traveldiary.stracke.us

After having been in shock for a couple of weeks, it’s time to come back……and here I am. As many of you faithful readers know, Carsten gave us quite a scare, something I hope will never happen to any of you or to us again! Thank God, all is well with him and he is deciding which direction his life should take for the next 3 months, either go to a make-shift medical school here in the states or wait till January to continue his studies. He’ll let us know as soon as he knows!:wink:

Now to the history lesson. What kind of a teacher would I be without a lesson:???:
Every child, as it ages, wants to know where his/her roots lie……. Now after having seen Breslau, I was interested to see how my grandparents started living in one country, Poland, but ended up in another, Germany. The only way was to delve into some books and see how that happened. I knew bits and pieces from stories I had heard my whole life, but I wanted a concise explanation………………………….

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It is Sept.8th and we are driving from Breslau,Poland to Dresden Germany on the Interstate E40. On the map it looks finished, marked as a promising blue double line, but reality confronts us with a teethshattering washboard. We are able to drive not any faster than 40 MPH and are happy to reach the German border. There is still a striking difference between the 2 countries and we are surrounded again by nice looking houses, clean towns, well built roads etc. Our satellite phone works again, but still no contact with Carsten in Grenada. Tonight we stay in Dresden in an Etap Hotel ( French budget hotel chain) for $40. Everything is computerized and you do not get a room key, but after paying for your room, you are given the code for the keypad lock on the door. The room is clean and the private bath is a wetcell with toilet and shower. No pictures on the walls, no phone or wake-up call, but we even have cable TV in the room. We slept fairly well, considering that we had no news from Carsten yet.

Today we’ve been on the streetcars and buses of Wroslow ( Breslau), Poland searching for the house of my grandparents and mother. It was an interesting experience, since we did not speak a word of Polish, and I mean not a word:!: Thank God the tourist info had a map that was labeled with the street names in Polish and German. Prior to WW2 this area of Poland was part of Germany. After the war, it was given to Poland, when Polish territories in the east were given to the Soviet Union. Wow what a speckled history:!: So does that make my background Polish or German? Definitely German because my grandpa refused to become Polish and was thrown out of the area and repatriated to western Germany. Thanks Opa,:grin: because otherwise I wouldn’t be around, since my Papa was from the western section of Germany.
We searched out 3 places where my grandparents had taken up residence. Two of the three were actually still there, even though Breslau was over 70% destructed in the war. One is now either a big 4 lane street or part of a gas station:shock: One of the two was really hidden because you had to walk through a house in order to get to an entire complex at the back of that house, that none in the world would have known was there, except of course my Mom, who told me about it. She was 12 when they had to leave Breslau. I felt like I was following the footsteps of my ancestors…pretty cool:cool:
Breslau itself is a very big city..about 650,000 inhabitants. The main square is beautiful with a lot of old European flair. Outside of that perimeter it still seems like either pre-war 40’s, if buildings are still standing or post war Soviet style blocks. Definitely a blast to the past:lol:

One super cool thing today.. the cathedral, the Pope’s home cathedral has an elevator to the top..:shock:

Our satellite phone won’t work here-it claims restricted area

Gabi in Breslau

Yesterday we traveled the American Way : 3 countries in 1 day! We left Duesseldorf and dropped Sonja off at the train station. She has a course this week preparing her for the Teaching Assistent job in Biberach. We flew from Cologne,Germany to Prague in the Czech Republic ( airlines name is “Germanwings”in good old German) and drove to Wroclaw ( used to be German Breslau until the end of World War II ). We are in Lower Silesia and the town has a historic city center with beautiful old houses and many bridges crossing the river ” Oder “. It is also called the Venice of the East. We had a first time experience today : taking an elevator to the top of Pope John Paul II cathedral !
Gabis grandparents lived in this German town until 1946. We had three addresses of houses where they had lived over the years. We bought a city map with the old German and now Polish streetnames and found 2 out of 3 houses stillstanding. Number 3 was destroyed and is now an LP Gas dealership.
Breslau ( Wroclaw now ) was defended by 40000 German troops at the end of the war. 70 % of the town was destroyed during the siege and the Germans here only surrendered on May 6 th, 1945 after the fall of Berlin on May 2 nd. Gabis grandparents were given the option to stay after the war if they accepted the Polish citizenship. Her grandfather decided against becoming Polish and moved to Germany. Amazing the choices people had to make even after the bombing was over.
The old city is still very pitturesque and we are enjoying the outdoor restaurants under warm, sunny skies. I have never seen so many good looking, well dressed women in one place before ( for you guys out there). Obesity is just about non-existent here !!
As far as the headline goes : we are staying in a modern Mercure ( French hotel chain) right in the center of town and for the first time on this trip did I get a bathroom with bright lights !! In Germany hotels and private homes often have low wattage bathroom lights since the electricity costs about 2 to 3 times as much as in the US.
Remaining faithful to my beautiful, young German wife, Lothar in Breslau