Trip to Poland and East Europe - September 1993
GERMANY
We flew to Berlin, rented an automobile, and drove through East Europe finally turning the car in at Vienna. There we boarded a train to Munich for our trip home.
Wanda and Marilyn at Brandenburg Gate
Phil and Wanda in former East Berlin. Street name changed from communist Otto Grotewohl to pre-war Wilhelmstrasse
Potsdam street scene
Potsdam - St. Peter und Paul-Kirche
Potsdam - Cecilienhof, where the Potsdam Conference was held in July-August 1945
Potsdam - Cecilienhof - the conference table used by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin
Potsdam - Cecilienhof
POLAND
Wrocław Town Hall from ul. Sukiennice and from the west
Wrocław Interior of St. John the Baptist Cathedral
Wrocław - Statue of Mary in front of Cathedral
Wrocław - street scene
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska history from a plaque in the Basilica. Phil's maternal grandparents emigrated from Kalwaria in 1913.
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska - Basilica and entrance to Basilica grounds
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska Poland - map of monastery
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska - Side altar in Basilica
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska street scenes
Cousin Sashka, Phil, Wanda, Maria Kaminska, Maria's daughter, Henryk Kaminski at Maria's home.
Outside Maria's home
Wadowice - Statue of Pope John Paul II at the New Cathedral (he was born here)
Wadowice - The boyhood home of Karol Woitła and the altar where he served as an altar boy. Karol later was known as Pope John Paul II
Czestochowa - Jasna Gora. Jasna Gora monastery is the home of Poland's revered "Black Madonna" icon. This picture is said to have been painted by St. Luke the Evangelist. The icon has a long history tracing back as early as 326 AD when the Emperor Constantine's mother, St. Helena found it in Jerusalem. The icon is very dark due to votive candle smoke over the ages. When we visited here in 1968, the icon was displayed during Mass. Unfortunately, it was not on this trip.
Czestochowa - Jasna Gora
Zyweic town square and farming near Zyweic
CZECH REPUBLIC
Czech-Polish border town Český Těín
Prague from St. Charles Bridge
Prague - St. Wenceslaus Square
Prague - Anti-communist memorial - with a cross and crown of thorns. Czechoslovakia was taken over by the communists in 1948 deposing the freely elected government. There was an unsuccessful revolution in 1968 as it was quashed by Soviet forces. Finally, in 1989, the Velvet Revolution took place and Czechoslovakia shook off the communist yoke
Prague street scenes
We rented this flat on ul. Betlemska
Prague - inside the Hrad
Prague - Changing of the guard to the Hrad
SLOVAK REPUBLIC
Bratislava from the Hrad
Bratislava Hrad
Bratislava - Changing of the guard at the Hrad
HUNGARY
Budapest - Parliament Building
Budapest - Kossuth Monument
Budapest - Street name post-communist replacing communist (the street was formerly Népköztársaság, means "Peoples' Republic" and was the name of the communist newspaper there). The current name is that of a hero of the 1848 Revolution against Austro-Hungary, Gyula Andrássy
Budapest - Marilyn enjoying a Gypsy fiddler at dinner
Budapest - Soviet War Memorial
AUSTRIA
Vienna - Karlskirche
Vienna street scenes
After Vienna, we took the train to Munich to return home.
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