"It has been said that Poland is dead, exhausted, enslved, but here is the proof of her life and triumph.”

Poland was torn apart by the Nazi and Soviet occupations.  Three million Jews were murdered during WW II.  Warsaw was mostly destroyed. Shamefully,the allies failed to act. The Polish resistance was heroic, gathering evidence  with an underground army that warned the west about the jewish extermination before all was lost. Warsaw is a gateway city between east and west with a tormented tragic history.

Note: The movie "Schindler’s List"  was filmed in Krakow. The “Pianist" was filmed in Warsaw.

93% of the Polish population are identified as Catholics. Fewer than 15,000 Jews  live in Poland, a country once known as the center of European Jewish life. On the eve of the Second World War, Poland was home to over three millionJews, making it the second-largest community in the world.

Warsaw has been totally rebuilt using old photos. Today, the proud Poles enjoy a vibrant country, beautiful rebuilt cities that are culturally rich.  Our trip was one of eye opening historical discoveries and the company of good friends.

Brutal travel……

Going...24 hours door to door…. Phoenix, Denver, London, plane changes to Warsaw

Lodz, Pozan, Wroclaw, Opole, Czestochowa, Auschwitz/Birkenau, Krakow, back to Warsaw……836 miles by bus

Return...22 hours door to door….Warsaw, Frankfurt, Denver, Phoenix-

Who is crazy enough to leave mid 70s weather and spring training to travel to a frigid European country while the corona- virus is being transmitted world wide?  Don’t answer that!  Poland must be too cold to spread bacteria!! There were no cases of the disease while we were in Poland!

The food was great!! Pierogi,(Polish dumplings)  Polskie Nalesniki (Polish pancakes) Paczki (Polish Pastry)

The people were fun, kind and personable. The hotels and service were superb. 

NOTE: Normally when we travel we take in the culture of the cities and the best that nature has to offer. This trip was entirely devoted to the cities and history. We did not get a chance to explore the Polish Tatra Mountains, lying on the border between Poland and Slovakia.

Highlights:

-WARSAW…..The incredible JEWISH MUSEUM, the medieval Stare Miast (Old Quarter) with its market square and 14th century Cathedral of St. John, the "wedding cake” Palace of Culture and Science, the neoclassical Lazienki Palace, and the remnants of the Jewish ghetto.

-LODZ-POZNAN….Pozanski Palace, Old Market Square, Town Hall and the baroque ST. PETER AND PAUL CATHEDRAL

-WROCLAW…This impressive city belonged to Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, Germany and Poland. (after 1945)

Impressive Cathedral, and MARKET SQUARE with its fine patrician houses.

OPOLE-One of the oldest cities in Poland 

CZESTOCHOWA-JASNA GORA monastery where the BLACK MADONNA  is located…the country’s national symbol.

BIRKENAU-AUSCHWITZ- notorious WW II CONCENTRATION CAMPS…….chilling reminders of the Holocaust. Eight years ago we had visited Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic, it  served as a waystation to Auschwitz.  It was primarily populated with children and their color drawings left us in tears. The Nazis brought in media photographers depicting the kids having a good time at a “summer camp”  Our consciousness will never allow us to forget the atrocities and appreciate the sacrifices of the allies to drive out the Nazis and later capturing many that had fled to South America and were put on trial.

KRAKOW- Great city- historic jewish center, the KAZIMIERZ Quarter with its quaint art cafes, and galleries. REMUH SYNAGOGUE AND 14TH CENTURY ST. MARY’S CHURCH WITH ITS UNEVEN TOWERS. We really enjoyed seeing and hearing a bugler play on the hour from the windows of the tower. He waved at us down below. 

 The WIEICZKA salt mines were absolutely incredible and  featured  underground cathedrals. There are only two of these underground salt mine cathedral locations  on the planet. The other is just outside of Bogota Colombia. We visited there four years ago and it was equally  fabulous.

I am now reading “the Volunteer” a true story of a resistance hero who infiltrated Auschwitz.

Poland and its tenacious, resilient people will forever be in our minds.

Arbeit macht frei (Latin-work makes you free) signs over the entrance of many concentration camps

 "Anyone who isn’t confused really doesn’t understand the situation”

Edward R. Murrow

This was a trip of cultural and historic edification, as well as adventure, endurance, remembrance, beauty, fun, joy and sorrow.

Gerry and I thoroughly enjoyed spending close to three weeks with our good Buddy Pete, seeing ‘the other side of life” It was fast paced with much walking, and hiking and crawling. (Co Chi Tunnels and several caves) and Gerry and Pete kayaking in Ha Long Bay

We had a little blip when we landed in Cambodia and Pete had a passport issue. Fortunately the American embassy was close to our colonial hotel.

All three war torn countries were beautiful. The people were fantastic-kind warm and friendly.

The food was savory! Us famous foodies ate off the streets one night in Saigon. The beer was mighty fine!

Phoenix to LA, LA  to Taipei, Taipei to Phnom Penh Cambodia, Phnom Penh to Siem Reap Cambodia, Siem Reap to Luang Prabang Laos, Luang Prabang to Hanoi Vietnam, Hanoi to Ha Long Bay, Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) 

Saigon to Taipei, Taipei to LA, LA to Phoenix

Other Highlights included:

-Great hotels and service

-Buddhist temples

-Walking around Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi where John McCain parachuted into when shot down

-Sunset cruise along the Saigon River

-Cruising the Mekong River and Delta, visiting several villages (visions of Apocalypse Now)

-Running into Mark Espar (Secretary of Defense) and entourage at the Hanoi Hilton

-The adventure of crossing any street in Hanoi or Saigon and risking our lives

I had many flashbacks during this trip including - the award winning photos from the 60s

-Burning Monks

-South Viet Nam police chief shooting a suspected VC in the head

-Naked young girl running with other village people 

-The last helicopters out of Saigon

-John McCain’s  return home

Good evening Viet Nam!!

It all started with the French colonization and before that a hundred years of civil war and way before that, Genghis Kahn and the Mongolians invaded. The Vietnamese were not free of war until 1990, after the Berlin Wall came down. After the American war ended in 1975, the Khmer Rouge invaded as did the Chinese in the north. They have suffered greatly, as has the Cambodians and people in Laos where the “silent war” left thousands of undetonated bombs and mines that kill many farmers each year. Obama gave Laos 90 million to help cleanup but I'm not sure how much their corrupt government used it for that purpose.

Our flawed foreign policy (domino theory) to prevent the spread of communism came at a terrible price. - nearly 60,000 killed-in-action, over 150,000 wounded, and some 1,600 missing.

And many many of our vets are still suffering today, homeless and depressed from the horrors of the war.

Three of our presidents misled the American people about our progress there. Nixon spent 14 million a day bombing Laos and Cambodia along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

In figures released in 1995, Vietnam claimed 2 million civilians died on both sides, while 1.1 million North Vietnamese soldiers and between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers lost their lives in the American war. After Nixon was impeached, funds for South Viet Nam was halted by President Ford and Saigon fell to a relentless enemy.

After we got out of a war that we could not win…. fighting resilient guerrilla warfare on their home court with conventional weapons, and sending many foot soldiers that did not want to be there, as well as dealing with a a South Vietnamese corrupt government, we did not learn our lesson and went into Iraq. The Russians went bankrupt after 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan, and we have been there since 2001.

War is a mean man!!

Today, there are shades of differences between the North and South and Vietnam is a capitalist dictatorship, doing well economically. We have good relations with this country thanks to the work of John McCain.

Mark Espar (US Secretary of Defense) praised the Vietnamese people as resilient. So true!!

God bless our veterans who served and did their patriotic chore. Those on the wall are gone but not forgotten.

OK Now for the very popular Men Behaving Badly

-Pete for not noticing that the last 2 pages of his passport are not for Visas and having to make an emergency trip to the Cambodian Embassy and then when we came to find him, he came out of the embassy and jumped on the back of a guys motorcycle and went like a bat out of hell without explanation. He later showed up at the hotel saying he had to get new photos but he could pick up a new passport the next day.

-Pete for wandering around the “other side of life”in Saigon and taking a photo of a roasted brown dog and texting me with it

-Pete for sneaking up to the premium economy seats and getting busted.

-ELG for inviting him to come up there.

-ELG for thinking he was in the movie “Apocalypse Now ”while on the Mekong River and dancing to “I don’t get No satisfaction”

-ELG for thinking he was 5 ft. 5 “ tunnel rat and crawling thru a long segment of the Co Chi Tunnels

-ELG for drinking the rice wine with a snake in the bottle and then screaming….Keeeeeeerist thats good booze!!

-Two drunk dudes in front of our 5 star hotel in Saigon staggering, then 1 vomited and the other peed on him

- A woman we called “Ken” don’t ask me why, that annoyed us multiple times!

-An old crusty broad named Jennifer that stayed drunk and obnoxious the whole trip, then fell down the stairs