Szczecin and the Surrounds

We went back to Poland - besides the cheap airfares there is an attraction about the country - the lack of tourists is just one appeal, the friendliness of the locals, the fine food and interesting history are others. On both the flight out and back were mainly Polish families probably taking the opportunity of a mid term break to fly home to see family and friends. It seems a shame that the flights are no where near full (there were only 41 passengers on the way back - I didn't count but overheard the cabin crew - and that didn't quite fill a plane that could take about 180 passengers - so I do hope that the flights continue in this economic climate. The flight back was 55 minutes early as the plane was ready and so were the 41 people). We usually take just an overnight bag, as it costs money to have one to put in the hold, but since it is winter and we were going for 4 days we decided to pay the extra. However, the nice lady at the counter said our bag was over weight (20 kilos instead of 15) and we could pay an extra £12 per kilo if we liked. We didn't like and went away to repack our bags putting our spare shoes and heavy things in our back pack to take onto the plane. When we returned she looked at us and said there was also a weight limit on hand luggage but we didn't offer to have them weighed and thankfully she didn't insist. On the way back it didn't seem to matter. The Ryan Air magazine had an article on Poland and it said that since 2004 when it joined the EU many Poles have been leaving the country to see the world and find work in countries that pay much better. With an exchange rate of over 4 zlotis to 1 pound that isn't surprising. Apparently, Poland has now become the fifth most popular holiday destination in the EU - after France, Spain, Italy and the UK - but like I said we didn't see many tourists during the cold autumn weekend. So we continue to contribute to the 30 billion euro tourist market into Poland. We arrived about 10.00 at night, we drove along well sealed roads (good enough for roller blading) and thought this isn't the Poland we know. The new roads, I would think funded by the European Union, have made quite a difference but did not go all the way into the city. Half way along, we got back to the very bumpy roads where we could see the rental car headlights going up and down through the trees as we negotiated many a bump and pot hole. Surprisingly, we didn't get lost getting to our inner city hotel - the only time in the four days. We did have fun though when the car parking attendant could not speak English and he signalled that we needed to round the block to the car park (Harry nodded knowingly and I asked did he understand what we needed to do). We drove around the block - through a number of traffic lights only to end up at the same place - we found a park (squeezed into a space more like it) and as the parking attendant rushed out I said 'ok' with a smile and he smiled back and said 'ok' - we were never too sure where he was trying to tell us to go but we continued to park in that area all weekend. Other people stopped to try and explain to us about buildings we were admiring, and managed to ask us whether we were German or Danish before reverting back to Poland as we stood and smiled. We still struggle with the Polish language as it is so different to English and after commuting between Germany and Poland I found I was saying 'Bitte' and 'Danke' when I should have been saying 'Prosze' and 'Dziekuje'. At one restaurant the waitress persevered with us while we pointed to our little language book, the menu and used hand signals to order our dishes and then gave us a big smile when at the end of the meal Harry said 'To bylo pyszne' (that was delicious) which it was (we had been practising it since the first mouthful). As you can see from what I have written the food lived up to our expectations of Poland. We were given a little book on restaurants and places to see at the tourist centre and after trying a couple of restaurants we realised that on the last night we hadn't sampled the food at many. So, while sitting eating our entree of hot dumplings we decided on a progressive dinner and had our main a few blocks away (salmon and spinach, spicy pancakes) and finished with dessert and coffee and a jazz club (hot plums and pears with ice cream) while listening to live jazz. The club is situated in the cellar, a former home of church canons - great venue with arched roof lines and great atmosphere and quite unexpected as the church above the basement has long since gone. On our last night we travelled back from the north to the airport and stopped for a schnitzel (one of three - the other 2 in Germany - did we do anything else but eat??) at a roadside cafe. I was game and asked for a coffee. It looked rather strong and tasted even stronger so Harry had that and I had a cup of tea (which for some reason the cook had given us 'gratis'). Harry added rather a lot of sugar, and after drinking it found that at the bottom of the coffee cup was about an inch of ground coffee beans. We saw others drinking it in the restaurant quite happily so I think it was the restaurants speciality!!!


Our first day in Szczecin was drizzly so we decided to walk the town. Instead of a 'hop on hop off bus' they have painted a tourist trail on the footpath with a map describing the sites as you walk along. It took about 6 hours to walk the circular path outlined by a red striped line (we thought of all sorts of songs to keep us going between walking and looking like the 'Wizard of Oz song sung by Dorothy 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road', Elton John's Yellow Brick Road' and Johnny Cash's 'Walk the Line' so sang those (not too loudly cos after all we were in a city) and we definitely stopped when we met an Australian who was doing the same thing except not the singing. We walked past some wonderful architectural designs (some of which are originals and others rebuilt according to photos and plans after the war but many based on the neo-Gothic period). We wandered past:

• the Pomeranian Duke's Castle which stands proudly at the entrance to the city. We went into the museum and saw some interesting photos (the commentaries were in Polish but it was fun looking at the photos) and some tin crypts in which most famous polish royalty were buried (eg Boguslaw XIV) - they were put in two wooden caskets and then the ornately decorated tin caskets that were on show
• the military museum and academy and council buildings along the river Odra - big red brick buildings like the Post Office, Western Pomeranian Province Government Building, Town Hall, Pomeranian Library, Railway Station and churches built in the 1300's like St John the Evangelist Church, St Adalbert's Church
• lovely replastered buildings like the Pomeranian Medical University Rector's Offices and the gates in to the town ship like the Brama Portowa (Harbour Gate) which is now home to one of the jazz clubs where we enjoyed a dessert one night and not far from our hotel
• local housing - some live in what look like rather nice apartments close to town, or council type apartments (that don't look so great but are better than what we see in Bristol) or small detached houses that look rather delapidated. In the country, most houses are A frame (I imagine to let the snow slide off) some are colourful with their new painted plaster (red, orange, lime green, bright yellow) while others are very old or derelict. They stand side by side clearly showing the wealth of some of the Polish and highlighting the poverty of others.
• other churches like the Holiest Heart of Jesus Church which was designed by Stahl on the former military burial ground as a Garrison Church (there was another across the road). It is one of the first modernist buildings in the city, started before the first world war and finished at the end of it.
• some buildings that have been restored with Baroque facades near the museum. We wandered into one of the museums not particularly keen to see the artifacts but more to look at the building interior which was all brick with big windows and sloping wooden floors. We had forgotten that the officials follow you around the museum turning lights on and off and pointing you in the direction to go, and one turned on a beautiful early glockenspeel for us to enjoy looking at music being created.
• lots of academic schools eg for the military, art, medical and music students to attend and in fact the city did seem a young peoples city - in saying that it felt safe and was very clean (we saw little rubbish and the only clean up that was going on in the city was the sweeping up of leaves when it stopped raining)

Many people have said to me that autumn is there favourite time of year. I must admit I have never quite had that same feeling with the cold and damp and the promise of winter to come. However, after visiting the beauty of the Polish city and driving through the colourful forests in both Poland and Germany I must admit it may not be my favourite season as I liked warmth - but it is the prettiest. The Forests, mainly pine, had many trees scattered throughout displaying shades of yellow, brown, red and green (there were even apples to pick if drivers were game to stop on the narrow side of the road). Even when driving through the Friedlander GroBe (the B is meant to be one of those big 's' letters but I can't find it on the key board) Weise the meadows were a display of colours with hay and crops galore (the flat land went for miles in all directions with the road raised in the middle - it gave the impression that winter could mean flooding).

There were some little differences we noticed between the countries as we crossed the border - going through what would have once been a nerve racking experience for travellers we now passed empty buildings without a customs officer in sight. In Poland the pedestrians stand and wait for the 'green man' - there are no buttons to push and most people just wait for the cars and trams to go by until it is there turn. In Germany once you push the button a white sign comes on that says 'Signal Kommt' before the little green man in a marching stance lights up. On the transport side, we noticed very few large trucks in Poland. Our first stop in Germany was Neubrandenburg and it was one of those places which we wish we could visit in summer for a longer time. Those early evenings do restrict our tourist activities. The town is on the end of the Mecklenburg Lake District which we saw from the top of the Marienkirche - that has been converted to a modern concert hall (we climbed to the tower - not understanding when the attendant told us to take ear plugs in case the bells went - but was thankfully not close to the bells when they chimed. The 1248 church was converted by the Finnish architect Pekka Salminin into the concert hall. Outside was an advertisement for a Glenn Miller concert in November - something we would have liked to have been around for. The town is surrounded by a fully restored wall and four gates - one of them the Friedlander Tor. The wall is 2.3 km long which we couldn't resist walking around under our umbrellas and we were further inspired by a restaurant advertising schnitzel. The houses are built into the walls, most of them in tudor style, most 3 storeys high, but some 4, and some had little shops on the ground floor - books, art galleries, perfumeries etc. At the beginning around the 14th century they replaced two of the houses with towers to help defend the city. Outside the wall, was a green belt (or yellow at the moment) which you could walk or cycle around and so we alternated between walking outside the wall and inside the wall - we didn't want to miss anything. Well now onto the four tors (or gates) - I will start with the most important one:

• Friedlander Tor - the oldest one - built around 1300 in the Romanesque Gothic style - and the one that has inspired Harry to do a bit more research into his ancestors. The Tor has a tower at the front, two gates and a walled walkway where behind the green doors is a cafe and art gallery. A photo opportunity not to be missed.
• Neues Tor - or the new one - as it was the last to be built somewhere in the 15th century - no shops in this one but its home to the Fritz Reuter Society (Fritz is a well known German author who's statue sits near one of the gates).
• Stargarder Tor was constructed in the early 14th century. On the inside of the wall, nine life-size terracotta figures look over the town - no one knows exactly what they mean - but I think they probably have something to do with protecting the residents.
• Treptower Tor which houses the regional museum. It is 32 meters high and quite impressive. It was finished in the early 15th century and has accommodated the Municipal Museum since 1883.

Another day we drove to Friedland. It was a stark contrast to Neubrandenberg. Although it too had a wall, it was not the buzzing, vibrant town and we soon discovered that it was a holiday. 31st October in Germany and 1st November in Poland - the day of Halloween and after Halloween respectively (we ended up having our last breakfast in Szczecin in a restaurant called Colorado - as it was the only place we could find open- the restaurant did have an Amercian theme and was all decked out in cobwebs and scary masks for the celebrations the night before). But back to Friedland - on a sunny holiday there were no children playing, few people around and those that were, walked with real focus rather than simply enjoying the nice day. We likened it to the Pied Piper story and wondered if someone had come and taken the children and most of the inhabitants as well. Friedland's wall, was not as big or spectacular as the other - that is perhaps because 'walls' had lost a bit of their novelty by then, and there was a lot more ordinariness about the town. So, back to Bristol - 6 degrees and raining. Harry was pleased that the All Blacks and Lewis Hamilton both won. We're looking forward to the NZ election but will miss the fun of the night - perhaps we will have to share election party with some UK ites.