Castle with a View

Monday, September 29, 2008

Hey! Want to see a castle? Go to Google maps and type Gora Kalwaria Czersk, Poland into the search box, you will get a great aerial view of a castle, a church, and the village connected to them. The current castle dates from the late 1300’s to the early 1400’s although there was probably one prior to that. The nearby church has a marker with the date of 966.

Easel and I went to see the castle this weekend. We were able to go into two of the towers—I climbed one, Easel climbed both. The view from the top of the tower was beautiful! I opted not to climb the second tower and Easel said it was a good choice. Easel described the stairway in the second tower as more a ladder than a stairway and said he climbed down backwards to get down safely. The third tower had a gate blocking the doorway. I took my camera and reached through the bars, pointing the lens up, and took a picture. Unlike the other two towers, which have been renovated, the third has no interior floors. My picture showed an empty brick cylinder that opened to the sky. It was like a giant chimney! We also enjoyed looking at the pattern in the brick. The towers had a diamond pattern of darker colored brick worked into the walls. It amazes me every time I see something like this. I certainly wouldn’t want to be working on something so tall on the top of a hill!

It was a beautiful fall day and we joined a number of others enjoying the cool, sunny day within the confines of the castle. As seems to be the case with every tourist site we visit, there were two wedding parties at the castle taking pictures. I guess if you want to commemorate your own personal “historic” moment, what better way than to take pictures in an historic place. At any rate, as we travel around Poland, we also get to see current wedding fashions!

I did a little research on the castle and discovered that it used to be the capital of the Mazovian region of Poland. It was quite an important city until the Vistula River changed its course and moved more than a kilometer away from the castle/city. Now, it’s a small village—one of two bearing the name Czersk in Poland. One former resident of the castle was Queen Bona Sforza, wife of Zygmunt I. She was Italian and their marriage was arranged by her uncle, Maximillian I of Austria. Maximillian hoped to keep an eye on Poland through his niece. There is a legend that says she had to leave the castle suddenly and in the hurry of departure, broke a string of pearls. The legend says that sometimes her ghost is seen walking the ruins, looking for her lost pearls. We spent a couple of hours at the castle but we didn’t see the ghost!

A Walk in the Park

Monday, September 22, 2008
My memories of September in Missouri include days when I wondered if it would ever be cool again. Summer “officially” ended with Labor Day but the weather didn’t always cooperate. The evenings and early mornings were cooler but daytime temperatures often reached 80 F or higher. Most years, I would expect that kind of weather to last well into October. Some trees started to show hints of color but the real color usually didn’t start until mid-October or even November. Fall seemed to take forever to come and then was much too short.

My first experience with autumn in Warsaw is chilly and wet. We’ve had two weeks of chilly days and rain. I have been excited to see temperatures above 50 F! In conversation with locals, I’ve heard that this is not a “normal” autumn and, in fact, is more like a taste of winter. I’ve been assured that warmer weather is still possible in October. I’ll look forward to it.

In the mean time, I have been enjoying watching Szczesliwice Park begin the transition from summer to winter. Some of the trees are showing color, both in their leaves and in their fruit. I walk through the park and look at the fruit on the trees and bushes and marvel at the variety of color. The colors I see include white, yellow, orange, red, and black/purple. I even ran across a forsythia bush that seems to be confused—two lovely yellow flowers blooming in the fall.

Easel and I have the park to ourselves on these chilly wet days as we walk to and from the tram stop. The bicyclists, inline skaters and baby carriages seem to take a break when it gets too wet. We’ve come to enjoy having time to talk about whatever comes to mind as we walk through the park. I enjoy the fact that our pace of life includes “built-in” time to talk. It’s a definite advantage for us that Easel commutes by tram. I think I’ll miss this when we go back to the States.

Fairy Tales and History Come to Life

Monday, September 8, 2008

Once I learned to read, I was voracious! I read everything I could get my hands on. Some of my favorites of the many books I read were collections of fairy tales. As I grew up, I enjoyed studying history and learning about the way people lived “long ago and far away”. This past week, in Prague, I felt like I was walking through some great combination of fairy tales and history. There’s nothing quite like walking down narrow cobbled streets and finding they are just like you imagined! It is absolutely awesome (the real meaning of the word, not the “teen” meaning) to walk through an arched opening in a wall and see a gothic cathedral that fits every image brought to mind by the word “cathedral”.

It was almost surprising to see cars and trucks parked on the streets in the old part of town. I kept expecting to come around a corner and see a fine lady in her carriage or a knight on his steed. I did see some horse-drawn carriages but they were filled with tourists. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it but I can’t wait for the opportunity to go back to Prague! Two days is not enough time to see the city but we gave it our best and walked miles with our heads swiveling constantly! We saw some of the “must see” things in Prague and hope to go back and see more.
We were able to visit the Charles Bridge on Friday, on our own. It was busy but not overly crowded. We climbed to the top of the eastern tower of the bridge and enjoyed the views of Prague, the river, the bridge, and Prague Castle. We walked over the bridge to the western side and then walked back. My big regret there is that we didn’t buy any of the photographs for sale on the bridge. Hopefully, some of ours will be worthy of the bridge! We returned to the bridge on Saturday on a tour—along with THOUSANDS of other people! I was glad we had seen it the day before. If we go back, I would love to walk the bridge early in the morning or late in the evening. Also, on Friday, we saw the Astronomical Clock. We waited, with lots of other tourists, for the clock to strike the hour. At that time, the twelve apostles appeared one at a time, briefly, at two windows (six in each one) and then a golden cock “crowed”. I had to put the word crowed in quotes because it is very generous to use the word for the sound that issues from the cock! The whole performance lasts about 45 seconds and then the clock is just a clock for the next hour. When we visited the clock on Saturday, it was part of our tour and were there closer to the half hour than the hour. We didn’t have time to wait but the guide made a point of encouraging everyone to return.

On Saturday, we went on a guided tour of Prague. The guide was very personable and knowledgeable. We chatted with her briefly and discovered that she is working on her PhD. She is well-versed in history beyond just “guidebook” history. Our tour took us through some of the areas we had visited the day before but it was much better hearing the history as we walked. After our visit to the Charles Bridge, we took a tram up to Prague Castle. I had seen it from the bridge and other points around the city because the Castle is on a hill and dominates the skyline. Having had glimpses of it from a distance for a couple of days did not prepare me for being in the Castle complex. Your first impression is the overwhelming size! It is said to be the largest castle in Europe. I believe it! As we were walking up to the first gate, we passed over a bridge. It seemed to be over a ravine and the guide explained that it was the remnant of the moat. Suddenly, the moat as a defense for a castle, made a lot more sense. The area was very deep and very wide at the top. An invader would have had a difficult time bridging that space! Then we walked through an archway that presented us with a side view of St. Vitus Cathedral. All I could say was, “Oh…my…goodness!” As I said earlier, it was the embodiment of what I thought a gothic cathedral would be. I saw the towers, the buttresses, the gargoyles and the stained-glass windows. I was in awe. We were able to go inside the cathedral—which still has services—and the inside was just as beautiful as the outside.

After seeing the cathedral, looking at the central courtyard and seeing the guards in their blue and white striped guardhouses, our tour was over. Easel and I took a leisurely walk back to our hotel and collapsed. The next morning, we left for the airport. We hope to return and spend more time in Prague because there is so much more to see and we never made it to Petrin Hill!

Surprise! We're Going to Prague!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

I’m in Prague! A few days ago, Easel said there was a chance he would have to go to Prague for a meeting. On Monday, he called to tell me that he would be going. I began planning to spend a couple of days on my own. On Tuesday, he came home from work and at dinner handed me some papers. They turned out to be an itinerary for ME to go to Prague! Wednesday, we flew from Warsaw to Zurich and then to Prague. Interesting routing—flying past (over?) the Czech Republic and then flying back.

Thursday was a quiet day. Easel attended his meeting and I relaxed. I took advantage of being in the Prague Hilton and while I had books, a notebook for blog notes, and a new crochet project, I also had a wonderful lunch in one of the Hilton restaurants. There’s just something about sitting and “people-watching” while having attractive young men fuss over the arrangement of the place setting at your table, bringing you sparkling water, bringing “an assortment of breads”, bringing your meal and checking back with you to see if “madam” needs anything else. It was great fun and was, quite possibly, the most fun I’ve had eating alone! I felt very sorry for my waiter as he tried to help an older lady at a nearby table. She was quite demanding. She asked about a particular sandwich and wanted to know what kind of bread was used. The waiter said, “brown bread”. That wasn’t enough for her and she kept after him. Finally, he understood that she wanted to know if the bread was toasted! Why didn’t she just ask him to start? Then, she started in on the salad but he quickly discerned that she wanted the dressing on the side. If people are that vague about what they are asking, they shouldn’t be upset when someone, who isn’t a native speaker, doesn’t understand! I’m sure that is a problem for waiters everywhere. I just happened to overhear this conversation between an American woman and a waiter in the Czech Republic.

Getting back to my enjoyment of my treatment by the wait staff, I have to make another comment about their attentiveness. Since we’ve begun this journey—our sojourn in Warsaw—I’ve heard comments to the effect that the Poles and others in Eastern Europe are not big on “customer service.” The comment usually refers to a “take it or leave it” attitude that I have seen in some shops. But, I have also observed and spoken with, shopkeepers who have gone out of their way to try to help me. Beyond that, most restaurants we’ve visited (I’m speaking of “sit down” restaurants and NOT “fast food” restaurants) have staff that seem to enjoy interacting with us. Have we just been lucky? Is it because we speak English? I would tend to say “no”. In one instance, the waitress was somewhat distressed that she had little English and we had little Polish but she still worked very hard to help us and accommodate us. In other instances, the wait staff has been most attentive and diligent and has often offered that seemingly rare Polish smile! Yes, I know they have a job and hope for a tip but to me it is great to see their smiles. My experiences in Prague only added to my positive impressions in this area.