Poland – Marion's Blog

Poznań, Poland to Hanover, Germany

Today was a big travel day. We left our hotel and walked to the Poznań train station about 8 am. In the picture below Duke is in line to try to use the last of our Polish currency on breakfast.

Ordering breakfast at the Poznań train station

For the first leg of our journey we had train tickets to go from Poznan to Berlin. The train journey was scheduled to be about three and a half hours. After we got on the train we learned that they had a bus bridge from the Poland/Germany border to Berlin.

We still arrived in Berlin right on time. The traffic in Berlin was really bad and I wish I understood German so I could have understood what our bus driver was yelling at the other drivers. At one point point he said ***** Berliners *****. Which I understood to be a comment on Berlin drivers. The whole bus laughed.

On the train before we changed to the bus

The Berlin train station was pretty amazing. There were at least 5 floors with buses and trains and shops and restaurants. We had about an hour wait and then we were on the train to Hanover.

While we waited Duke went to ask about our tickets to Amsterdam for Monday. We have first class tickets but no seat assignments. The customer service agents told Duke yes that’s right. It seems strange that they can sell us tickets but NO seats. Hopefully we won’t be standing!We shall see what happens Monday!

In Hanover we walked to our hotel. We saw a loud pro Palestine demonstration and several beautiful buildings. For dinner we walked to a nearby restaurant called Bavarian Hannover. We had beer and Bratz.

Wilkendorf, Germany to Poznań, Poland

Today we drove back into Poland, to Poznań to return our rental car. The rental was for 10 days and we were scheduled to meet the car pick up person at the train station tomorrow. Our hope was to turn it in today so we wouldn’t have to pay for parking tonight. We got to Poznan about 2:30 and called the rental car company. They said someone could meet us at 8 tonight to pick up the car. So we parked, checked in and went exploring.

Finally about 8:30 the guy showed up, We gave him the car and went to a Pizza place for dinner.

After our pizza we walked around the Old Market Square again.

Tomorrow we will take the train to Hanover.

Mielno, Poland to Kolpinsee, Germany

Breakfast buffets are one of the most interesting cultural experiences of traveling. The buffet at Baltivia Resort this morning was a perfect example. There were lots of foods we didn’t recognize like the scoops of what looked like maybe potatoes salad and others we don’t normally see at breakfast, like the big pickles. I tried some kind of liver sausage and onions which was very good.

Our drive today would have taken just over 2 hours if we had taken the freeway but we took the backroads and it took about 4 hours. The picture below is a rest area we stopped at.

Near the end of the drive we entered Germany. German road signs are much easier to guess the meaning of than Polish road signs.

Tonight we are at another wonderful resort on the Baltic coast. The hotel is called Strandhotel Seerose. Seerose translates to water lily.

After we checked in we went for a walk on the beach.

Opposite the beach is a lovely lagoon.

We had an excellent dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Mielno day 2

The area of Pomerania that we are in has changed ownership multiple times over the past two hundred years. It was part of Prussia and the German empire then it was Polish then the Germans invaded at the start of World War Two. Each time it changed hands there was persecution and displacement.

Back in about 1865 Dukes’s Great Grandfather, Wilhelm Noerenberg was born in the village of Krasnik/Kratzig very near where we are staying in Mielno. In 1882 at the age of 17 he emigrated to the United States with his brother and his parents.

The nearest church to Kratzig was probably the 15th century church in Biesiekierz/Biziker. It is mentioned frequently in Noerenberg documents. Today we visited both villages.

The Germans here were all expelled by the Poles after WW 1 so there would not be any Noerenbergs here now.

A cemetery in a nearby village. There were no death dates before 1945 because the Poles got rid of any sign of the Germans.

The 14th century church in Biesiekierz/Biziker

Inside the in Biesiekierz/Biziker church

In Biesiekierz/Biziker this potato monument was across from the church. You can see the church in the background. According to the sign the potato was erected in 1983 on the occasion of breeding 9 new varieties of potatoes.

Right next to the potato is a monument celebrating the Poles who kicked out the Germans. Presumably some of Dukes German relatives were among those kicked out.

The monument. Below is the Google translation of the inscription.

The translation of the Biesiekierz/Biziker monument

The weather today was beautiful. When we got back to the hotel these people were sunning on the beach below our room.

We used the sauna and the pool before dinner.

The shower had some really cool effects complete with the sounds of thunder and a light show.

Duke had slow cooked beef with mashed potatoes and liver.

It was a wonderful day!

Ustka to Mielno

Today we made a fairly short drive west along the Baltic coast to the seaside tourist town of Mielno. We drove back roads and saw a lot of interesting farms, buildings and towns.

This church in a little village we drove through caught my eye so we stpopped to check it out. The sign by the door says it was built in the late 14th century.

In Mielno we are staying at a wonderful hotel, Baltivia Sea Resort. We are right on the beach.

For dinner we walked a couple blocks to the main street of Mielno where we had wonderful fish and chips for dinner.

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