Wednesday in Wroclaw, Feb. 17, 2016

Wednesday, I had scheduled a meeting with one of the professors from the Institute of Political Science at Wroclaw University.  All of the Social Science departments and institutes are in a different section of town, about 5 kilometers from my hotel.  So I had a pleasant walk there in the morning, again crossing over the rivers several times.

Wroclaw has been selected as one of the two European Capitals of Culture for 2016, thus there were many signs and murals with that designation (look closely at the upper left and you can see it).

In the USA, we have 7 - 11 convenience stores, in Poland they have 6 - 23 (some of 6 - 24) because they use the 24 hour clock.  I particularly liked this chain.

I received a tour of the Institute of Political Science and then Piotr and I visited a room decorated by students with political posters from the last 25 years (after the call of the Soviet Union).

Piotr and I had lunch in a local restaurant, and then I spoke to two dozen international students.  After a long day, I walked back to the hotel, and found a delightful restaurant where for 18 Polish Zlotys (about $5.00) I had three types of salad, pork with mushrooms and potatoes, and a half liter of beer.

Tuesday in Wroclaw, Feb. 16, 2016

Tuesday was a quiet day where I took it easy, got school work done and rested up.  I had a chicken sandwich for lunch at what is supposed to be one of the best place for burgers and sandwiches, Rock Burgers.  I found it on my way to locate where I would be speaking Friday evening. 

As I had read, Wroclaw is built on the islands in the Odra River - this means there are many bridges.

 I walked across the Most Pokoju (most is Polish for bridge) and went by the new library for Wroclaw University.

The meeting place for Friday evening was in Fabryka Sensu - a non-profit office sharing space.  It is in an ordinary building with businesses on the ground floor and residences above.  I asked several local businesses but none of them knew of the organization.  I finally found someone who directed me to the door with the correct street number - several residences were listed but not Fabyka Sensu.  So I pushed #4 on the intercom (which was on the address) and I was allowed in.  I went up to the second floor and got to see the space.  It is a very nice office suite made from what had been a large apartment - several offices, conference rooms, kitchen and bathroom.  

Walking to and finding the Fabryka Sensu office allowed me to easily exceed my daily goal of 15,000 steps.

Monday Afternoon in Wrocław, Feb. 15, 2016

Monday afternoon, I found a nice cafe for lunch - on a cold day, I had hot soup in a bread bowl, followed by a delightful dessert.

After lunch, I went out to explore Market Square which is often called the Main Square.  In Polish it is called Rynek (pronounced Rai-nek) Square.  At one time they had a real market with shops but those shops were moved to two different Hala (I have photos of one in a later post).  On Market Square, I found the old City Hall - Rathaus in German (from when the city was part of Germany pre-1945) and Ratusz in Polish.  It is a very unique building with a clock on one side and the entrance to a below ground bar on the other side.  I was told that the side with the clock is where they would hold trials, then publicly announce the verdicts and sometimes impose the punishments.

The entrance to the below ground bar is just left of middle - you can see the rounded archway

As I continued to explore, I continued to find unique sculpture in many places.

The main campus of Wroclaw University is situated in both new buildings and old buildings, but all within the University District of the city (the Best Western Prima Hotel where I stayed is just on the end of the district) and is not far from Market Square.

For dinner, I choose a restaurant reputed to have traditional Polish and Ukrainian food.  Why Ukranian? After WWII, when the borders shifted, the Russians caused many of the Polish citizens to leave Lwow (now known as Lviv, Ukraine) to what is now Wroclaw, Poland (formerly Breslau, Germany).  The Lwowska Restaurant had good Polish soup and pierogies, and also Ukranian beer.

And after a day of exploration, when I returned to the Hotel, I had to have some Polish Vodka - unlike Mongolia where I had vodka server at room temperature, in Poland it is served cold.

Monday morning in Wrocław

I set out to explore the city.  One of the first things I came across was the Bricklayers' Gate and the Bricklayers' Bastion.  This started my education about the history of the city.

Wrocław is relatively flat, and so is both easily walked and biked, with many pedestrian and bike lanes.

These is also much interesting artwork and sculpture.

Many buildings are along the Oder River, or the Odra as it is called in Polish.

There is a national museum in Wrocław.

I later learned that this city was called Breslau in Prussia until the end of WWII.  It was known as Fortress Breslau and was where Hitler planned to make his last stand.  In fact, it held out five days longer than even Berlin at the end of the war.  The Siege of Breslau decimated the city, killing some 170,000 civilians, 7,000 German soldiers and 8,000 Russian Soldiers.  As I walked around I saw many signs in both Polish and English (and sometimes also in German) giving some of the history of the buildings.

In some places, there are photos of what the city looked like at the end of the war and then you can look and see what it looks like today.

I found one side street that is all small shops for artists and artisans to play their trades.  There is also this interesting group of statues - note the golden egg behind the goose.

Ben and Martha visit in Phoenix and I head to Vermont and then Poland

I returned back to Phoenix on Friday evening, Feb. 5.  Saturday, after laundry and some errands, I drove to Tucson for some shopping and to donate three units of platelets at the Foothills Red Cross donor center.  I then drove back to the Desert Botanical Garden for my shift as an evening volunteer for the Bruce Munro exhibit.

Sunday was more work around the house, then in the afternoon I drove to the airport and picked up Ben and Martha as they arrived for their previously scheduled vacation.  The three of us spent time together until I left Wednesday morning, enjoying our time walking, shopping and dining.  I was able to do my online classes, usually in the mornings before they got up - I am very glad we got to spend the rest of our time together.

Early (4:15 a.m.) Wednesday morning I was picked up by Super Shuttle and driven to the airport.  My flights went well, I got my rental car and drove to the Parascando's home in South Burlington.  Mike is off doing some of his reserve time at Langley AFB.  Bridgette drove me and the boys to the Rotisserie Restaurant for dinner, where I was able to treat them to dinner.  Thursday, I drove to Johnson State where I had several meetings and spent the day going to meetings and getting ready for class on Friday.

Friday I drove to Montpelier where I met Val at Capital Grounds at 8:00 for coffee and breakfast; we had a great chat about life and my future involvement in EDP classes.  I then drove to CCV for the 9:30 meeting of the Assessment of Prior Learning meeting - we got through all eight portfolios in a little under four hours.  I then drove to Johnson for my Federal Tax class - all went well except for a couple of students who were MIA.  After class, it was back to the Parascando's home in South Burlington where Bridgette made a great dinner of salmon, rice and broccoli. 

Saturday, I was up early and drove back out to Johnson to speak at the Criminal Justice Careers seminar.  I had a great time and it appeared that the students enjoyed my presentation.  Then it was back into Burlington (it is about an hour drive each way) for my afternoon flight - that was delayed for more than an hour because of the high winds in Newark and Burlington, causing wind chill factors in the minus 20 to minus 30 range.  I still managed to make the connecting flight in Newark, but did not expect my luggage to make it with me.  The overnight flight to Amsterdam was on United and was just fine, as was the Sunday morning flight on Lufthansa to Munich.  I had a four plus hour layover in Munich, so I stayed in the Luthansa Senator Lounge (with Star Gold status with the Star Alliance, I get in free) and did my classes, email and some recreational things (mostly online crossword puzzles).  I was pleasantly surprised with my flight from Munich to Wroclaw - I not only had ample leg room in the exit row seat, they do not allow luggage under the seats in those two exit rows.  This made the flight much more comfortable than expected.

Upon arrival, I was pleasantly surprised that my checked suitcase made it with me.  I found an ATM and got some Polish money, grabbed a taxi and was in my room at the Best Western Hotel Prima before 5:00 p.m.  I unpacked, took a shower and then went out to dinner - I found comfort food at a small nearby restaurant: a plate of carbonara and a half liter of beer.

It was a successful week and now the next phase of the trip begins.

Phoenix to Portland and back to Phoenix

After returning from Vermont, the big issue was preparing to fly with Mr. Shadow from Phoenix to Portland.  The big issue was getting him groomed, checked out by the veterinarian, and getting crate that was properly bolted together to meet Alaska Air's requirements (Alaska Air has non-stop flights from Phoenix to Portland).  The grooming, vet and crate purchase all seemed easy, including buying the needed bolts at Ace Hardware.

To make sure things went well, I even took the crate to the airport and brought it in to Alaska Air to make sure it was acceptable - they agreed and even allowed me to buy the extra legroom seats in the exit row six days before the flight (normally this cannot be done until 24 hours before the flight).  So I left the airport thinking we were golden.

Patty had also found that one of the bath room sink drains was leaking.  I tried to replace the leaky part and was unsuccessful. I called the plumber and had both bathroom sink drains replaced.

We also continued to thin out things and donate them to Goodwill.

And even though I resigned from the Board of the HOA, I still find problems and report them.

At the Desert Botanical Garden, they have a new exhibit that has opened in the Ottosen Gallery.  Dyana Hesson does these wonderfully detailed oil paintings of plants.  This one is about five feet by four feet, so the detail is amazing.

On Wednesday, Feb. 2, Patty and I packed up the car and Mr. Shadow with his crate.  We went to the Phoenix airport, parked the car in the garage, put Mr. Shadow in his crate, and rolled Mr. Shadow and the crate to the Alaska Air check in area.  At first they said the crate had to be not only bolted on the corners but on the sides as well - even though those holes were only half circles and a bolt would not fit.  They finally relented and Mr. Shadow got put into the hold, we flew from Phoenix to Portland without incident.  We loaded Shadow, his crate and our four suitcases into a rental car (actually a Dodge Caravan minivan) and drove to our new home in Portland.  Much to our surprise, Shadow had no problem getting up the six stairs from the street to the back yard, nor with the six stairs from the back yard to the back porch.  Even more surprising was finding out that he had no problem getting from the first floor up 20 stairs to the second floor, nor even to the third floor!  Absolutely amazing to all of us.

Patty and I had previously purchased mattresses and box springs, and they had been delivered on Tuesday, the day before we arrived.  We were fine that night, but Thursday was spent going to Bed, Bath and Beyond, Costco and several other stores getting the things we needed to better set us up for our remaining 17 months we will be living in Portland.  We went out for a nice dinner with Ben and Martha that night before Ben had to go to work.  Fortunately, he had a very quiet night Thursday night, and go more than four hours sleep.  Friday, Ben and I went out for breakfast and then I was taken to the airport and flew back to Phoenix. 

Back in Phoenix, I did laundry and cleaned up, then Ben and Martha flew to Phoenix on Sunday, to spend some time with me and then to go back packing.

A quick trip to Vermont

After Megan and Jon left on Tuesday, I did my usual day at the Desert Botanical Garden, including a shift at the agave station.

On Wednesday Jan. 20, I flew to Burlington to teach my Federal Tax class.  The record storm was shaping up, and when I got off the plane in Burlington, I the text message and email from United that I could make a change in my return flights because of the storm.  This was the storm that dropped record amounts of snow in the northeast, except it did not impact Vermont.  Instead of leaving Saturday afternoon for Newark and then Phoenix, I was able to reschedule to Saturday morning via Chicago to Phoenix.  I did this before leaving the airport.

After getting my rental car, I drove out to Jeffersonville where I would stay for three nights at the Smugglers Notch Inn.  Vermonters don't let cold interfere with life.  Patio dining in Vermont is different from patio dining in Phoenix.

Jeffersonville also has some interesting artwork, but I have no idea why this zebra was painted.

Class went well.  The weather was cold, each night dropping into the single digits or below zero.  When I left the Inn Saturday morning, it was minus 7 degrees.  My flight to Chicago went well.  While at the airport, I went for a long walk to get my exercise and came across this urban garden in the airport.

And I got back home safely Saturday afternoon.