The Mackowskis’ Visit To Poland – part 1

Monday, August 11

After enjoying our visits with our daughters and attending our events in Virginia, we left on an overnight flight from Washington Dulles Airport to Munich. We flew in “Economy Plus” class on a United Airlines 787, which gave us larger, more comfortable seats and some other food and drink amenities. It was a long eight hour flight but uneventful. We arrived in Germany around 8 am Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, August 12

After an easy pass thru customs and a short layover, we flew the hour-long flight to Poznan, where we would be staying the next five nights. The PolishOrigins tour company had a driver waiting at the airport and they selected the Palazzo Rosso Hotel for our stay. Language was not a big problem, as most hotel clerks and restaurant staff spoke decent English. We learned a few Polish phrases, but not enough to be functional, just simple “hello” and “thank you.” The hotel was very nice and just a couple short blocks from the town square and plaza. We got to our hotel in mid-afternoon, and did some exploring on our own for a bit. Mateusz (Matthew) Michalek would be our guide for the time we were based in Poznan, and he offered to get an early start. So we met with him around 4 pm and walked to the old cathedral (St. Peter and Paul) across the river. We toured past the business district and a university, then across the river to the main cathedral.

Mathew knew how to do genealogical research and how to make contact to the priests in the small parishes we wanted to visit. His English was very good and he did his best to explain the complex history of Poland. He also used a drone to take aerial photos of some of the places we visited. Some will be posted here. For the videos, click on the video image and use the expand icon in the viewer window to enlarge it to full screen (hit your “escape”key to get back). The first video, below, shows the cathedral.

This next video is a great 360 degree aerial view of Poznan.