Poland Trip: Dresden, Germany and Czestachowa, Poland

The very next day after Christmas Day we left in the morning for our big Poland trip.  We have always wanted to go to Poland, but had put it off because of the drive.  It's a 10.5 hour drive to Krakow.  We sure picked a cold time of year to go north, but we are running out of time here and can't be picky anymore.  Godfather Brian was still visiting and he went with us.  In addition, we had two other Catholic homeschool families going at roughly the same time.  On our way down, we made a stop in Dresden, Germany for an overnight stay.

Dresden, Germany

We stayed in a boat overnight in two rooms (three, if you count the priest's room) and it turned out to be a hostel.  (Insert frown here.) The rooms had wall to wall bunks, but we did get our own rooms with a key, so that was a step up from most hostels. It had shared community bathrooms and showers.  It was very quiet when we were going to bed, but around midnight it got pretty loud as the young people rolled in and were running in the hallway.  However, it was doable for one night.

We only had one evening in Dresden, so we set off to walk to the downtown area as soon as we unloaded the van.  It was getting dark as we started off because it gets dark around 4pm at this time of year.  We had time for a tour of the castle treasury where all the children thoroughly enjoyed their audioguides, except for Hannah.  Bobby thinks they are cool.  Drew is all about the audio guides and even tells me things he learned from them, but for some reason Hannah feels this is an area she can control in her life and so refuses to learn anything as we travel.  She even tries not to listen to our audiobooks in the car now.   We listened to th book The Trumpeter of Krakow the whole way to Poland, and, although we'd read this aloud many years ago, it was great to hear it all again and hear the history and places that we were about to see.   

The Cathedral, we actually didn't get to go into it because they were smack in the middle of Mass when we tried to go in.

The next day we got up and went to a Polish pottery town, Boleslawiec.  Our friends met us there.  The women went into the shops while the men watched the children.  At some point they resorted to letting the youngest pile in the other van and watch movies and the big kids read in our van.  It was a very successful trip as far as I am concerned.  I found many Christmas gifts for people for next year.  I am way ahead this time!

Brian  said he could make me one of these one day, so I snapped a picture of it.

Judah wanted a break with Mommy in the Ergo when I went into one of the stores.

I also found a few things for myself.  I only really had a couple random pieces of Polish pottey before.  Now I am fairly well stocked in platters, canisters, and tea cups.  It's enough for me anyway!

Judah found this adorable teapot clock, and I couldn't resist.

After Polish pottery, we went on to our place in Krakow and got settled.  We had dinner and called it a day.  Speaking of food though, we had some amazing pierogies and clear Borscht soup.  I really liked the soup and I made my own when we got home from our trip.  I have made Borscht before, but this kind was thin and broth like with a tanginess to it.  I searched and found a recipe in Polish that I translated and tried out.  It was really close, but slightly lacking in the tanginess department.  Here's my google translate version:

2 kg of beets cooked (see tips)

2.5 liters of vegetable or meat broth (see tips)

1 medium onion, chopped and fried on 1 tablespoon of butter

1 bay leaf, 3-4 English herbs, a few seeds of black pepper

1 tablespoon of vinegar or 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

Place cooked, peeled and sliced ​​(or larger pieces) beets in a boiling, clean (drained) broth. Cook on low heat for only 10 - 15 minutes. 5 minutes before the end of cooking, add the bay leaf, allspice, black pepper and fried onion. Set aside and leave for the whole night or a minimum of 6 hours.

Make borscht almost boil (from this moment borscht can not be boiled completely, because it will change color to darker). Set aside from the heat, add vinegar and strain. Season with salt and pepper (carefully!).

Th next day we drove to Czestachowa where the Black Madonna miraculous painting is kept.  We looked around the grounds first, but didn't have time to see or do the Stations of the Cross because we had to have spots to see the unveiling of the painting at 1:30pm.

The Nativity Scene Outside the Church

Entry to the Grounds

We went into the church and, boy, were we glad it was Christmastime when we chose to come.  The Christmas trees and lights made the church exceptional.

Then Brian and the older kids went to save us a spot in the standing room only room where regular visitors were allowed to be during the unveiling.  I walked around some more with the three younger kids so they didn't have to be still for so long. 

When we decided to go in and check on how full it was about 20 minutes before time, it was too full for us to even get to Brian and the other kids.  Drew was able to squeeze through since he can mostly walk under people, but Judah and Bobby and I got a center spot just about 10 people behind Brian.  The little boys sat down at my fee as we continued to get more and more squished in.  The unveiling was quite impressive.  Brian took a little video, but the quality of the sound isn't great so use your imagination.  Picture music for the coronation of a queen as the curtains rise slowly to reveal the painting.

Mass immediately followed the unveiling which I did not expect, so the boys ended up laying down under my feet as I tried to stand around them so no one would step on them.  They were quiet and well behaved and so I let them lie down.  I really expected to be scolded for this but no one said a word.  In Germany, I can't imagine children lying on a cold stone ground in the middle of a crowd being okay with anyone.  

It was 2:30pm by the time that Mass ended and everyone was hungry, so we walked across the street and went to the first place that would hold us all.  Remember that we had a priest and another family of 5 with us at this point.  The waiter seemed to be fuzzy on his English and so he messed up our order.  My food never came, but by the time we realized it was truly not coming everyone else had eaten their food already.  Brian tried to ask if it was coming, but I told him not to worry about it.  I ate an appetizer and really didn't want to sit any longer to wait for it as the food we did get took a very long time, but the man misunderstood and put the order in.  We tried to cancel it multiple times, but he did not understand so I sent everybody out to let the kids run around while I waited on and ate my dinner alone.  I was not too happy about this.  By the time I came out it was after 5pm.  The church was closed and it was very dark.  So we had to head back to Krakow.  That's what we get for not speaking Polish.

In the restaurant, I took a picture of my cute Ergo passenger on these steps because I want these mosaic tiles on my stairs one day in our permanent home.

At the end of a busy day, my sweet Genevieve read stories to the little boys while they waited for Daddy to bring pierogies and fruit back for dinner.