Salt, Salt, and more Salt

On Saturday, we took a day trip to the famous Salt Mines of Krakow. Once again Eliot's behavior was pristine. We are extremely appreciative of his tolerance of our travels at this age. Here are a couple of photos from the trip. This is an active salt mine with a ton of salt sculptures that have been carved by the miners over the last 500 or so years. It was 850 steps down, but we got to take an elevator up. Nice since we decided to take Eliot's stroller. Surprisingly, a wise decision.


Renee could probably translate, but I'm guessing it says "Salt Mine" or something
Walking the mines.


Top view of the main Cathedral in the salt mine. Yes, everthing you see is carved from salt including the chandeliers which are pure salt crystals also cut from the mine.



The Altar of the Cathedral


Eliot likes to push his stroller, even when it was folded up. Yes, the floors are made of salt.

Finally, we have the krasnoludki (gnomes). Some of the most famous salt carvings. Legend has it that the knomes, which are alive, can't move while being observed by humans. This is why they appear as statues.

Christmas in November!!!

Our x-mas present came early this year when Renee got a surprise call from the CDC today. Eliot got a permanent spot at the Landstuhl day-care facility. Woo hooo!!! Not only was our current rental slot (at the Sembach Airforce base) running out next week, but it was at a base that had us driving an extra 2 hours per day. We thought it could be up to a year before he got into Landstuhl, one of the most respected facilities in the area and conveniently located on the same base that Renee works at. It may not seem like a big deal, but this is huge. We're very excited.

Krakow

Wow. I did not know Poland could be so cool. I mean, I spent so much of my childhood trying to hide the fact that we were Polish (you know, all the Polish jokes, mom and dad spoke with a funny accent, it was uncool to be "different"). And of course, I eventually embraced the uniqueness of being first generation American, and began to appreciate being able to speak a second language fluently without having to struggle with learning verb congugation. But my visit here to Krakow transcends all of that. Krakow is just plain cool, amazing, awesome, you name it. It is unbelievably cosmopolitan and bohemian all at the same time. It has a vibe. It is "European" and shi-shi, without being full of itself. I am now embracing my heritage like never before (though apparently I've let my Polish get rusty enough that most Krakowians respond to me in English after I speak to them in Polish!)

The city is home to over 170,000 university students, and the cafe/restaurant/night life scene seem to reflect that... and actually, probably reflect more of the tourism industry which apparently is doubling year after year. It is truly amazing to walk into establishments that could be found in the heart of NYC or Chicago or any other major city. I guess that is capitalism and marketing at work - pretty powerful stuff, I tell you. I still remember visiting Poland in the second grade while it was still under communist rule -- everything was so gray, and the shelves in the stores were all empty as people waited in long lines with ration tickets. Much different today, though I wonder who is now paying the price (the street peddlers, homeless, those unable to take advantage of new times and economies, etc). What an interesting world we live in.

We are staying in a very neat apartment/room rental place just a few minutes walk outside of the city square. The couple that owns this is very nice, and they have been incredibly helpful. They are setting us up with a babysitter tomarrow night (one that watches their own son) so that Andy and I can have a night out on the town. We'll update you more on that later :)

In any case, enough of my babble... let me show you some pictures of this enchanted place.

Rynek Glowny (Main city square)

Palac Krolewski (Wawel Castle)

Needless to say, we've all fallen in love with this city.

Happy Thanksgiving

We don't really have any Thanksgiving dinner photos. But, we were definitely thinking about the plight of the pilgrams as we ate in a Georgian (Republic of...) restaurant while visiting downtown Krakow. It was very good and made us feel very adventurous. However, after seeing two more of them in other parts of the town, we are suspicious that it may be the Georgian equivalent of Chilis. Oh well. Now we know.

Renee will explain more about everything that we've seen later, but for now I'll just say that we've done a lot of walking and Eliot loves the pigeons and horses and dogs and cats and anything else that moves. Here are a couple of photos. Renee will post some more later.



Eli in the main courtyard of the Wawel castle overlooking Krakow.



Eli playing with the Pigeons in the town square.

Masterpiece

Though unsigned, the peculiar use of whitespace and bold brushstrokes clearly indicate that it's an Eli. Probably early 21st century. It's obviously an original and in extremely good condition. Priceless of course.

A morning walk.

We have all these great trails that snake around the hills surrounding our town. Here are a couple of photos from our morning stroll today.
This was taken on the other side of the creek behind our house. It continues to amaze us how lush the fields remain even as we enter fall.

The last three were taken at the top of a hill that overlooks Hirschhorn and Katzweiller, our neighboring town. Eliot was in a great mood this morning.

Our Online Calendar

We're looking forward to having lots of visitors here in Germany. To help prevent overbooking at the inn, I have added a link to an online calendar. (top of the page, right column) Feel free to add your name to it and we'll send you an application.

It's here!

What, might you ask. Everything. In a flood of inbound goodness. Everything arrived within a span of 24 hours. All household goods and furniture, the Jetta, our home landline, and DSL connection. Our Vonage line is now back up and running which means that our old phone number works just as it did before. Please, no late night calls though as we're 6 hours ahead of the East coast. Now back to unpacking.

Eliot and KayaKaya really is a sweet dog after all. She and Eliot are best buds.

Demon Dog





I wonder why we didn't get any trick-or-treaters last night.