Ferry crossing

This is one of the ferry crossings that our GPS has taken us to and told us to go "straight 2 km's", but we've turned back and found a different way to get to our destination.

There is no motor, only a cable, that does not move.  The  ferry is moved by the current of the river.

Not my kind of transportation. 

Krakow Old Town (Rynek)

These children in national costumes were just walking down the street with their teachers, I think.  I don't know what the occasion was.

The next day Zbigniew took us to Krakow and showed us the Old Town. 

 Here's a few pictures that we took.

This country is full of statues.

The church at the end of the street is St.Mary's Cathedral.

A couple of pictures of the inside of St. Mary's Cathedral.  It was incredible.

People used to gather at the park across the street from this building to see the pope John Paul II wave to them from the window where his picture is now.  This was his residence when he was the cardinal of Krakow.

Viswa river.

Inside this palace we saw more tapestry than I have ever seen.  Every room had at least two.  Many were from 16th century.  We didn't have a tour guide to explain all of them to us.

Statues of the Twelve Apostles.  I could not fit them all in one picture.

Another priesthood holder (not an apostle) with an accordian player.

Wielicka

Since we had to be back in Warsaw on Thursday for a zone conference where Elder Teixeira was speking to the missionaries of Warsaw and Bydgoszcz zones, we decided not to drive back north to Gdansk.  Instead we headed south to Krakow and Wielicka, where Clarence has some family.

For our first night in Wielicka we found this neat place that offered rooms for the night.  We had a small room and a bathroom for 100 zl ($33).  There was only 1 small towel, so we skipped showering the next morning.  Maybe we good have got towels for another zlotes or two, but we didn't bother asking.  There was no shampoo either and the soap for the shower had been used by someone else earlier.  Skip shower, right!!!  The place was clean, but people in Poland don't shower every day, so soap, shampoo and towels are not that important, I guess.

These are Clarence's cousin Zbigniew Gardecki and his wife Krystyna Gardecka.  His grandmother and Clarence's grandmother were sisters.  Yes, we did get some info for genealogy. 

Zbigniew took us to Wielicka salt mines.  Here are the cousins waiting for the tour to start.

To take pictures inside the salt mines you have to get a special permit, so we decided to be happy with just a picture on the outside.  Our camera would not have taken good pictures in the semidark mines.

This is just a church in Wielicka.  I thought it looked nice behind the trees and bushes.

Touring Warsaw II

I can't remember what this palace is called.  The sign on the front wall says something about it being a library, but Sister Tarasevich said that we could not go in.  Its "backyard" is a beautiful park.  We walked there for a while listening to the birds singing and enjoying the shade of the trees.  It was a very warm day.

This is the front of the palace.

Across the street are monuments to remind people of the Warsaw Uprising, 1944.  The PW sign is now also a sign to remind everybody of the 1980's solidarity movement. 

These statues are also across the street from the palace.

Touring Warsaw

While Clarence was at the leadership meeting, I toured Warsaw with sister Tarasevich, whose husband was at the meeting also.  They are another senior couple serving in Poland.

I have told you about this building before.  I call it the Stalin building.  Stalin offered the Polish people money to either build this building or improve their transportation.  People voted for transportation improvements, but Stalin had this building built.  It is now called The Palace of Culture and Science.  Inside they have a movie theatre, concert hall etc.  Also some offices.  We can't tour the inside, but can take an elevator to the 30th floor and see this huge city. 

Outside there are many statues to portray arts and science.

Here are some pictures of what Warsaw looks like from "Stalin Tower".  It was sort of like being in the Empire State Building.

This is the soccer stadium that is being built for 2012 international soccer tournament to be held in Poland.

I thought it was kind of neat how they had planted flowers  in and around the traffic circle.  Poland is a country of well-kept parks and beautiful flowers

Baptism in Poland

On May 21 we were in Warsaw for Clarence to attend a leadership training meeting.  We have a new branch president who has been a member only for about 1 1/2 years.  He was going to attend that meeting also, but he got sick.  Now Clarence will pass on the information that he received at that meeting.  Later that evening we attended a baptismal service in Warsaw - the first baptism we've witnessed here in Poland.  A young lady named Ania (I think 50% of females in Poland are called Ania) was baptised by her father.  This is a picture of Ania.  She is very talented, musically.

Gdynia aquarium

On May 16th we went to the aquarium again.  This time it was open.  They didn't allow any pictures to be taken with a flash, but I took these any way.  This guy was flapping against the glass and part of it came above the water.  It looked like it was trying to get out.

We felt the aquarium was not worth the money we paid.  It cost us 24 zl each, which is about $8.00.  Maybe it's not expensive, but here we tend to think of everything being dollars.  So it definitely wasn't worth $24.00 each, but we're glad we went to see it.

Beautiful p-day

             Today (May 9) we drove towards Gdynia and saw some cars parked by the road.
                           We parked there too and walked to see where everybody had gone.
                                             The weather was beautiful. Here's what we saw. 

We walked through some trees and came to place where we could see the ocean.

But it was quite a hike down a steep hill to get there.

So we sat down and listened to birds singing.

Afer a while we kept on walking and found a place where we could

get to the ocean without worrying about the steep climb up again.

The ocean was soooo calm and the swan so beautiful.

                              We couldn't figure out how this had happened to this tree,
                               but I thought that it would make an interesting object for a
                                        real photographer to take a picture of.
                                     I wonder if any bird has made a nest in it.
                                    

This is what "garbage cans" looked like in the park.

On the way back to the car.

                                                       

Spring cleaning

We invited branch members to come help clean windows at the chapel.

Here is our faithful, always willing helper, Wioletta. 

She was recommended to us as being a good window cleaner.

She proved her reputation to be true.

This is Janina.  She is waiting to have surgery on her elbow,

but she came to help any way.  Thank you, Janina.

As always the elders are always willing to do some service hours.

Here's Elder Krzyminski, who just arrived in Gdansk two days ago.

And this is Elder (Nathan) Tanner.  Yes, he is a distant relative of N. Eldon.

The Zatylny's have been talking about getting the chairs cleaned for a long time.

Elder Zatylny vacuumed and spot cleaned them all.  Oh, how nice!

Elder Siebert and Elder Gladun had trouble with their washer

and had to wait for their landlady to come and fix it. 

So they couldn't come in the morning, but we saved

a window for them too (by accident).

Here's Elder Gladun finishing the job.  Now all the windows are clean.

Food always tastes good after a few hours of hard work.

And of course elders can eat any time, anywhere, especially if it's pizza.