SWITZERLAND

July 25:  BRIENZ.  We stopped at Jackie Hamilton's cousin's place in Flums, but he was not at home.  We drove by ZUG.  Question, what's Zug famous for?  Camped right along the Brienzer See.  The view was fabulous with the mountains and the lake.  The is the area of Jungfrau, the "Top of Europe" and of the famous James Bond movie (on the Schilthorn), On Her Majesty's Secret Service, was filmed. 

July 26:  INTERLAKEN.  We found a campsite in the morning and then took the bus into Interlaken.  Great views of the Alps.  There were many watch stores and swiss army knives for sale!  It is very expensive in Switzerland.  Example, $45 for perch and fries, $35 per person for cheese and bread fondue.  Within a day of coming here the dollar versus the Franc hit an all time low so it was more expensive.  It was over $8 a gallon for diesel.
The villages are neat to go through with their wooden homes and window boxes filled with flowers....yes, just like little Swiss villages!

July 27:  SORENS.  We drove over the Juanpass, which was about 4500' high.  We stopped in GRUYERE and saw the old castle (occupied from 11th-16th century) and the small village surrounding it.

July 28:  CULLY.  We spent today walking around MONTREUX which just ended their 45th Jazz Festival.  The city buildings have great architecture, with multiple high end hotels, restaurants, and shops.  We walked the "Swiss Riviera" along Lac LeMar.  We camped right next to the water.  The hills surrounding us were filled with vineyards terraced along the hillside.

July 29:  VEVEY.  We moved four miles up the road and stayed along the lake.  Walked about the town and enjoyed some local wine in the evening.

Germany into Switzerland

July 18.  BAUTZEN, GERMANY.  Before we left Poland, we met with city officials in Wagrowiec, from the area we believe my great grandparents were from.  They gave us a gift of a book from the area and gave us information on how to contact the archive location where all church records area kept.  As of today, we believe the original spelling for Wahowske is Wachowski. It was nice to have been in Norway and Germany/Poland....where the roots of Danette's family are from.  We are in areas of Jim's family origin but do not have actual city names.

July 19.  DRESDEN, GERMANY.  Dresden is over 800 years old.  During February 1945 the city was demolished by an allied air attack.  Some of the buildings are still left with the blackened exterior from fires and bombings.  Most buildings have been restored, and there is still rebuilding in the Old Town.  This city was one of the top on our list so far.  10 million visitors come here each year and most of them are from Germany.

July 20-21.  PRAHA/PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC.  We drove to the Czech Republic.  Rained all day for the first time on our trip, and drizzed rain when we went to Prague.  We were here 12 years ago at Christmas and loved it.  It is now a heavy tourist area, especially in the summer months.  It is still a beautiful city to visit and walk around.  We enjoyed the side streets and ate great food and drank great beer!

July 22-23.  FURTH IM WALD, GERMANY.  We stopped in PLZEN/PILSEN, Czech Republic, and went to the Pilsner Urquell Brewery.  This company is now owned by SAB/Miller.  The tour was great in that we saw the new production lines as well as the old beer cellars from 1842. 

We drove into Germany and stayed at a nice campground, walking distance to the village.  We spent Saturday walking around the village and stopped for bratwurst and Weissen Beer.  We saw the mascot of the city, which was a dragon from the 1400's and now is a mechanical dragon and is used in festivals in the area.

July 24.  BUCHS, SWITZERLAND.  We drove across southern Germany, a small section of Austria, and landed in Buchs.  It is located adjacent to the small country of Liechtenstein.  Werdenberg is a small area next to Buchs from the 1200-1400's to today which has an old castle and 37 homes. 

Central Poland

July 13:  ILAWA, POLAND.  Jim bought a replacement computer for the one stolen in Tallinn.  We drove to another campsite on a lake. 

July 14:  KATY RYBACKIE, POLAND.  We stopped in MALBORK and toured the castle.  It is the largest Gothic castle in Europe and was once the headquarts of the Teautonic Knights.  It was built in about 1276.  We stayed at a resort town on the Baltic Sea which may have not been the best thing to do since we were there at the beginning of the vacation period for Poland.  Wow, there were a lot of people.

July 15-17: ZNIN and WAGROWIEC, POLAND.  The WAHOWSKE family search started.  We first stopped in Wagrowiec to determine if we could find information about my great grand parents who were born in this area.  We were able to gather some information from each city.  We stayed in Znin one night and spent the day searching graveyards and walking the village.  The second night we drove to Wagrowiec and went to a church festival which had crafts, activities, and bands.  Free camped in the parking lot near the festival.  Sunday we walked grave yards again and then moved to a wonderful campsite on a lake and enjoyed swimming and people watching.

Finland, Baltic States, and now in Poland

We took the ferry to Helsinki, Finland, at 7:30 a.m.  The architecture is Art Nouveau and Jurgen style in the neighborhoods.  We went to the seaport fortress and enjoyed the vibrant city. 

We landed back into Estonia at 11:30 p.m. (still light out) expecting to sleep. 

We arrived to a van which looked as we left it until we unlocked and opened the door.  Then we noticed some changes in the van and immediately recognized that we had been vandalized.  The night was long in meeting the police, making phone calls (a hotel let us use their computer and phone).  We were informed by the police that this happens "all the time" near the ferry terminal.  When you park and buy a ticket, you leave it on the dash to it states when you will return.  Electronics, clothing, cosmetics, cell, computer, sunglasses, were gone.  Jim was upset that his Mickey Mouse hat was stolen!  We left the city at 4:30 a.m. and drove until 6:30 a.m. to sleep for a couple hours.

July 6 we were in OTEPAA, ESTONIA.  After our night last night, we decided to move to a small village which was near the largest lake in this area.  July 7&8.  CESIS, LATVIA.  Stayed at a campground next to a river in the forest.  July 9 in PALANGA, LITHUANIA.  We stayed on the west coast of Lituania.  With summers so short it seems as though the population of Lithuania heads to the small shoreline that exists along the Baltic Sea.  We saw two cities where we saw a massive influx of people who were strolling the streets, the beaches, and the bars!

Our impression as we left the Baltic States is that it was interesting but probably will not return.  The origin of the Baltic States are of Russian origin, meaning concrete blocks.

There are storks in this area during the summer and move to Africa during the winter.  We also saw bridge and grooms walking over bridges.  We asked someone about this and they said after you get married you are to go over 7 bridges for good luck.

July 10&11, GOLDAP, POLAND.  We stopped at the Russian border again just to say hi!  We drove around the piece of Russia that borders the Baltic (Kaliningrad) and drove into northern Poland.  There are beautiful lakes, hills and fields in this area.

July 12 GIZYCKO, POLAND.  We drove into the Great Masurian Lakes area which has over 2000 lakes surrounded by hilly landscape. 

We went to Wolfs Lair (Wilczy Szaniec) where Hitler headquartered from 1941 to 1944.  There were multiple bunkers made up of concrete up to 8 meters thick. 

Stayed in the city of Gizycko, the larges lakeside center in the region.  This area is known for its chain of lakes.  The weather was perfect with people sun bathing along the shore of the lake and a multitude of sailboats on the lake.

MAY BE OUT FOR A BIT

We went to Helsinki, Finland today.  Left our van in a parking lot in Tallin.  Came back and found our van broken into and computer and other electronics stolen.  Right now using a computer at a hotel.  We may be out of touch for awhile.  Good thing we have the blog, as it is the only pictures we have left! 

June 26-27:  OSWIECIM, POLAND.  We camped at the Center for Dialogue and Prayer near AUSCHWITZ, and met with Sister Mary prior to our visit to the Museum/Camp.  Her main interest has been education and the study of Judaism.  She lived in Israel for five years teaching and studying.  We also met a reporter from the Dallas Morning News who is in the process of writing an article and we had interesting conversations with him.

We toured AUSCHWITZ and BIRKENAU.  http://pl.auschwitz.org.pl/h/   There were actually three concentration/death camps in this area.  Over one million people were put to death at these camps with the vast majority being Jews from throughout Europe.  In addition, Polish resistance, Russian soldiers, and Roma (gypsy) were killed or imprisoned here.  Birkenau itself held over 90,000 people in various compounds had 300 prison barracks, and four gas chambers.  The two days spent were powerful and sobering, therefore only one photo.

June 28:  Near LOWICZ, POLAND.  We stopped in Czestochowa and saw the Jasna Gora Monastery and the Black Madonna.  For six centuries the Poles have seen this icon as a miracle worker for the devoted. 

We were amazed as we were driving with the amount of construction and workers involved in the development of the road system in Poland.

June 29-30:  WARSAW, POLAND.  The Old Town area had been bombed out during WWII and was beautifully rebuilt.  The new President was being inaugurated while we were there and a huge music festival was to take place at various outdoor locations through the city.  We walked across the river to the Praga area, which had not been bombed.  With a city of 1.7 million people the transit system was great with buses, trams, and an underground.

July 1 (Friday):  near DRUSKININKAI, LITHUANIA.  We drove to southern Lithuania, along the Russian border, and stayed at a campsite on a lake.  Being July 4 weekend, the timing could not have been better than to spend part of it at a lake area.

July 2:  SIGULDA, LATVIA.  We drove a long day in the rain in order to get closer to our northern destination.  When we left this morning, we drove to the Russian border because it’s the closest we may ever be to Russia! 

In northern Lithuania, we stopped at the Hill of Crosses (Kryziu Kalnas).  It is a two-hump hillock with thousands of crosses.  Crosses were first planted here in the 1400’s.  The Soviets bulldozed them down but people kept putting up crosses to express their national and spiritual independence. 

July 3-4:  TALLINN, ESTONIA.  We stopped at the New Castle in Sigulda and they were having a live Sunday morning concert so we stayed to listen.  We then drove to the north end of Estonia to Tallinn.  Along the way, we drove through a lot of forest and along the Baltic Sea.  We camped at a marina and it was nice to see boats and water near us again.  It was light at midnight and the sun rose by 4 a.m. July 4. 

We spent the day walking around Tallinn.  It was very nice in that they blend the old and the new buildings, except in the actual Old Town.  It felt very cosmopolitan compared to recent cities we have been in.