What a trip PolishOrigins put together for us to find distant cousins, learn about where our family used to live, and see the sights! On my 75th birthday, my two boys arrived at my home to celebrate and told me to get ready to pack my bags as they had arranged a trip through PolishOrigins. I was speechless to say the least and I spent the next four months getting ready for the trip,which included many, many emails back and forth with Zbigniew. All along the way I was impressed with PolishOrigin’s and Zbigniew’s thoroughness and attention to detail.
The end of July finally arrived and I flew to Washington D.C. where I met my youngest son and grandson. We were quickly off to Poland! We first flew into Munich Germany arriving on the morning of July 26th where we had a six-hour overlay. So my son called for a taxi and had him take us to the Hof Bauhaus. After touring and enjoying a snack there we walked over to the Glockenspiel clock tower and watched as the hour struck and the figures appeared. From here we walked a few blocks and caught an uber back to the airport and boarded a plane for Krakow, Poland. We took a taxi to our hotel, had dinner, took a quick tour of the Basilica of Maria and then back to our hotel to rest up for the big days coming…
On July 27th, the next morning we had a wonderful Polish breakfast sitting in the outside dinning area of Hotel Santi and then met Zbigniew who was waiting for us in the lobby with a smile on his face. This guy is an intellectual powerhouse.
Our first stop was to a branch of the National Archives in Krakow in the town of Spytkowice. Here we looked for documents about our family in Pieniazkowice, Odrowaz and Zaluczne.
After this we went to the ‘Dworek Mikolaj Restauracja’ located in the town of Wadowice where Pope John Paul II was born. We sat in the outside dinning area and ate our food, which was delicious. On to Zakopane to check into our hotel and then we took a walk around the area