badgerjenvstheworld

We had a bit of a late start on Friday morning as there was a bit of a miscommunication....I was waiting in the lobby to go to breakfast and M & D were at breakfast waiting for me to show up!!  Sorting everything out...we headed to the Janis natural habitat- the car- and headed out on our way to Slovenia. To be fair, the whole trip we had no real idea how long it would take us to get anywhere. If we went solely on the interstate, it would be fairly quick, but Mom wanted (and it was  nice) to go the slower, country roads route. Which meant we could see all the little villages, nature, etc. along the way...it, also, meant a few detours/ wrong turns/ arguments between M & I. It was a good thing that D was there to referee!!! (maybe M & I are too much alike) :) We crossed the Danube (which was REALLY high) and passed into Austria. The scenery was really gorgeous the entire drive: mountains, valleys, fields. And the weather was nice as well. Funny thing...the moment...

Alright...let's get back into my trip with Mom & Dad. I left them in Warsaw and went back to work for a couple of weeks. At the beginning of June, my school had a special camp for our MYP students in the mountains. It was cold and rainy..not much fun. I was there from Monday until Wednesday....and then my mommy and daddy picked me up at camp! Haha...I never went to sleep away camp, so at the lovely age of 40, I finally got picked up at camp by my parents. A quick little story here.....the week had been cold and crappy. The camp had no internet and my cell phone wasn't working. Neither was M & D's. So, basically, I had emailed them at the beginning of the week the address of the camp and told them I would be good to go Wednesday afternoon- and then prayed that they would be able to find the place! Wednesday morning, the plan was to take the kids on a long hike to a rock climbing area. Myself and another teacher had the morning off, so we declined to join that adv...

After our delicious Polish dinner and some rest, we woke the next morning to a beautiful day!! Finally..some sun and blue sky! Of course, I was returning to the "real world" and heading back to Ostrava, but not until the evening. M & D and I had the whole day to explore more of Warsaw. We really lucked out with the location of our hotel as it was pretty close to the old town area of the city. Walking along, we saw several plaques on buildings. These are part of the 'ghetto' trail that was developed by the Jewish Historical Institute. They outline the areas that were part of the ghetto and highlight places of significance.  On the building across from our hotel A series of significant battles during the Jewish Ghetto Uprising occurred here We passed the justice building and the main library as we walked towards the old town area. Main library...complete with winged horses Justice Building Remnant of the Ghetto Wall Map showing the...

Having survived the long car journey from Wroclaw and getting a good night's sleep, we woke up ready for a nice day of sightseeing.... Mother Nature had other ideas. RAIN!!!   What to do? Well, we weren't going to let some rain keep us from seeing Warsaw...I had grabbed the In Your Pocket guidebook (which, btw, when you travel, look for these- they are great free guides to cities all over Europe, chock full of info) and saw that there was a Warsaw Uprising Museum and a hop-on, hop-off bus tour that would eventually make it's way to the museum. The plan was to take the tour (staying dry on the bus), see the Museum, and finish the bus tour back to the hotel.  Off we went....as it turned out, a stop was right outside of our hotel. And we happened to be pretty much right in the middle of the old Jewish area of Warsaw. The bus took us through the old Jewish quarter...we passed the Umschlagplatz, where approx. 300,000 Jews were loaded on cattle wagons on their way to Treb...