded by wooden arcaded houses that were characterized by two-tier peaks with beam ceilings. The majority of them burned down is the 'dangerous fire' of 1927 and today only four remain. Guess they are safe now that the Museum of Fire Fighting is within spitting distance of all four!

At this point we had planned to turn west towards Berlin, but there is a hamlet called Śmigiel that we can detour through that will only cost us an extra 15 - 20 minutes. So, why go here? Well, the church here is a composite design - part timber and part post and beam. BUT, somewhere around here are timber windmills supposedly so characteristic of this landscape. Despite our best efforts though, we don't see any. In the 18th century there were 3,500 of these windmills, but today there are only a few hundred - and darn we can't even find one! There are supposedly two, but - where? The poet Boleslaw Leśmain described them perfectly enough for us to see them in our imagination:
Rising above a fallow plain
A windmill, opened to all the world around
Creaks its wooden hoopskirt in a dance,
And throws a devil-like horned shadow on the grass...

And so we turn for the west. Each small town we pass through is built around the market square - not a bad thing at all - as this is where the local population would congregate, trade and exchange their news. Some are lovely and shady while others have become more functional place - areas of hot tarmac that provide handy parking! There is one town we go through where the speed limit is 20 kph - we soon learn why though - they have not tarred over the cobblestones like most others have done and to drive over them faster would certainly mean the death of at the least, your car's suspension! And then we come around a corner and see the most amazing sight. Now, to put this in context, we are out in rural rural Poland - well off the beaten track. And right here in front of us is the remnants of a palatial mansion and all the surrounding glory of what must have once been a very impressive estate. This was all once a private estate of the Kurnatowscy family and is only 100 years old. Very definitely it has seen much better days. The local young woman walking with her children could not have been more pleasant as she offers first Michael and then me a warm Cześć (hello in Polish).

Wolsztyn is famous because this is the last town with scheduled rail services that are operated under steam locomotion. As we drive around looking for the station or the Round House (not a turntable as Michael corrects me), we see lots of other interesting things, but not what we seek. So we decide to go back into the one way cobblestoned and chicaned town centre to the Visitor Information Centre for - well, information. And as I turn the corner to head back that way, there they are (Michael almost wets himself). 12 steam locos all in a line - shunted end-to-end, from tender box to nose. AND there are more in the Round House. The smell of the piles of coal in huge boxed pits in the yard takes us back years and if we listen really hard, we can hear the echo of a steam whistle, once blowed.

And the information? Turns out that those scheduled services are only on weekends and special days. And it turns out that our visiting their town is not a special enough occasion!
Before we leave, we have ice creams that we are dubbing the Salisbury Spires - with 14 tight swirls high above the cone (and more to the base of the cone), there is none of this loose Mr Whippy stuff. And it lasts long enough for you to eat it, not slop up quickly melting drips!

Westward we go, travelling where we can on the back roads. We are so over the motorways with big sound barriers erected on both sides. We continue to travel through small towns, observing a slice of the history of this region, and of the lives of the people today. And it is not all easy. You don't want to be a roadworker anywhere here - you risk your life every day with the only protection being the bright orange clothing you wear. And there are a couple more of those working ladies who face even greater risks I fear!

As we near the border with Germany, we have to re-join the highway. This would be a remainder from the days of border controls through non-EU countries. So it is raining lightly. One car dashes out from a service station on the other side of the road, cutting it fine between trucks hurtling past him and into our lane. Almost loses it - heading into a tailspin. Everything seems to go into slow motion, giving him time to recover control over his vehicle before once again we all rush. Boy, it was close - very close. But that was not the last example of the aggressive driving of the Polish. We are on a two laned busy road. But there are very wide verges. We soon learn that if an impatient fellow wants to overtake you, you head into the verge lane, pulling as far to the right as possible. And if you think this photos is bad, there was a worse example when we have one car overtaking us, and in the other direction a car is passing a truck that is overtaking a car - and all racing towards us! Egad!!!

Before we know it we are over the border and back into Germany. All of a sudden, the architecture has changed. More substantial buildings, smaller farming plots. We are headed for a suburb of outer Berlin on the eastern side called Köpernick where we managed to get accommodation. The roads are an absolute mess and the traffic horrific as we get near about 6 pm. The hotel has changed (ungraded???) our booking without consultation or advice - not sure whether we are happy or not, the room sure doesn't present as an upgraded one! But we have to remember that this is a part of the former East Berlin, and so is likely to be of a lower standard. Dinner is OK, a Schnitzel Buffet - try to imagine that. A variety of schnitzels, pork breaded schnitzel and chicken schnitzel in a mushroom cream sauce served with späetzle noodles and mashed potato with a salad bar that had shredded cabbage salad, shredded carrot salad, sliced tomato and potato salad that the Germans do so well. Who cares - we are just glad we have arrived!

Berlin or Bust

It is proving very difficult to find some affordable accommodation in Berlin.
Not only are the World championship Athletics being held there this week, but it also coincides with the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - so now I am really determined to find something. Kind of bittersweet for me - Dad was in Berlin at the fall of the wall, and 20 years later, here are we.

Gosia from Fancy House here in Poznań is being a true friend. She has offered us our room in the apartment for another night - free, as her gift to us. Now, how lovely is that! Just goes to show the kind of people we are meeting. Thank you Gosia, we really love it here and another night is just what we need! There is still so much to see.

The weather today took a turn for the less comfortable. Yesterday was just delightful - a top of about 23°C and lovely and sunny. Today on the other hand, is lovely and sunny and 32°C! What a difference the juxtaposition of those two numbers makes! We begin the day by stubbonly refusing to believe that we can't get reasonably priced accommodation in Berlin - and guess what - it pays off. Well, it's still more than we really want to pay and slightly over our budget, but it is doable at least! So we have booked Berlin and hope to get there before it is dark tomorrow night.

Then it is off to the Old Town Square again to have some lunch and do that Military museum (lol). Lunch first as we don't want to miss out. We sit down at the Fenix as they at least are doing meals (quite a few of them are glorified bars) and after checking out a very international menu (it seems everything except Polish), we settle on:
Trout from the Grill (Michael) and Chicken Shoama (Maria). Both are served with Mcfries and grated beetroot, grated carrot and grated cabbage salad. Quick and tasty, but not one for the recipe books!

Lunch over we walk over to the Wielkopolska Military Museum housed in the back of that building that I think was once the market hall. It documents the history of the Polish military from the 11th century. Not my cup of tea, but Michael's cup floweth over! And I am sure that Antony would have found it interesting as well. This is a relatively new collection as the original was all but decimated in WWII and they had to seek items to replace those lost. Yep, its a bloke thing, I'm sure.

But the main aim of today was to see the Cathedral. Situated on Ostrów Tumski, an island in the Odra River. Today the land has been reclaimed. The first church on the site was a timber one built in the 10th century and the Cathedral as it is now seen dates back to 1241 - yes in brick, a la Roman style! When we first try to enter, there is a priest tying the doors shut, from the inside! We assume that there is a service on that he doesn't want distrubed, but it turns out that he is just trying to fit a new locking arm!

Once we are inside, we have to let our eyes become accustomed to the dark. There is not a single light on and with stained glass windows, there isn't too much natural light either. But as dark as it is, it's not at all gloomy. This is a very elegant building - beautifully proportioned, long and narrow and with a very high nave. Its much simpler than the baroque Parish Church too, being constructed primarily of red brick with the occasional alternation with a black brick.

And there are many beautiful artworks and artifacts in this church. The pick though must be polytech that adorns the high altar depicting Mary surrounded by female saints and the 'Golden Chapel' in the presbytery behind the altar which was designed as the mausoleum of the first Polish monarchs. At its base is a stunning mosaic floor while the dome high above is similar to many others we have seen in the more extravagant offerings of the baroque churches. Of more interest to me is their collection of brass grave plates that have been erected on the reverse of the columns - oh for some wax paper and a crayon - they would have made the most wonderful rubbings!

And now for something totally different. Chris and Gosia again have given us a huge tip - it's wonderful to have local knowledge that is not just restricted to the tourist office whose employees assume you just want to see the highlights. But for us, being so long on the road, it is the places special to the locals that draws our interest just as much. About 25 kms outside of Poznań there is the Palace of Rogalin. Once the home of the ruling class, this is now one element of the Polish National Museum housing artworks and interiors. But it has been closed for renovation for the past two years.

But we have not come here to look at the Palace, stunning as it is. The biggest cluster of old oak trees in the whole of Europe is in Rogalin. Rogalin Park and its surroundings are well known because of the old oak trees – about 950 trees. The oldest ones are about 600 years old. The most well known of the trees have been named Lech (trunk circumference: 9.3 m), Czech (8.1 m) and Rus (6.7 m). While we only see a small percentage of the trees, they are majestic and beautiful. With their strong, straight trunks and shady arbour they are a joy to be within on a hot summer afternoon. And it even looks like the Australian Aborigines might have visited at some time! One of them has a distinct scar similar to that created in our mighty gum trees when bark was cut for canoes!

After our little promenade we stop in at the dwa pokoje z kuchnią in the grounds of the Palace for a refreshment. Coffee and sparkling mineral water with lemon slices and fresh spearmint go down a treat. As does the Pierogi ruskie (serwowane z kwaśną śmietaną) – Russian-style dumplings with sour cream (Michael) and Naleśniki z musem jabłkowym I cynamonem (Pancakes with apple mousse and cinnamon) for me! Needless to say, neither of us want any dinner tonight!!

On our way to Rogalin we drive out through a very rural area with a number of small villages. Then you enter the forest drive and there are lots of tracks headed into parking areas for walking tracks (we presume). And at the head of one of these tracks we see a young girl - just standing there. Didn't think all that much of it, until we see a few more - all at the head of another track. Can you believe this - the ladies of the afternoon (read night there) are out plying their trade! Can't possily imagine who would travel that far!!!! I mean, the local population might support one, but we saw seven or eight! And none of them appeared to have a vehicle - maybe they are bussed out! I'll bet that none of them made any money today.

Driving back we follow another route - I mean, why go over the same territory? Along this road there are village after village after village - no sooner are you out of one when you are in the next. So much so that if you missed the town names, you could be forgiven for mistakenly believing this was part of a city stretching out. And the most noticeable thing? There is not ONE street paved other than the long main road snaking between them. Not one. You can understand therefore that some members of the local community feel jaded enough to use empty fences for messages!

So tonight we are re-packing and trying to organise all the brochures and booklets we have collected lately to post home. And wrap a babushka doll for a special little girl so we can post it home to her also. I'm sure it will fascinate her at an age when they start to want to discover more and more. Next message from Berlin. We will spend much of the day travelling but hope to get to see some more of the wooden churches that this part of Poland is known for. Auf Wiedersehen.

Back to the future

Its so nice staying in a local building with windows that you can open for a fresh (and brisk) breeze! None of this 'locked-in-a-hotel-airconditioned-room-that-could-be-anywhere-in-the-world' if we can help it!

We wake with the city waking around us. The sounds of everyday life - a garbage truck, cars rushing on the cobblestoned street below. The building door shutting and a car starting - oh damn, he has forgotten something and rushes back inside briefly. And as we have our breakfast, a local resident is raking the leaves up from the lawn below our balcony. No matter where we are, life progresses just the same. Reassuring really!

First on the agenda this morning is a stroll through the Old Town. Once we manage to just drive into an empty parking space (thank you Frances), we first visit what is locally called 'the Parish Church'. Its full name is Kościół Farny Sw. Stanisława Biskupa (Parish Church of St Stanislaus) and it is known as one of Poznań's most impressive historic monuments. It was created as a Jesuit temple in the 17th century and has works of art by the best roman baroque artists. What is surprising is the interior space that although surrounded by typical heavy baroque works, retains its openness and airiness. And the colour is warmer than we have found in most of the baroque churches we have seen thus far - pinks and rich browns. And never ever believe it when a local tells you that their city is not a tourist destination - just as we arrive at the church, not one but two tour groups also arrive - one French, one German, with their respective guides trying hard to be heard over each other. And there are lots of smaller family groups too. And lots of locals inside, in reflective prayer. Yes, Poland is safely and staunchly Catholic.

Next it was over to the market square. Now this is one really big square - but with a bit of a difference - there are a series of buildings in the centre of it! Right in the centre is the Town Hall with a highly decorated facade and a magnificent clock tower. We are told that there is a great show at 12 noon daily once the clock has struck, so we will be back to have a look. Around the perimeter of the square today you find cafe after restaurant after bar. All have tables under large market umbrellas set outside their shops so that the square is ringed by people at tables looking inward to the people in the square. Many of these buildings are covered with intricate sgraffito and many too have fancy shingles hanging from their walls. We have enough photos of shingles to dedicate a whole book to them!

Beside the City Hall there are a couple of other buildings in the square centre. One must have once been the market hall as it is surrounded by an arched arcade. Maybe the buildings above these once housed the merchants. Michael demonstrates just how narrow some of these houses are. Bit too cramped for my liking I must admit!

And the Square is filled with statues and monuments - there are five fountains that house major statues - most of them from the classics. There are even elaborate statues on the top of the City Hall and a couple of the other buildings facing in to the Square.

So we wander, gazing into the shops and marvelling at the work of artisan craftspeople of days past. There is a Military Weapon Museum in one of the buildings in the centre of the square too. Unfortunately its not open today (whew I silently breathe!) so Michael must be content to look at the display boards set up that focuses on the Polish Independence Day declared in 1919 as an aspiration for Polish independence from Prussia at the time. The parade of the army camped nearby must have been stirring to say the least which was followed by a huge field Mass. The dislay also shows people of note from the Poznań area. As we walk back around to the face of the City Hall, we see one of those moments that belongs in some old slapstick movie - there is this building that is being renovated and on the scaffolding on four levels there are four workers, each identically dressed in dark blue overalls and bright yellow safety helmet. They all stand directly above one another, leaning on the railings, looking down. Ah, its ok - they are passing further scaffolding materials up each level to the top - but gee, it looked so funny!

Its now 11:40 am and if there was a single tourist in Poznań today, then they have all made a bee-line for the Square outside the Town Hall. Now, the show isn't until 12 noon, but no-one wants to be late! There are those French and German groups and they are joined by a smaller Japanese group, there are mums and dads with their kids, there are young lovers, and older couples too. The place heaves with people. Right on the stroke of twelve, everyone looks skyward to the set of doors just above the clock face. And once the bells have tolled the magical hour, those little doors open and two bucks (male goats) emerge slowly from their housing until they are fully on show, at which point they turn to face each other and promptly begin to butt heads - twelve times exactly! They then recede back into the safety of their little enclosure and just as quickly as it congregated, the crowd heads off to other places.

And then there is the guy who is just hanging around! From a huge bra!! I think it must have something to do with advertising the fact that the band Radiohead are coming to a festival in Poznań in a few weeks as it hangs between two posters. Hmm local curiosity I hope - doesn't do much for me, but as you can imagine it got Michael laughing!

Next, we are off to Biskupin - a drive of about 100 kms to the north-east. Both Chris and Gosia have told us that this is somewhere really worth a visit. And they were very right. We program Kate to take us off the motorways and so get to see a bit more of rural Poland. This is open wide and flat country and the farmers are busy harvesting and baling hay, ploughing the land and applying that stinking liquid fertilizer from the back of tankers pulled by tractors. And the towns we pass still exhibit the influence of the former socialist government in the form of those drab apartment blocks.
Once we arrive at Biskupin and park the car where the lass taking the money spoke no English, and us no Polish (it's OK, a hand holding up 5 fingers is easily interpreted correctly as 5 złoty), we decide to eat before exploring. Again, it was all dutch to us all, but shaslick is the same in both languages and they were good. Very delicious!

Now, Biskupin is one of those treasures that would have been lost for all time were it not for the keen eye and keener will of a local person. This is the recreation of an old settlement - a very old settlement. Discovered in 1939 by a local teacher who wondered what a regular line of poles sticking out of the marshes could be, Biskupin recalls the human habitation on this small peninsula that juts out into a lake system that dates back ten thousand years with the remains of a deer hunter's camp. Then there is a Neolithic Age house belonging to the first farmers - complete with a nearby inhumation burial, and an Early Bronze Age Kraal - a large settlement surrounded by a series of ditches. All these hae remnants remaining.

But by far the most significant site is a settlement from the early iron age. Fortifications, roads and buildings were incredibly well preserved in a form of peat which slowly built up over the settlement once the humans had left. It allowed for an amazingly accurate recreation of the a portion of the settlement to be done. After a range of dating tests over a period of seventy years, this settlement has been conclusively dated. The oak timber for the buildings was cut down between 747 and 722 BC but over half the trees were felled in the course of one winter - 738-737 BC! So yes, it is old.

The iPod audio guide is excellent and offers much more information. The reconstruction is amazing - using only simple tools as the original builders would have access to. Some of the features uncovered from the marsh included the original gates into the complex as well as remnants of buildings, part of the wall rampart and the road. The impression of the town remained buried deep in the murky earth - there were 13 long houses each containing between 3 and 9 seperated and identical dwellings and it is estimated that up to 1,000 people could have lived here at a time. Oh yes, our early ancestors were much more sophisticated than we give them credit for!

And in the museum attached to the settlement are relics found on site during the numerous excavations - including the skeletons of a number of people found in various burial positions. Yes, the actual skeletons, not moulds. They were a little shorter than us and probably died in the 40s to early 50s. There is evidence of weaving looms, and sewn clothing, of beautiful jewellery and religious icons as well as the anticipated arrow heads and cooking pots.
What a truly amazing site.

From here we head to Wenecja to have a look at the narrow guage railway museum. The museum itself was closed, and the rolling stock on show was fairly minimal and in desperate need of some tlc (tender loving care). But as Michael said, the cost of maintaining such is enormous.

Then to the Gąsawa to have a look at the Church of St Nicolas. Now, this is a true cultural gem. Built in the 1600's of larch wood, local officials asked the regional Prussian government to allow the church to be dismantled and build a new one when it was in bad repair in the 1850s. They only gave permission to overhaul the building when wall paintings were covered with a layer of reed and ordinary plaster, and forgotten for some 150 years. The interior of the church has been cleaned and today the beauty of the paintings is very obvious. The local custodian is very proud and despite us telling him English only, he chose to excitedly chat to us in - German! Still, we got the gist of what he was telling us!

The afternoon is barrelling along so we keep moving, going through Strzelno to have a look at the Church of St Prokopus - a round brick building that dates back to the 12th century on the hill next to the St Adalbert's Hill with its baroque Basilica where the 6pm bells are calling the faithful to worship. And come they do - quite a lot of them. They must get some big masses here because it is broadcast outside. I won't go in because we don't want to stay too long. We drive via Żnin before turning to head back towards Poznań. But there is one last stop we want to make at Gniezno to take a closer look at the Cathedral we had seen from a distance on our way out this morning. This twin-towered edifice can be seen for miles. Unfortunately it is closed by the time we get there, so we don't get to see the famous 'Gniezno Doors' - one of the most valuable romanesque monuments in Europe with their richly engraved bronze doors of 18 panels showing the life of St Adalbert (popular guy, huh!) dating back to the 12th century. Oh well.

And as we return to Poznań we see a new temple in the form of the Galleria Malta. Gosia reckons that it is a great shopping mall - the newest in town, but honestly, seen one, seen em all! You could be in any shopping mall in any city - although open for business, trade tonight is quiet. We buy some cakes and them stop at a chemist to re-stock on bathroom essentials. By now it is after 8:30 pm and we struggle to find somewhere to get dinner. We are both tired and can't be bothered cooking or going into a restaurant in town. We take a fruitless search for a pizzeria and end up with the dreaded Maccas. Oh well, predictable - we knew exactly what we were getting! It tastes just like their cardboard food at home!!!

Still searching for accommodation in Berlin - wish us luck.