Goodbye holidays - welcome school!!!

1st September 2015

Today is 31st August  so it means we definitely have finished vacation as teachers. Tomorrow is the back to school. I  believe it is going to be a nice year.  It is the most important school year for my daughter who starts Secondary School - the last one before her studies. We have survived the hottest summer in our life - 36C degrees in shadow for almost two months ( today is 35 C). It was the worst summer because I suffer from serious allergy and I must take constantly pills. The positive side is we visited once again Gdansk and Baltic Sea. We also visited my cousin who lives on the big farm. We have driven about 3000 km at my place. But we didn't visit Italy but it is the plan for the next year.

Today I upload photos from my holidays which were taken through July and August.

Summer place where we spent 6 weeks

My garden in July.

Land of my ancestors.

Storsks at my summer place

Gladiolas at my garden

Nuts... I  am going to pick them in October and bake a cake for Christmas.

On the way to Gdansk

Orchad near Warsaw..

Welcome in Tricity

Oak Street in Gdansk

Lovely tram to the beach Gdansk

Baltic Sea

Old Town in Gdansk

The monument of Jewish children who survived.

 Shipyard Lenin in Gdansk

 Freedom begins here..

Centre of Gdansk

Tree in Gdansk

My cousin's house

My cousin's garden..

On the way back - Lodz Cathedral. It is city located in the centre of Poland

Lodz

Rowan tree

My lovely summer place

My pears in the garden

Dog and her girl..

Vie from my balcony..

Local park fist autumn leaves..

Stork

Flowers which have survived draught.

Goodbye my summer house... 

Thanks for visiting!!!

Golden Rush in Wałbrzych - Poland

31 st August 2015

The president of Walbrzych has confirmed that gold train exists and is located in his city. Wow, the fantastic news.. . The train is probably 150 metres long and probably was hidden in the adit.

Maybe the train is here.... who knows...

POLAND’S DEPUTY CULTURE minister today added to the excitement over the possibility of a huge “Nazi gold train” hidden under ground for the last 70 years.

Piotr Zuchowski said he had seen a radar image of the alleged Nazi train that has set off a gold rush, adding that he is almost certain it exists.

I’m more than 99 percent sure such a train exists, but the nature of its contents is unverifiable at the moment.

Local media have for days been abuzz with old lore of trains full of gold and jewels stolen by the Nazis after two men – a German and a Pole – claimed to have found an armoured train car in the southwestern city of Walbrzych.

“I saw a good quality ground-penetrating radar image showing what the train looks like,” he said, adding that he could make out platforms and cannons on the photo.

Zuchowski, who is also the national heritage conservation officer, refused to reveal the train’s exact location, adding:

My understanding is that no one has accessed it since the (Second World) War.

Someone, who decades ago took part in hiding the 100-metre long (330 feet) train, passed along the information by word of mouth, Zuchowski said, but did not specify to whom.

And this person shared the information on their deathbed along with a sketch of where it could be found.

Zuchowski confirmed that the German and Pole, who wish to remain anonymous, have the right to claim a finder’s fee of 10 percent of the value of the train’s contents.

“The fact that this train is armoured suggests there could be valuable objects inside” including artwork, archival documents or treasures, he said.

But he warned that the train could also be booby-trapped.

Rumours of two special Nazi trains that disappeared in the spring of 1945 have been circulating for years, capturing the imagination of countless treasure hunters.

The lore has its basis in the existence of secret underground passages near Walbrzych that Nazi Germany ordered built and where legend has it the Third Reich stashed valuables.

On Friday, dozens of curious onlookers could be seen loitering around a train track slope in Walbrzych where the train may be hidden.

Contains reporting by AFP.

Power plant in Bytom

30th August 2015

When I walk with my dog I pass this well-known Power Plant which was built in 1920. The building is huge and impressive one.

The power plant was completed after World War I, and started operations in 1920, providing electricity for Bytom region (then part of Germany). The structure, originally intended to be an explosives factory, covers approximately 36,000 square metres (390,000 sq ft). It was originally operated by Schaffgotsch Bergwerksgesellschaft GmbH (a German company of the Schaffgotsch family). The structure was designed by German architects Georg and Emil Zillmann, known in Silesia as architects of the Nikiszowiecand Giszowiec districts in nearby Katowice. Notable features of the design included a large hall (2,800 square metres (30,000 sq ft)), three 120-metre (390 ft) chimneys, and a clock tower with a clock, one of the largest turret clocks in Poland.

By World War II the plant had a capacity of 100 MW. Quickly rebuilt after the war, and operating at a similar capacity in the 1950s, the Szombierki Power Plant was one of the largest in the People's Republic of Poland and Europe.

The Power Plant Szombierki belengs to ERIH.

There are plans to convert it into a museum or a similar type of a cultural institution.

In the 1970s, the power plant was converted from a thermal power station to a combined heat and power plant. It was modernised up until the mid 1990s, and from 1993 it was owned by Zespół Elektrociepłowni Bytom S.A. Since the late 1990s, the power plant has been operating at a significantly reduced capacity, used primarily as a reserve power plant. It is considered an industrial monument (a part of the Trail of Monuments of Engineering in the Silesian Voivodeship, Setting around power plant