Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands Week 37

The 9 day cruise on the MS Magellan was so relaxing. The Magellan is one of Cruise & Maritime Voyages ships.  An older and smaller ship holding just over 1200 passengers, had everything we needed.  The staff don’t try to upsell everything, there was no pressure to spend extra money on-board.  The ship left from Tilbury, London.  Our first stop was Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  It was fascinating going through the locks to enter the main docking area.  With such a big ship there wasn’t much space between the ship and the lock wall.

The Ship was docked very close to the town centre, so it was just a short walk to be in the middle of the city.  We did a free walking tour which took nearly 3 hours.  The guide told us about the history of Amsterdam as well as The Netherlands.  Also about marijuana and prostitution being legal here.  We met in the Dam Square in front of the World War II National Monument.  Here the guide told us about fishermen settled at the swampy mouth of the Amstel River almost 1000 years ago who built the first dam to protect their poor huts from the tides sweeping in.  I don’t have a clue why they would want to settle in a place where they had to spend so much effort and money to protect their houses when they could go further East and settle where there was more stable ground.  Yes, yes, I know you are saying that the other safer areas were already settled.  I suppose this is how wars starts.  Someone wants the better land, so they go and try and take the land from the existing owners.  Who wins keeps the land.  I am guessing, that these folks weren’t good fighters so they ended up having to build dams, so they could protect their homes built on swampy land.  Looking at Amsterdam today, they did a pretty good job of protecting their houses, as the city is now a beautiful flourishing capital city of The Netherlands with a population of 780,000.

The oldest part of the city is the red light district. Walking through this area was ‘interesting’. Amsterdam is known as the most liberal city in the world.  Prostitution is legal in brothels, but not on the streets.  The Red Light District is a series of small alleyways with shop windows lining the sides. The women are behind the windows and have their own room.  There are over 300 windows used for this purpose within three different Red Light Districts.  We were also told that the prostitutes pay taxes.  The first accounting practice I worked for in Perth, I had a prostitute as a client.  I had to do some research to see what they can claim for as a deduction on their tax return!  The Australian tax department actually has a tax code for the occupation of prostitutes.

There are many coffee shops around Amsterdam, as in all cities around the world, but ‘coffee shops’ here sell hash brownies and marijuana!  There are about 250 coffee shops, where patrons can order and enjoy marijuana. If you only want coffee – go to a café. There is a special tolerance policy on soft drugs, but there are laws to follow:  Possession of drugs is punishable, but max of 5 grams of weed or hash the police will just seize the drug.  Over 5 grams you will be fined and risk a prison sentence.  Growing weed at home is illegal, however 5 plants or less you can hand them over and you will generally not be prosecuted.  Hard drugs are not allowed and import and export of hard drugs is illegal.  You can smoke weed only in Amsterdam coffee shops.  You must be over 18 and must show your passport or ID.

We were taken to a café (not a coffee shop) and given a sample of a famous Dutch chocolate sweet.  Here they had a bench which had brown powder lined up so people can sniff the chocolate up their noses.  Yuck.  It is supposed to give you an instant sugar high.  I prefer to eat my chocolate through my mouth.

The guide talked about the houses whose foundations needing replacing as the wooden beams have rotted; how people show they are rich by putting stairs leading to their front door; he showed us the narrowest building; the oldest wooden building in the city; he pointed out houses which are leaning due to the swampy ground and took us to the Begijnhof, which is a beautiful inner court surrounded by tall town-houses where beguines used to live.  Beguines took a vow of chastity, and while they considered themselves obliged to attend Holy Mass every day and pray various official prayers, they enjoyed greater freedom than nuns in a convent and they were free to leave the court at any time to get married.  There are two churches within the Begijnhof.  The Catholic Houten Huys and the English Reformed Church.

A sinking house and the Begijnhof in Amsterdam.

I loved Amsterdam and it is definitely on my list of places to spend more time at.

Next stop was Hamburg, Germany where the ship docked overnight so we could spend 2 days there.  Because the ship didn’t dock within walking distance to the city centre, they put on free shuttle buses.

Because Hamburg was a large port and industrial centre, Hamburg’s shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were severely bombed during World War II.   This left the city in great need of rebuilding after the war.  Now there is mainly building built after the war so the architecture is more modern than most European cities.

The got off the shuttle bus at the Rathausmarkt Square where the beautiful Hamburg Rathaus is.  The Rathaus is the Town Hall and survived the WWII bombing.  We had a look around the city centre with some friends we met on the ship.  Lake Binnenalster is a beautiful lake.  We decided to go for a walk around the lake.  Half way around it started pouring with rain.  Neal and I had disposable plastic raincoats but we still got wet.  After dashing from shelter to shelter we ended up catching the bus back to the ship.  The next day we went back into the city for another explore.

Aboard the Magellan we went to all the main shows.  The singers in the productions were average, but the dancers were superb.  We saw Don Reid, who is an English comedian. He is an old bloke with such a funny show. Some of his jokes were rude but not crude, if you know what I mean.  As the ship’s home port is Tilbury and most of the passengers are from UK  a lot of his jokes were based on life in the UK.  A few of the jokes we didn’t quite understand but everyone around us was laughing so much that obviously you had to understand the UK social security system or be a Coronation Street fan.  He did two shows, and both were great.

Our ship the Magellan at Aalborg which was very cold.

During the cruise Neal got the flu.  It was a nasty one.  He stayed in the cabin for the day, so he didn’t spread it around the ship anymore than it already was.  I brought him down his food and anything else he wanted, and he got over it pretty quick.  We met a nice bunch of people at our dinner table.  One of the things I like about cruises, is that you meet people.  At a hotel you may not meet anyone at all.  Most people sit at the restaurant and not speak to anyone other than their travel companions.  Also everyone on the ship are there for the same amount of time you are.  Hotels, people come and go, so you may never see each other again.  Over the years we have made a lot of friends on cruises and still keep in contact with.

Denmark is one of the countries I have always wanted to go to.  We spent 2 days at Copenhagen.  We docked walking distance to the town centre, so it was easy to explore.  Of course, my number one sport was going to the Amalienborg Palace.  Unfortunately, Princess Mary wasn’t home to have us for lunch.  We forgot to tell her we were visiting, as I’m sure we would have been invited if she knew we were around.  Mary, being a fellow Australian would have loved our company.  Not that we know her, us Australians like to stick together.  I could look after her dogs or cats for her if she had anyx.  I’ll write and let her know that her guards did a fine job with the changing of the guards. Did I mention that the Danish Royal Family is the world’s oldest monarchy?  For those not in the know and who is interested, the present royal monarch is Queen Margrethe 2^nd who is married to Prince Consort Henrik.  The next in line is Crown Prince Frederik, who married Crown Princess Mary, who is an Aussie from Tasmania and they have 4 children: Christian, Isabella, Vincent and Josephine.

The changing of the guards took about an hour.  At 10 minutes to 12 a group of young soldiers, known as life guards, marched out all ready to start the ceremony at 12 noon in the cobblestoned square outside.  They waited at attention until a group of their comrades arrived to relieve them, after marching from their barracks at Rosenberg Castle.  The guards wear bearskin hats.  I am wondering where they get the bearskins from.  Is there a farm of bears or do they use bears who have died of natural causes?  Let me know by writing in the comments below if anyone knows the answer.  Other countries use bearskin hats as well.

Denmark has a conscription for all physically fit men over 18, which can be for 4 – 12 months.  Women may participate, but don’t have to.  The minimal limit of participants is 4,200 at a time, so most don’t need to serve.  In 2014, 99% were volunteers and only 19 men were compelled to serve.  In the changing of the guards we watched there were women guards as well as men.

After seeing the changing of the guards we wandered down to the waterside when torrential rain and hail hit.  Neal and I climbed up on a garden to shade under a tree.  Other people copied.  The hail was only small but the raindrops were larger.  No-one had an idea it was going to rain.  We were all caught by surprise.  It only lasted about 4 minutes then stopped as quick as it started leaving many people dripping wet – but not us!

The Nyhavn and the boat tour of Copenhagen.

The Nyhavn is an area along a 300 year old canal which is lined with old sailing barges, restaurants and colourful buildings.  From here we caught a boat to do some sightseeing around the canals.  This is a fantastic way to see the city.  We saw many interesting buildings, including the Opera House, the street food area, the Sixtus Battery, National Museum, National Library known as the Black Diamond, Stock Exchange, Gammel Strand, Christiansborg Palace (the parliament), Trekroner Fortress and lots of beautiful yachts and houses.

One of the most famous tourist attractions is The Little Mermaid sculpture.  She was unveiled in 1913 as a gift from a Danish brewer Carl Jacobsen.   Carl saw the ballet about the Little Mermaid and fell in love with the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.  The sculpture is made of bronze and granite and is surprisingly small.  It is a beautiful sculpture without a doubt, but why is it so famous?  It’s a bit like when I saw the painting of Mona Lisa for the first time and I was surprised how small it was also.  I read that the mermaid has several times had her head taken off and once the arm was sawn off, and several times she has had paint poured on her, but every time she is rescued and restored.

The little mermaid and Amalienborg Palace and Frederik’s Church .

Copenhagen didn’t let me down.  I love it and want to return for a more thorough look sometime.  It offers old and new architecture, waterways, open spaces, cobblestone narrow streets and also a Royal Family.  The Danes have the world’s highest level of income equality and are frequently ranked as the happiest people and the least corrupt country in the world.  What is there not to love? The weather!! – it is extremely cold.  During the boat tour I got so cold that we had to sit in a warm café drinking tea to warm up so we could keep exploring.  It is only Autumn!  I can imagine winter is freezing.

Empty streets of Aalborg, Denmark.

We sailed next to Aalborg in Denmark.  It was a public holiday in Denmark when we were there, so until 11am the only people around town were the homeless and other tourists from the ship.  No special attractions here but it is a very pretty town.  After 11 the shops opened and the locals started emerging from their heated homes.  We found a warm café and sent out emails and used the internet.

I enjoyed the cruise and the destinations.  The smaller ship was nice and best of all there were no children as only 18 year olds and older were allowed.  The down side was there were lots of elderly.

 

Belgium Week 36

The 5 days we had in Belgium was fantastic.  We flew from Krakow to Brussels airport then caught a bus to Ghent where we stayed at a hostel.  The hostel was cheap but clean and smack bang in the middle of the tourist area.  We just chose to stay in Ghent because Brussels is so expensive, so I was pleasantly surprised there was so much to see in Ghent.

Ghent

The best thing about Belgium is food – it is famous for Belgium waffles, potato chips, beer and especially chocolates.  At a very expensive chocolate shop we bought 2 individual chocolates for $1 AUD each.  So we were not pigging out on chocolates while in Ghent.

I wanted to have waffles for dinner.  Nothing else, just waffles with strawberries and icecream.  We eventually found a restaurant that was open and sold waffles.  There were quite a few takeaway waffle stalls but their waffles are not so great as they didn’t have anything on top, and are just ‘too sweet’.  If you want the whole experience of waffles you need to sit down and eat them off a plate, not walk around eating them like a hotdog.  Neal talked me into having main course before the waffles, so I ordered carrot soup and Neal had lasagna; they were huge servings so afterwards we were too full to have any desert – so still no waffles!  Walking back to the hostel, Neal was teasing me that I asked for waffles and he gave me carrots instead. HaHa.  We discovered Belgium makes the world’s best hot Potato Chips.  World famous due to their soft centre and crispy outside.  They are especially served with mayonnaise (never tomato sauce). So yummy!

Friends had recommended Bruges as a very nice place to visit so we caught a train there.  It only took an hour and the trip through the countryside was pleasant.   The historic centre of Bruges is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  From the train station we headed towards the town centre.  Walking along Begijnenvest, which is a pedestrian and push bike lane along the waterway, we saw lovely trees.  It is autumn and the leaves are browning and dropping to the ground, so lovely with orange leaves all around.

Begijnenvest, Bruges, Belgium.

Bruges has most of its medieval architecture intact, making it one of the most well-preserved medieval towns in Europe.  Every building in Bruges is unique and interesting and all have their own charm.

Bruges, Belgium.

There are canals everywhere, so every few streets we were walking alongside one or crossing it on a bridge.  We took some lovely photos of Minnewater, which is a rectangular lake. The elegant Minnewater Park alongside has beautiful swans and ducks.  We moved onto the Begijnhof, which is a walled area where Beguines lived.  Beguines are lay religious women who live in community without taking vows or retiring from the world. There are no more Beguines living there and it now functions as a convent for Benedictines.  We are allowed to walk around this area but all visitors are to remain silent.  I felt a real peacefulness within this community.

Begijnhof, Bruges.

Burg Square, Bruges.

Passing over some more bridges we came across the majestic Burg Square which is surrounded by 14^th century buildings.  There is the City Hall, Liberty of Bruges and the Basilica of the Holy Blood.

This is where Neal and I split up.  He went to a beer museum and I went to a chocolate museum.  At the information centre they told us that there are 50 chocolate shops in Bruges, who make their own chocolates in the back of their shops.  The Choco-story told the history from 2000 BC when the Mayan people started using cocoa mixed with blood to please their gods.  The museum was spread over 3 floors which was packed with information and displays.  It took me a few hours to read all the information.  Did you know that the Cacao trees like hot and humid weather conditions but do not appreciate being exposed to full sun or the wind?  They grow in the hot and humid areas where the temperature is around 25 degrees.  Ideally, they grow between latitude 22 in the north and latitude 21 in the south.  They have to be protected by other taller trees, such as banana trees giving them the shade they need to prosper.  Fussy little plants, aren’t they?

This is a moustache cup which was designed especially for men so that their moustache did not get wet from the foam on the chocolate drink.  Also a picture of the chocolate museum.  There were some amazing chocolate statues.  I saw a chap demonstrating how to make chocolate filled with hazelnut flavour cream.  I sometimes made chocolates in moulds many years ago.  I started making them with carob, as one of my sons is lactose intolerant.  In Mt Isa, where we lived in the 90s, we couldn’t buy carob chocolate Easter eggs.  So my son didn’t miss out at Easter I made his own.  Later on, I made different types of chocolates for gifts.  Now it is easier and cheaper to buy the chocolates.

Neal went to the “Belgium Beer Experience” a museum with beer tasting included at the end.  He was given an ipad mini and a set of headphones on entry which provided all the information on each exhibit.  There was heaps of information.  The Belgians believe they make the best beer in the world and take it very seriously.  After Neal and I met up, we went into another chocolate shop and Neal nearly knocked over a display with his bag he had on his shoulders.  Luckily, I caught it just in time.  I think Neal did a LOT of beer tasting at the beer museum.  This shop was MUCH cheaper – we bought the 1 kg box of randoms – every chocolate they made but no guide sheet showing the flavour of the various chocolates.  Didn’t matter – they were all delicious!

Bruges’ most famous landmark is the 13^th-century Belfry, housing a municipal carillon comprising 48 bells.  The city still employs a full-time carillonneur.  The carillonneur (the guy who plays the bells) strikes a keyboard – the stick-like keys of which are called batons – with the fists, and presses the keys of a pedal keyboard with the feet.  The keys mechanically activate levers and wires that connect to metal clappers that strike the inside of the bells, allowing the performer to vary the intensity of the note according to the force applied to the key.  It was nice listening to the bells playing different songs.  He would play for long stretches of time.  With 48 bells he could play lots different songs.  Not just songs written for bells.  There is a Belfry in Ghent too which has 54 bells, but it is automatically played rather than by a carillonneur.

Bruges Belry and the Provincial Court in the main square. 

The hostel we stayed at in Ghent was quite noisy.  You could hear the people next door and the people up stairs.  There is also a building site that backs onto our window.  We wore ear plugs to sleep.  But, as Shane a friend of ours said to me when I was complaining about a disgusting hotel we were staying in the Philippines, that “you get what you pay for”.  The hostel was cheap, so I can’t expect it to be very good.  Having to wear ear plugs in a noisy hotel reminded me of when in 2010 we were staying in New York at the Hilton Hotel.  We couldn’t believe how cheap it was compared to most NY accommodation.  We were on the 20^th floor.  Neal and I walked into our room, saw ear plugs on our pillows and found that was quite strange until we opened the curtains revealing floor to ceiling windows.  We looked down and saw it was ground zero of the 9/11 terrorist attack.  It was still a huge hole in 2010, but the 2 fountains, which is where the footprint of the original world trade centre buildings, were nearly finished.  The site was so large.  It was a very sombre feeling knowing what had happened there and seeing the destruction.  The noise of constuction was incredible.  Their were piledrivers pounding foundations into the ground, bulldozers, cement trucks, excavators, steel workers cutting and grinding – all working 24 hours a day around the clock so the remembrance fountains and gardens could be finished for the 10 year memorial ceremony.  The earplugs were supposed to help us sleep, but we still didn’t get much shut eye.  We weren’t upset because the monument needed to be finished – so for us to have a few sleepless nights was a small price to pay.

Speaking of terrorists, we did Brussels after Bruges. In Brussels main town square there were soldiers all around with machine guns on the look out for signs of danger.  Brussels has been unlucky with terror attacks over the past years, I feel safer with this sort of protection around.  At the Belgium airport they had blocked off the front area with huge cement barriers.  No vehicle can go anywhere near any of the entrances.  When walking into the airport before you can enter the building randomly bomb residue checks are conducted.  This was done in addition to the, now standard, explosives checking at the bag screening station.  There were soldiers everywhere in the terminal.

Brussels doesn’t have the tourist focus, cleanliness and historic appeal that Ghent and Bruges have, but it is a worthwhile visit.  In Bruges and Ghent people speak Flemish and in Brussels they speak French.  The ‘Grand Place’ is the central square in Brussels which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It is surrounded by opulent guildhalls and the Town Hall and the Breadhouse building containing the museum.

The Grand Place, Brussels.

Neal found the Manneken Pis, meaning “little man pee” in Dutch.  It is a small bronze sculpture depicting a naked little boy urinating into a fountain’s basin.  So cute.

Manneken Pis and Grand Arcade, Brussels.

Saint Nicholas’ Church and Saint Michael’s Church, Ghent, Belgium.

We caught a bus to Charleoi Airport just outside of Brussels and stayed in a hotel there for the night so we could get an early morning flight.  We had ambitious plans for the next day, to fly from Brussels to Manchester, hire a car, drive the quickest route to Sheffield, visit our friends and pick up some suitcases we stashed there, drive to Tilbury in London, post a letter before leaving the UK, do our washing either in the hotel or at a laundry mat, then have a good night’s sleep; before dropping our hire car to the rental place and boarding a cruise ship the next day.

Well, our day started at 3am UK time and from then our day didn’t run smoothly.  The road to Sheffield which we wanted to take was closed so Florence (our GPS) took us on a long journey.  During the drive we had a minor car accident – tailgated by an Austin Martin sports car.  Fortunately, it was low to the ground, being a sports car, it only hit the rear plastic bumper bar of our Avis car; which bounced back again showing no damage.  The front of the Austin Martin was undented too – the driver was very relieved!

Being a Sunday, most post offices were closed. After a number of stops in different towns we finally found a shop that sold stamps so we could post the letter.    Also, we were worried because our travel insurance expired that day and we hadn’t renewed yet.  When we stopped for lunch, Neal rang the travel insurance company to renew our insurance but they were closed due to the time difference between Australia and the UK.  If we didn’t organise the insurance that day we would need to take out different insurance.  But it all worked out in the end because Neal emailed the company and they contacted us the next day.

Ghent canals and Castle of Counts. Ghent, Belgium.

Because we were running late, we decided to do the washing before getting to Tilbury so we could get it done before laundromats closed.  Having to sit a few hours waiting for the clothes to wash and dry was a lot of time to spend in our already time pressured day.  We found a laundry mat in a small town but decided not to go into it as the area seemed rather seedy and unsafe to hang around doing our washing.  We opted to get the clothes washed on the ship (which cost $80) rather than being stabbed to death by a heavily drugged gang of men.  (A bit of an exaggeration there, I know).  This further delayed us.  Eventually we got to our hotel late and exhausted.   We had very little sleep because the room above us had a party and even wearing ear plugs we couldn’t sleep.  Neal complained to the night staff at 1am 2am and at 3am the night staff evicted them from the hotel.  We were tied but made it to the ship ready to board only to find out that the ship was 3 hours late.  Once we settled down into our cabin on the MS Magellan, we finally started to relax.  A nice bonus and surprise was we were upgraded to a cabin with a window. The ups and downs of travel!

Poland Week 35

We flew into Krakow in Poland from Manchester UK and caught a train to our accommodation which was just a block away from the old town. We walked past the hotel 3 times before eventually finding it … the front door had just one small dark sign hung high above the door.  Krakow’s medieval old town, which is very large compared to others we have been to, is surrounded by 3 kilometres of defence wall.  It is full of beautiful historic buildings which now house high end shops and restaurants. The main square is centrally located and is the largest medieval town square of any European city.  At the centre of the square is the Renaissance Sukiennice Cloth Hall, which now houses gift shops and merchants stalls.  Standing beside it is the Town Hall Tower.

The Cathedral and Sukiennice Cloth Hall in the medieval old town in Krakow

The next day we caught a bus to Zakopane which is a ski village high up in the Polish Alps.  The bus trip took about 3 hours.  From the top of the funicular, apparently you can hike to Slovakia, but due to constant rain we didn’t leave the township at all.  We were there for 3 days and it rained the whole time except for about an hour on the last day.  It was Neal’s birthday while we were at Zakopane.  A bottle of scotch, great meal, fantastic company (me) and wandering around a beautiful town in the Alps of Poland was ideal.  We were hoping that Zakopane would be a similar experience to Zammit in Switzerland where we had a wonderful visit a few years ago.  There we caught the train to the top of the Swiss Alps where we could see 2 glaciers and the top of all the mountains, but looking down there were clouds so we couldn’t see the township.  We hiked down the mountain through the clouds.  It was eerie.  We unknowingly veered off the walking track due to poor vision from the clouds, but we made it down safely to the township.

Zakopane in the Polish Alps.

Unfortunately at Zakopane it was raining so much we couldn’t even see the mountains from the village – just clouds.  The only evidence we were high up in the Alps was the photo of the mountains in the hotel foyer.

It was very cold.

Zakopane mainly caters for Polish and Russian tourists.  The 3 days we were there we didn’t hear any English except 2 girls on the bus back to Krakow. Having said that, the Poles working in hospitality all had enough English to help us.  Our hotel was in the centre of the town where there were lots of pedestrian zones and shops, restaurants and everything you would need for skiing.  On the last day the rain was lighter so we rugged up and put on our gortex jackets and had a good look around the town before catching a bus back to Krakow.

Wieliczka Salt Mine – entrance with headframe; tunnel; horse treadmill used to lift the salt to the surface.

We did a lot of sightseeing in Krakow.  The Wieliczka Salt Mine was very interesting.  It was opened in the 13^th century and the mine produced table salt continuously until 2007.  The guided tour down into the old workings involved walking down 380 steps of a spiral staircase.  I was surprised that I had no problems with the stairs.  Luckily exiting was via a lift!  The mine tour was excellent – all up we were two and a half hours underground.  It is like a rabbit warren down there.

Two of the statues carved from the salt.

Over the years the miners have carved dozens of statues and four chapels out of the rock salt.   The largest Chapel has chandeliers which are also made from rock salt that has been dissolved and reconstituted to achieve a clear, glass-like appearance.  The main photo on this page is of the Chapel with its chandeliers.  Some of the big cavities are used for function halls, cafes and tourist shops. We did a lot of walking through the many tunnels.  Neal said it is by far the cleanest mine he has ever been in.

Auschwitz 1

Through the world, Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide and the Holocaust.  The German forces occupying Poland during the Second World War established one of the many concentration camp, just outside of Krakow.  Over the years it was expanded into three main camps: Auschwitz 1, Auschwitz 2-Birkenau and Auschwitz 3-Monowitz and more than 40 subcamps.  In 1940 to 1945 many different nationalities, men, woman and children, were brought there and murdered by the Nazis including Pols, Soviet prisoners of war, Gypsies and Jews.  We visited Auschwitz 1, the first camp, and Birkenau, the largest camp.

Auschwitz 2-Birkenau

I learnt a lot about the terrible happenings there during the war.  Over the years seeing some of the pictures of the people arriving at the camps, I wondered why the people weren’t crying and trying to run away.  Apparently, they were convinced by the Nazis that they would get jobs there and a warm place to live – so they didn’t resist against their captors.  I don’t think you all need to know the horrible details – this is a positive blog and not one that will sadden readers.

Memorial to victims of the Krakow ghetto in the form of oversized bronze chairs on the Plac Bohaterow Getta square; Schindler’s factory.

We toured around Krakow city with a guide and saw the Jewish quarter, Schlender’s factory and the area that was once the Jewish ghetto. The Schindler factory is where Oskar Schindler, who was a member of the Nazi party, took over the factory which had been set up by a group of Jewish businessmen.  The factory continued to produce cookware and other metal items primarily for the German army.  He expanded to produce cartridge cases and fuses for bombs and artillery shells.  He reduced costs by replacing the original Polish staff with cheap labour from the Krakow Jewish ghetto.  In 1993 Steven Spielberg produced the film ‘Schindler’s List’ which told the story of Oskar Schindler and how he saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during WWII.  The Krakow Ghetto was a walled suburb set up by the Nazi’s and was established for the purpose of exploitation, terror, and persecution of local Polish Jews.

Wawel Castle, Krakow.

We went to Wawel Castle, which is on the edge of the old town.  It is a fortified complex erected over many centuries atop a limestone outcrop on the bank of the Vistula River. The complex includes the Royal Castle and the Wawel Cathedral, which is also know as the Basilica of St Stanislaw and St Waclaw.

The Wawel Cathedral; the front of the castle.

The Cathedral is a hodge-podge of different parts of the building being of different material and different colours. The castle is different to the many other castles we have seen on our travels, because it has a large open space with grass in the middle of the complex.  Walking around the outside of the castle we had a good view of the river.  Some of the river banks were flooded, which didn’t surprise me because of all the rain we got in Zakopane flowing down to Krakow.

Vistula River.

I loved Poland. Prices for everything was much lower than the UK.  If you haven’t already been there, I highly recommend it.

 

 

 

 

Bere Alston, UK Week 34

Fovant WWI regimental insignias

On the way to our next house sit we drove past the village of Fovant in southern England.  During World War I, soldiers did their final training in Fovant before they went to fight in France. Whilst the soldiers were there, they built their regimental insignias on the hillside by digging shallow trenches and then filled these with chalk.  The first badge is believed to have been the 5^th (City of London) Battalion, London Rifle Brigade.  Over the time there were 9 badges dug including one from the Australian Imperial Force Badge.

Fovant WWI regimental insignias

At Bere Alston in the county on Devon, we looked after 2 dogs and 2 cats for 10 days.  The village is located west of Plymouth near Tavistock on the southern side of the Dartmoor Forest.  Being on the very edge of the village, the house was on a large block of land, but it was a tiny house.  Previously the owners had acreage in France with a very large house and sheds, barns and a building to accommodate the husband’s woodturning hobby.  So now they are finding it very difficult to live in a small house.  It is a box shape with one small bedroom and a lounge across the front of the house and then kitchen, bathroom and a small room they use for a dining room behind.  They have added a conservatory since buying it a year ago.

Lexi

Twiggy

All their pets are rescue animals acquired in France when they lived there.  The dogs, Twiggy and Lexi have such funny personalities.  Lexi is very cautious of people because she was badly treated by her previous owner.  The owners were worried that we might have troubles with her because of her nervousness, but it didn’t take long for us to be best buddies.  The 2 cats are sisters.  The only way to tell them apart was Ivy has a bit of black on her face and Holly didn’t.  They loved to sleep in a little foam house above the cloths dryer, especially when the dryer was going as it was nice and warm there.  During the night the 2 cats slept on our bed and the two dogs slept next to our bed.

Holly and Ivy

After the sit ended we drove through the Dartmoor Forest.  Which was strangely named as it was hilly pasture land and didn’t have many trees at all.  I suppose they named it a forest before all the trees were felled.  Small wild horses graze there, as well as sheep, goats and cattle are put there by their owners.  There are no fences so you had to avoid sheep and goats on the road.  Dartmoor is a beautiful place to visit.

 

Everywhere in England there are millions of hedges criss-crossing the countryside. Nearly all the roads are lined with hedges so, when driving we couldn’t see over the hedges to enjoy the scenery or even see what crops there were in the field next to the road.  Most of these hedges are extremely high and close to the road edge – its like driving down a green tunnel.  Apparently, there was legislation requiring the farmers to grow these hedges in years gone by.  Also, a lot of the roads are so narrow that only one car could drive along the road at one time.  This meant that travel could be very slow at times.

If you are going on a long holiday overseas, I highly recommend doing house sitting.  Hotels and bnb’s can be very expensive, especially now the Australian exchange rate is so bad.  By house sitting we have saved thousands on accommodation.  Most pets don’t need you to be around during the day so you can still do the sightseeing.  There are many websites where you can register your profile, pay a membership and then you can apply for house sits.  The website we use is trusted house sitters.  It is a win-win situation.  No money changes hands.  We get free accommodation while the owners get free house and pet sitting.  It can be very expensive to put pets in a kennel and most owners don’t want the pets to go through the trauma of being in a kennel; particularly rescue animals as they are usually very anxious due to their sad situation before their owners have taken them into their care.  There are people who will take care of the pets in their own home and get paid to do it.  I am tossing up in my mind that maybe when I get back to Perth I might look into earning money that way.  It depends on the city council regulations as to how many animals I can have at our house.

Dartmoor Forest.  I love the sheep doing yoga in the right photo.

We take looking after the pets seriously.  Caring for the pets is our first priority.  Even though you get free accommodation, you can’t treat it like just holiday accommodation. The owners need to trust the sitters so they can go on holidays and not constantly worry about how their pets are (or if you have backed up a removalist van and cleaned their house out). We make sure we keep to the pets usually routine and any instructions from the owners.  If the dogs can only be left for 3 hours at a time Neal and I usually go out sightseeing individually so there is always someone with them.  Neal likes this because he enjoys science museums and I don’t.  If the pets usually sleep on their owner’s bed then they can sleep on bed with us.  We walk them how long and how often that they are usually walked.  We groom them and wash them when needed.  We give them cuddles, and play with them.  We take care of the house and gardens and we respect the owners’ privacy and don’t look around the house where we aren’t meant to.

Dartmoor Forest

We search the websites for areas around the world where we would like to go.  Then we read the website listings to see if it meets our needs as well as what the pets are like.  We have seen some ‘bad’ sits (eg 5 dogs 7 cats and chickens) listed.  Not my choice of fun.  We first went to Scotland and did a 3 week sit there.  It was an adorable small terrier.  We wanted to see Scotland.  The second one we wanted in Suffolk and found 1 dog and 2 cats.  We try to pick sits which cover different areas and different lifestyles.  Blewbury was a little village in the country not too far from Oxford.  We had 2 dogs, 1 cat and a lizard.  It was a small village and over the road were wheat crops which were harvested while we were there.  We were keen to see Cambridge too, so we sat for 2 dogs in Foxton just outside of Cambridge.  It too was a small village with farming around it.  We had booked a cruise that left from Southampton, so a sit at Burnham-on-sea sounded like it fitted in with the dates we wanted and closeness to Southampton.  This sit wasn’t very good at all.  We picked it for the dates and didn’t look closely enough at the dogs.  There were 2 very large dogs who were just horrible and the house had a disgusting oven which made me dry-reach when I opened it.  We learnt from that experience and we are now careful which pets we pick.  Sheffield we wanted, so we could catch up with some friends we have there.  After searching for Sheffield, we found a sit with 2 dogs just around the corner from our friends.  But one of the owners, had to have back surgery so moved the dates back a bit.  We looked for dates to fill the gap and came up with Bere Alston which was also a great sit, then did Sheffield after that.  So, we have done 7 house sit to date, loved all but one.  I am surprised just how much Neal and I have enjoyed this lifestyle.

What next? Its getting cold as winter approaches, so need to head south! We decided to go to France for a while and after much searching and applying have set up 2 sits in France in October and November.  We plan to tour Portugal for a bit after France then after that we have a sit in Dubai organised for over Christmas. Dubai is half way home and cooler in December so that works out well.

I am glad my cousin, Jillian told me about house sitting because I have enjoyed it so much and saves us heaps of money.