Spring 1999Prologue: My mother was born in the Free City of Danzig. While she lived there, it considered itself to be allied with Germany, although now, Danzig is Gdansk, and is a city in Poland. Her father was wise enough, and fortunately solvent enough to be able to bring his family to America just before the start of WW II. Until 1999, my mother had refused to have anything to do with her birthplace. For whatever reason, she decided that she was ready to return, and invited me, Dan, and without our knowledge, our son Jason, to meet them in Poland . I leaped at the chance.
Our trip to Warsaw was fairly uneventful, unless you count being surprised by Jason's appearance at the gate at the Atlanta airport. We were flying business class, and the poor kid had to ride in coach, but I think it was ok with him. Dan & I were a tad disappointed to discover that while our 59 minute flight from Orlando to Atlanta was on one of Delta's new upgraded "Business Elite" planes, with seats that reclined almost horizontally, and so much leg room that you had to get out of your seat to reach the seat pocket on the chair in front of you, we were on one of the 20% of the planes that hadn't been re-fitted for the 9 hour flight to Vienna. Still, much more pleasant than riding coach. Three cheers for frequent flyer upgrades.
From Vienna we flew into the Warsaw airport where we discovered that the country is sorely lacking in vowels. Although Jason had a handy dictionary and phrase book, it wasn't a lot of help when you were trying to say things like "przepraszam" or "trzy". Another thing about Warsaw. What you pay for a cab is totally random. We paid 95 zloty (pronounced "zwoteh") to get from the airport to the hotel; Mom & Dad, who arrived later, paid 120. Going back to the airport the following week, it was 30. It's about a 20 minute ride. The ride from the train station to the hotel was about 5 blocks, and we took a cab only because of the luggage, and it cost 40 (although by then, we were pretty good at arguing, and only gave the driver 30).
After checking into the Forum Hotel, a very nice but still very European establishment, we showered and decided to take a walk to explore the surroundings. We were in downtown Warsaw, and there was a military museum not far away. The outside was about a football field area full of tanks, warplanes, and other old war stuff that gave Dan & Jason some happy times.
We found our way back to the hotel (it was 30 stories high and had a big "Pepsi" sign along one side, so even I could find it!), and asked if there was a nearby casual place to eat. Upon the recommendation of the girl at the reception desk, we went to Chmielnka Street and found the nice cafe she recommended. The three of us enjoyed a good Polish beer, salads and a meal for less than $20 US -- that was total, not each!. Once you get to Poland, the cost of living won't break the budget. We went back to the hotel to meet up with Mom and Dad, had a short visit and then crawled into bed, since we'd missed nearly a full night's sleep.
Woke up (not surprising, since the sun came up around 4 am) before 8 and went to the hotel breakfast. We really enjoyed the meal plans in Europe. Polish breakfasts are more like American lunches, but there were lots of sausage choices, as well as cereals and eggs for those who don't care for herring, tomatoes, cukes, salads, jellied assorted fish things, cold cuts, etc. for breakfast. However, as far as I'm concerned --- when in Poland..."
Our city tour squeezed six people into a 5 passenger mini-van, but the mixup in bookings meant that unless we shared, a very nice lady from Korea would have missed the tour. Polish tour mixups seemed to be normal. We had a very nice guide, whose English was understandable, and he showed us the city. We saw lots of embassies, palaces, the royal gardens, some of Old Town, some of the Jewish memorials, and were told a lot about Polish history. I wish I could say I remembered a lot of the Polish history, but history's not my thing. I leave that to Dan & Jason.
After the tour, we took a cab back to Old Town and had a late lunch. Discovered that Polish-made pierogi are really, really good. We walked back to the hotel, and relaxed a while before going to a nice restaurant for dinner. Although the waiter didn't speak much English, there was enough English on the menu to give us an idea of what we were ordering, although we weren't really sure when we got the dishes that they were exactly what we ordered. However, everything was good. Lots of duck and pork in Poland, and we had some gourmet pierogi as an appetizer. Four different colors, as many different fillings, and all very good. The hotel cabs charged us 20 z to get to the restaurant. It was raining, so we asked the waiter to call us cabs to get back. They charged 7 back to the hotel.
Next day was the Jewish history tour. Although the man at the desk assured us that we couldn't book in advance, but were just to show up in the lobby shortly before the tour began to buy tickets, that's not what the tour guide said. He had a pre-arranged group of seniors from SUNY, a group very similar to Dad's UCLA Plato group, and said he wasn't supposed to take additional people, that all ticket sales were to be prearranged by the hotel to the tour company. Anybody see a pattern developing? But, he also said it wasn't the first time that the hotel did this, and was happy to let us join his group. We toured the last remnant of the ghetto wall, and drove around where the ghetto was. Also went to the cemetary, monuments commemorating the ghetto uprising, Mila 18, the Umschlagplatz where the trains took Poles and Jews to Treblinka, and the remaining synagogue in Warsaw. We learned of Janosz Korczak and his orphanage, and how he would not abandon his charges and was put to death along with them. It was a very well done tour, and not as difficult to deal with as I had first feared.
After the tour, we went to the train station to buy our tickets to Sopot, and then roamed a bit more and went into a Technology Museum. All the graphics were in Polish, believe it or not! Returned to our hotel and had the buffet dinner in the casual dining room. All you can eat for 55z, which is expensive in Poland, but quite reasonable for the amount of food you could eat. The exchange rate was just under 4:1, so dinner was about $14 each.
The Jewish museum which was the reason that Mom had wanted to start the trip in Warsaw, which was closed on the weekends, turned out to be closed for at least another year for renovations. So, we had a relaxing morning, packed our things and took an 11 o'clock train from Warsaw to Sopot, the town where Mom had spent summer vacations with her family as a young girl.
The train ride took about 4 hours. We shared a compartment with 3 other people; one was a young student who admitted to being able to understand a bit of our English, so we could ask her some questions about the countryside. Unlike the US, strangers on a train don't speak much to each other, so I think she thought our constant chatter was amusing. At any rate, when she got off in Gdansk, we thanked her for her help, and she thanked us for a 'good time.' The Sopot train station is very small -- two outdoor platforms, one for locals and one for express trains. We found the taxi stand and went to the Hotel Grand. Check in was fairly uneventful, although they didn't know about Jason even though Dad had a confirmation from the company that booked the rooms. (Back to familiar territory.)
Jason and Dan found tiny bits
of potential amber, and then we went to walk on the pier. It was very special,
and not at all unemotional, to be with Mom as she returned to a place where
she had been so long ago. Although the dance floor was replaced by grass,
she still recognized the hotel grounds. We walked down the boulevard to
see the house that her uncle lived in. We met our guide the next morning
for a tour of Mom's list of things to see. Vitold (although I'm sure it's
spelled differently in Polish) was an excellent guide, spoke very good
English, and had planned the route based on what Mom had asked him to show
us. We went to the town of Oliva
and saw the cathedral, and also a castle that Mom remembered being there.
We found the house where Mom was born, and the site of the apartment building
they lived in later on. It is now a pastry shop, but the house next door
still stands. We saw the very wide boulevard where people strolled, horse
and buggies drove, and the trolley cars as well as automobiles. No more
horses, but the trolley still runs. After some persistent talking by Vitold,
we were permitted to visit Mom's former school, the "Helene Lange Schule"
which is now part of the pharmacology department of the University of Gdansk
and is restricted. However, when Mom wants a picture, nothing stops her,
and I think Vitold understood, because he certainly did what it took to
get her in. We saw the 
Old
City, harbor, and the office building of my grandfather. Vitold took us
into an amber/jewelery shop and showed us how they polish the amber, and
also how to tell the difference between real amber and plastic imitation.
We parted with some more money at the store, but again, the prices seemed
quite reasonable.
We went up to the top of the Marienkirche, which was about 82 meters (440 steps). At the top is a little old man who takes money from those wanting to use the binoculars which are at the top. He has a heck of a walk to and from work each day! We went into the town hall, and saw the statue of Neptune in the town square. The statue had been dismantled and hidden at the bottom of a lake to protect it from the Nazis during the war. The entire Old City has been renovated to look like it did in the 17th century.
The afternoon was rainy, so we lounged around the hotel. Dad found the billiards room, and we tried some pool. It was an adventure, with no chalk, and a not exactly level table. Dad also arranged for a massage, Mom rested, and Jason, Dan & I went down to the cafe and had some coffee and cake. Very good cake, I might add. Since it was still raining, and Dad had a cold, we decided to eat in the hotel once more. There was still plenty left on the menu to try.
The next day we met Vitold and drove to the castle at Marlbork. It's being restored, but is still quite impressive. We also went to the concentration camp at Stutthof, which is not so impressive. There were not the busloads of school children here like there were at most of the other places we went. After the camp, we went to see great-grandfather Simon Anker’s granary building from across the river, and then just a bit farther down the road, we went to the Westerplatte memorial, where WWII started. It was late afternoon before we retuned to the hotel and settled up with Vitold.
That night we took the train into Gdansk and met an acquaintance of my mother's who happened to be showing some of her relatives their roots as well. Mira Ryczke Kimmelman is a concentration camp survivor who wrote a book about her experiences -- Echoes from the Holocaust: A Memoir. The human spirit and will to survive are very strong in her. She is a remarkable woman. Even more remarkable (on a strictly personal level) was the fact that one of the cousins she was showing around turned out to be a former colleague of Dan's from his Miami days. I think this qualifies as a 'small world' experience.
Thursday - to Hel and back
Dan has an aquaintance from Gdansk who is studying in Boston. She arranged for us to meet with a friend of hers at the marine station in Hel (Hela in German). It was a 2 hour boat ride to get there. We had great fun asking the ticket lady for a one way ticket to Hel. We met Dan's contact, Agnieske and an American who is teaching environmental protection at the pier. We toured their marine station, which is quite small, looked at their collection of seals (4), and then walked through the town to have lunch. We were eating on American time, which doesn't match the Polish lunch crowd, so the restaurant was fairly empty, but the service was really slow. Maybe they weren't used to parties of 7 ordering full meals at that time. Anyway, we ate some good seafood, saving room for the special cake as recommended by our guides.
We toured the fisheries museum, and then caught the train back to Sopot, which was rapidly filled with school children returning from some two week adventure. We were lucky to have boarded at the first stop, so we had seats. SRO after about 2 stations down the line. So much for our trip to Hel and back!
We had drinks in the bar, and decided to stay in the hotel for dinner again. Our waiter that night was ever so friendly, and you could almost believe he understood everything we said. Of course, we know different. Dad was convinced that the waiter understood pefectly when he asked for a dish of ice cream, 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 vanilla. He was served a dish of vanilla ice cream with fruit compote in it, cookies, and the whole thing was flambed. So much for Dad's theory that all you have to do is speak slowly and repeat yourself a lot and the language barrier shall be broken. Sopot isn't the hub of American or other English speaking tourism. Everyone was very helpful, but you really couldn't be sure that the answer you got was the one that matched your question.
The only connections Dan & I could get back to Orlando included a 7 am flight out of Warsaw on Saturday. Since you can't get there from Sopot at that time, we left Friday afternoon for Warsaw while Mom, Dad & Jason went back to Gdansk to look more closely at the places we'd just glimpsed, and to see other things they'd missed. Dan & I toured Sopot and took one last walk along the beach and pier. I found a nice print of old Gdansk in an art gallery, and decided to take a chance on it surviving the trip back in my suitcase. We caught our train to Warsaw (thanks to Vitold, who had written the necessary words, like 2 reserved seats, non-smoking, etc., all without a single vowel). and enjoyed the company of some Polish students who spoke pretty darn good English. Two were getting married in September, and she shared some of the plans she was making. We also discovered that 'forsythia' is just about the same in Polish and English. I think that was about the only word that seemed just about the same (although I think chocolate was understandable, too). We checked back into the Forum hotel and went back to Chmielnka for dinner. I found a shoe store and bought another pair of Birkenstocks -- 179z, which is about $45.
Early to bed, early to rise, and we got to the Warsaw airport. Found the duty free shops; Dan bought some vodka and I got some chocolate. Also found some small cut crystal brandy snifters, which meant I had to be very careful carrying them. Dumb, but they were very pretty (and cheap). We were topside on a Swiss Air 747 from Zurich to Atlanta. Still not the legroom of the newer Deltas, but the service was excellent, and there was plenty of room to put our carry-ons without worrying about my crystal breaking. I wish that Mom hadn't waited so long to show me where she came from, but I'm awfully glad she finally did.