Ice on the beach, the Awful Tower and Krak Out!
Here are our girls standing on a block of the frozen Baltic Sea at the very popular German coastal resort of Usedom. We had a lovely time here enjoying a great Tapas Meal at a Spanish Restaurant run by a girl that used to live in Brisbane; we played mini golf, stared at the amazing prussian Villa's, many of which are available to rent during the summer and had lots of fun in the hotel pool, mavelling at our girls ability not to see all those older naked german couples moving in and out of the saunas!
Next stop on our Spring Break (Easter Vacation) was Paris. Would you believe I had to be convinced to go as Chris had work there and I did not want to be
caught in a hotel room with the girls whilst he waiting for his meetings to end.
Despite my doubts, the stay in Paris was great, albeit Chris was in meetings most of the trip. The girls dragged me between department stores (oh that was hard!) and we still managed to squeeze in visits to the "Awful Tower", Notre Dame and a lovely walk down the Champs Elysees (that picture with Ada is her striking a pose on the Champs...she needed no encouragement!). The girls and Chris also took a boat trip along the Siene.
After flying back from Paris we quickly packed the car for a trip to Krakow or, as Ada describes it when inspired by Kath and Kim, Krak Out. Krakow is a beautiful city with a magnificent central square and castle. The Polish people were lovely and the Easter break added additional interest given the various local religious customs. One night we were reading in the room when we heard hundreds of locals carrying a large wooden cross moving through the street of Krackow singing and chanting. One of the major attractions in Krackow are the 700 year old rock salt mines which are open now for commercial tours. We walked along 3km of the 300km of underground passages that included multiple chapels, a catherdral and underground stables. All being supported by wooden form work and stairs (metal rusts in a salt mine).
Chris took an afternoon to visit Aushwitz-Birkenau concentration camp of which he found Birkenau to be particularly disturbing. Of course much more could be said of this but a blog is not the place.