Denmark, Germany & Poland, all rolled into one.

Hi Guys,

Okay maybe not one, but we did all three in like three days, what a whirlwind. We did a city tour of Copenhagen on Sunday morning, left for Berlin on Sunday afternoon. Did a tour of Berlin on Monday morning and then left for Poland on Monday afternoon. Today is Tuesday (I think...) and we are in Poznan, Poland. We leave for Warsaw this morning, another city tour this afternoon.... It is all go, go, go. Even more than Greece, because these places are further from each other.

There are 6 Aussies on this tour, the rest are Canadian, British, American and 2 from Porto Rico. So far everyone seems very nice. My roommate, (yes I am sure you are dying to find out...) Well she is quite nice, but she never stops talking, and I mean never!!!! She is 88 years old, yep 88... She is very sprightly for her age, but she is driving me crazy!!! She has had a very hard life and she has told me every minute of it.... She lost her voice about 15 years ago, so she can only whisper, I think Kearie is correct and I am losing my hearing as anytime there is any background noise I cannot hear her.... So instead of not talking she tries to talk louder and she can’t, so she hisses at me.... Get someone to whisper to you for awhile, or hiss at you and you will see how irritating it is. I am trying to avoid her as much as possible now, but cannot avoid sitting on the bus with her, if she would just be quiet once in awhile it would be much more bearable... I know I am really mean and I am probably going to Hell, but I paid a lot of money for this tour and I don't see why she should be allowed to ruin it, especially as she takes 3 tours a year and this is my first trip in 30 years... Sorry, vent over, but I really needed that, or my head would implode!!!

As for Berlin, well it was quite interesting, all of the old nice buildings are in East Berlin, West Berlin was quite boring. We visited the wall, the bit they have left. Ironically they have had to put a fence around it, to protect it from the souvenir hunters. One of the nearby garage walls has even been damaged by people who thought it was part of the wall and they have taken bits off it. Some folk are really weird!!! The local guide we had was very amusing, he told us that Berlin has the healthiest air in Europe, so all Berliners exercise each morning by an open window. “Up down, up down...and then quickly with the other eyelid..” He had lots of interesting antidotes to share with us and mostly he had us laughing all through the tour, even Johanna shut up to listen to him most of the time.


The wall, protected by a fence, how ironic...


The remains of the cellars at Gestapo headquarters, the wall is behind them... Dreadful history...


A fake "Checkpoint Charlie", where the real "Checkpoint Charlie" used to be...


How cute is this little truck??

Poland is very flat, the countryside is lovely. There are brothels everywhere, they call them nightclubs to disguise them, there are even hookers standing on the country roadsides, out in the middle of nowhere.. So if any on your male friends say they are going to a night club in Poland, slap them about the ear..


Poland, pretty but flat, very flat!!

Today we are in Warsaw, and have done the city tour, it is a nice city. The Nazi’s raised about 85% of it in WWII. They placed bombs on all the corners of the buildings and blew them up, to retaliate for the Polish uprising. They killed about 250,000 Poles in retaliation too, so not a good time for the Polish. They Nazi’s also murdered half a million Jews here in Warsaw, it is not good history. The Jews had an uprising and the Polish resistance didn’t get involved, the Jews were annihilated and then the resistance had an uprising a year later, they also got annihilated. It makes you wonder what they might have achieved had they fought together and not a year apart. History is sobering... I managed to escape from Johanna today, I just kept getting off the bus and taking off, tonight she has gone to the optional dinner so a free night to myself, bliss!!...


I brought this postcard of the square we were at today. All of the buildings have been replaced, so they are replicas of the originals that the Nazi's blew up. The Poles have replaced many of the buildings and are still replacing them, exact replica's of the originals, it is pretty impressive...


The little cobbled streets and delightful shops are wonderful...


The memorial to the Polish uprising....

Cheers for now

Lones