Museums

Rogalowe Muzeum Poznania

November 5, 2014 by polishhousewife 2 Comments

Rogalowe Muzeum Poznania is Poznan’s Croissant Experience. It opened to the public this summer (2014). While it’s not your typical museum, with rooms full of exhibits for you to leisurely stroll about, I can highly recommend it. The focus is Rogale Swietomarcinskie, a local pastry with a story to tell. The city of Poznan was kind enough to invite me to a media event regarding the famous croissant when I arrived in Poznan. I’ve made them at home. Even with this experience and familiarity, I thoroughly enjoyed the 45 minute presentation and learned a few things!

The historical building that houses Rogalowe Muzeum Poznania is part of the Stary Rynek. The front is still being renovated; you’ll find the entrance round the back, at Klasztorna 23. Admission is 14 PLN, 12 PLN for those 3 to 16. This is what you’ll find:

At the top of a flight of stairs, you’ll find the museum which is really more of a workshop, where they put on demonstrations scheduled throughout the day. I picked up a small flyer and the tourist information office in the Rynek and found that the next “performance” for me would be at 13:45. One of the staff who was outside spoke to me as I arrived. When he realized that I was a foreigner who didn’t speak Polish, he asked what brought me to Poznan, escorted me up the stairs to explain my situation to the two gentlemen doing the presentation.

I shared the experience with a group of 15 retired school teachers and an elementary school class on a field trip. Adults and children were called upon to help with the demonstration. The presentation not only involved the making and history of the croissant but also information on some things that are unique to Poznan. There’s also a video in Polish with English subtitles, part history, part legend. Samples are distributed during the workshop, and you have the chance to buy pastries as you leave.

During the introduction, I heard the fellow (who would occasionally pop into the empty chair next to me to act as my interpreter) say “Krzesiny” when speaking to the group. That doesn’t call for a response of “God bless you.” It’s the air base where Ed works. So I wondered if he was talking about me. He was.

Later in the workshop, my interpreter relayed a message to me from one of the retired teachers. She wanted me to know that her husband had been a pilot at Krzesiny 50 years ago, and she was glad to think that there were two pilots’ wives in the group that day.

I didn’t have a chance to respond to her in person, so on the off chance that she may see this, let me say this. When you think about the fact that our husbands were flying during the Cold War, and today, our countries are allies, and we had the chance to spend an afternoon together focusing on pastry, I have to say, “Me too, Pani, me too!”

Poznan inaczej – Poznan Way Photo Exhibit

August 7, 2014 by polishhousewife 2 Comments

Poznan inaczej – wystawa fotographii – Brama Poznania ICHOT or Poznan Way – a photography exhibition at the city’s newest museum, Interactive History Center Cathedral Island, features the work of three local artists, one of them American, Erik Wisoe!

The exhibit opened last month and will run through September 21, so there is still time to see it. The photo exhibit is free of charge and can be viewed anytime during the museum’s hours. The works focus on the city of Poznan and Cathedral Island specifically.

I enjoyed the work of all three photographers. I felt like quite the local, being about to recognize the place or timing of many of the photos. One of Łukasz’s photos from Euro 2012 made me laugh out loud remembering that time. It will seem like I’m playing favorites with my fellow American as I tell you about them. The truth is, it’s just easier for me to gather information that’s in English. 😉

The three photographers are:

Łukasz Gdak — a local photographer, who also works for Glos Wielkopolski, a regional news source, who has had the opportunity to photograph many well known public figures.
Erik Witsoe — a native of Seattle, Washington, Erik Witsoe owns a local coffee shop (Seattle, it figures, right?), since moving to Poland, Erik has applied his formal training as a visual artist to DSLR photography, and I know from the shares I see on facebook, that people all over Poznan are enjoying his street photography. As my friend, Barbara said to me when we stopped by the coffee shop, “this is the street where I grew up,” as she bought one of Erik’s picture postcards. He has a way of taking everyday scenes in Poznan and making them special. I toured the exhibit with a mutual friend and she said, “I’d never thought of photography as art until I saw Erik’s work, but I have a new appreciation for it now.”
Karol Wysmyk — a photographer whose subjects have been music & film, expos, corporate branding, and travel.

In addition to the beautiful, make you stop and linger, photography, the venue itself is worth checking out. The area of the museum that houses the photo exhibit is old brickwork. The roof of the building is covered in dirt and growing plants. This is being done with so many new buildings, particularly in Germany. I asked one of the staff about it, and he said it’s has been that way all along as a defensive mechanism, long before anyone thought about being green.

The brick maker’s mark

The brick building is connected to the main, modern section of the museum by a glass bridge. I’ve only visited the lobby of the main section, but I loved this photo mosaic made with shots taken here at the museum to present this historic scene.

Ethnographic Park of Wielkopolska

August 31, 2013 by polishhousewife 2 Comments

The Ethnographic Park, one the largest open-air museums in Poland is only open during the summer, so today seemed like a good time to squeeze in a visit. Work on this project, to preserve the region’s folk culture, began in 1975, and the park was opened to visitors seven years later.

The displays consist of rural buildings, homes, barns, a church; moved from villages in Wielkapolska (this region of Poland) that date to the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. Most are constructed of timber with thatched roofs.

The church, complete with pipe organ

Kapliczli – little chapels, you see these everywhere in the countryside.

When Ed first arrived in Poland, someone told him that these roadside shrines were to bless your journey. I’ve just been doing some reading on the subject, and that seems to be a good quick answer. They’re often near crossroads which were seen as dangerous spots. You see these in every village, along the road as you’re driving though the farms, etc. The color of the streamers all represent something: red – the suffering of Christ, blue and white are associate with the Virgin Mary, anyone know about the yellow? There are so many and they seem to be used in so many ways, to express needs, gratefulness, or (along rivers) to invoke the patron saint against floods. I wonder if anyone has ever written their dissertation on the subject.

Hops – I seem to have a theme going this week

I’m a sucker for animal faces

They moved as far away as possible from the tracker plowing the field behind them

The windmill didn’t look so big until I saw Ed next to it

the stones outside the mill

a yoke and buckets for bringing water to the house

When we came to Poland, a friend recommend James Michner’s novel Poland, and I really enjoyed it. Poland was the only one of the author’s books I’ve been able to finish – get beyond the first chapter would be more accurate. The fictional characters are placed in well researched historical settings and involved the intertwining of lives through centuries. From magnate and serf to farmer and communist party official, I can just see the earlier characters living and working in these buildings.

hundreds of cabbage heads, about to become a year’s supply of sauerkraut

The admission and parking fees are minimal, but it can be difficult to find. This was our second attempt. Ed did a lot of map study and with that preparation drove us right to the parking lot. Let me give you the address for your GPS: Dziekanowice 23, 62-261 Lednogora.

This was the most surprising thing for me. The pole attached to the ceiling beam with the wooden loop – it’s to hold the baby

Yep, pop the little one in there, I guess they can toddle around is circles, without getting under foot

Do widzenia

Zamek Tour

April 18, 2013 by polishhousewife Leave a Comment

The Poznan International Ladies Club organized a tour of the former Imperial Castle with an English speaking guide. I hadn’t seen much of the interior, so this seemed like a great opportunity. If you want to do this, book the guide in advance. The cost is 120zl.

I’m a sucker for a gilded mosaic ceiling

Our guide was fantastic. He told us the history of the building and the many ways it has been used over the years during our 1.5 hour tour. The castle (or palace) originally built for the German Kaiser is now a cultural center and the larger rooms are used for events and exhibitions, so the rooms are empty, not furnished as they would have been in the past.

The imperial interior was destroyed by the Nazis as they prepared it to be an official residence for Adolph Hitler. Much of the interior has been kept as the Third Reich left it. Parts of the structure that the Nazis did not have time to refurbish have recently been transformed into modern, state of the art theaters with an airy cafe covered by a glass ceiling. This transformation has been a joint venture between Poland and the EU.

Great views from the windows

Poznan’s history captured in brass

Love the view from the back balcony

Many of the rooms are now offices, some housing foreign consulates

The old and the new

Palm House (Palmiaria Poznanska), Wilsona Park, Poznan

January 5, 2013 by polishhousewife 8 Comments

I’ve known about the Palm House at Wilsona Park for some time. We finally paid a visit today, and I’m wondering why we waiting so long. It’s the perfect outing for a winter day, a balmy 70 – 75 degrees inside while we’re experiencing the low 40s. I’d like to return in the spring to see if there are more plants in bloom. The massive green house, the largest in Poland, is divided into 9 rooms with different types of plants. There is also an aquarium room with dozens of aquariums and some of the largest fish I have ever seen up close and personal. Besides the fish, the Palm House is home to a few exotic animals, some statuary, and a few benches on which you can linger in the beauty. I’m sure it’s good for the health.

The admission is very reasonable, 7 zl or a about $2.25. It’s suggested that you allow an hour for your visit. We were there much longer, but we did stop mid-way in the coffee shop for awhile and when you’re from the desert, you tend to linger in awe of so much greenery. I don’t know if it happens every Saturday, but there was someone in one of the rooms doing face painting for the kids. The Palm House struck me as a real treasure. Take a look at some of the photos and see if you don’t agree.

Recently celebrating their 100th anniversay, the Palm House has been expanded, destroyed, and rebuilt. The original structure was much smaller – the size of one of the rooms we visited today.

At this point, I said to Ed, “maybe they’ll have orchids. I’m sure my mom has already spotted them in this shot. He pointed some out to me. They just weren’t in bloom.

Around the next bend, we found orchids in bloom

The greenhouse theme continues into the coffee shop. So nice to see a place for refreshments and a gift shop – things that are often missing at Polish museums.

I had read about aquariums, and yet I was surprised by them. I thought they meant the koi ponds we’d seen.

A little touch of home – I don’t know that I’ve seen cacti in a greenhouse before. It’s amazing how big, perfect, and healthy these plants look when they’re not stressed by the extremes of the desert climate.

This looks like the famous night blooming cereus. Its flower was featured prominently on the pages of the coffee shop menu.

Bunnik, Utrecht, & Amsterdam (Nederland)

December 4, 2012 by polishhousewife Leave a Comment

Freaky Deaky Dutch for “towed”

In addition to his many other talents, my husband is a golf professional. That’s what took us to Bunnik. The putting coach who has been working with the European Ryder Cup team (the winners) was doing a two-day putting workshop for several members of PGA Holland (and one American PGA member).

Our hotel was just a block from the golf center, so Ed had a very short walk to “school.” He learned a lot during the training, and we learned something about Bunnik. It’s kind of in the boonies, just an exit along the motorway. The only restaurant was in our hotel. If we had this to do over, we would have stayed in Utrecht with more options for the evening, and Ed could have taken the sprinter train everyday for the five minute trip to Bunnik.

Amsterdam

We thought about flying to the Netherlands, but in the end we drove. It’s about nine hours from Poznan, and other than a short stint where you’re diverted through a town, we were on divided highways the entire time. In case you’re wondering, John Grisham’s The Racketeer was just the right audio book for the trip. The unabridged version runs just under 13 hours. When I haven’t planned ahead to get an audio book from my Overdrive app (there’s often a waiting list), I’ve been using audible.com. Taking into account the times when we turned the book off to concentrate on traffic, GPS instructions, or the snow, the suspense took us from door to door.

I forgot to mention the flower market, a life sized seed catalog

The Nederlanders we met were delightful people, very helpful. The food was OK, pea soup with smoked sausage is very traditional this time of year. We had some nice meals, but nothing where I felt inspired and compelled to make notes in order to recreate a dish at home. We did go through two packages of marzipan cookies – a recipe that I will seek out. To be fair, a friend who visited Amsterdam recently recommended Five Flies and said we wouldn’t be disappointed. It sounds like a memorable experience, but from their website, I could see dinner for two easily running over 200 euros. We decided to pass this time around.

While he won’t officially arrive until December 6th, every shop window had a Sinterklaas

On my own for the first two days, I took the train into Amsterdam, seeing the Van Gogh collection in its temporary home at The Hermitage as well as their Impressionists and walked around the city. I was amazed by the bicycles. There were more bikes on the streets than cars or pedestrians, and thousands of bikes parked everywhere.

Utrecht Centraal

The second day, I took the train to Utrecht. I exited the station towards the “centrum” and Hoog Catharijne which turns out to be a huge shopping mall that connects the station and downtown. The downtown, centrum, of Utrecht is charming, smaller than Amsterdam, a pedestrian shopping area with the occasional canal, a church tower that serenaded with a carillon concert several times during the day, and, of course, lot of bikes.

I also took in the Museum Speelklok, home to a large collection of self-playing musical instruments: music boxes, player pianos, the portable pieces played by organ grinders, and large fairground organs. The venue can be rented for events. We got to visit with a couple taking wedding photos, just an hour before their ceremony, as our tour went through one of the rooms. We had a lively British couple in our tour group who treated us to a dance as one of the big fairground organs played The Beatles When I’m 64. When he’d finished class, Ed met me at the train station in Utrecht, we walked around the city for a bit and had pea soup in a local cafe.

After carefully studying the weather on Saturday and weighing our options, we hopped on the train for Amsterdam. They were predicting snow in Germany, and we were trying to decide if we should cut our trip short since we were driving. In the end, it didn’t sound that bad for Sunday and it wasn’t since we got an early start, encountering the snow during the warmest part of the day.

We took a canal tour of Amsterdam, our guide pointing out that the city doesn’t have the huge famous buildings (like you see during a river tour in Berlin), rather interesting architecture of common buildings that convey the city’s history.

While walking around the city, we stopped for coffee and pastry near the train station. What a mistake. Looking back, the wisest thing to say in a shop like that, where they’re not expecting repeat business, would be what’s fresh today or even yesterday. My strawberry doughnut looked beautiful but had to have been from last week. It was only fit for consumption by birds. (My daughter who has spent time in NL has since told me that all the donuts are bad; stick to the stoopwafel!)

After that experience and tiring of pea soup, we opted for an affordable, predictable meal at the Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam.

The White Factory & the Andel’s Hotel, Lodz

August 12, 2012 by polishhousewife 6 Comments

Ed was working at “the other” F-16 base recently. We stayed in Lodz at the Andel’s hotel – part of the enormous Manufaktura shopping and cultural center. It was the first time we’ve stayed at the Andel’s, a beautiful red brick structure that has won numerous architectural awards. Very comfortable rooms with a great spa on the top floor, complete with infinity pool. Despite the luxury, they have kept the industrial, textile mill feeling to go with the historic location.

A great breakfast buffet and my 3 breakfast companions and their iPads

The glass box, top left, that’s the pool

Let me be the first to admit that I got carried away with this feature

While the guys were at work, Janet and I visited the White Factory – the sight of another textile mill. It’s now a museum with reminders of the past and an amazing collection of textile art. My friend, Cynthia, is among other things, quite an artist with fabric. I kept wishing she was there with us to take it in. I know she would have loved it.

The White Factory

A beautiful array of textiles

Museum of the City of Łódz

April 21, 2011 by polishhousewife Leave a Comment

The Museum of the City of Łódz or Muzeum Miasta Łódzi is located in the palatial former resisendce of Izrael Poznański and his family. This beautiful building is located next to the textile factory.

This museum offers very little signage in English. The page long description of the dining room was translated into English, and the rooms devoted to Artur Rubinstein (he was born here) included English descriptions of the his many awards and photographs. I’m telling you all this to say, they may have been telling a story here that I didn’t get because I don’t read Polish. With that disclaimer, I have to say that the museum seems to be misnamed.

To me, the museum didn’t seem to be about Łódz; it was about the Poznański family, as Seinfeld would say, not that there’s anything wrong with that. The museum of the factory seemed to offer more about the growth of Łódz and what life was like for people living there.

I’m not trying to discourage you from visiting. I love grand, old homes, especially stately dining rooms, and this one is spectacular. I would encourage you to contact the museum to see if it’s possible to arrange for an English tour guide or to read as much as possible about the building before visiting.

Admission is 9 zl or about $3.

Museum of the Factory, Łódź, Poland

April 17, 2011 by polishhousewife Leave a Comment

Just a small part of the manufaktura

Museum of the Factory or Muzeum Favryki, if you prefer, was my first sightseeing trip in Łódź, and it was one of my favorites. Located in the Manufaktura, a friend had told me that the museum was small and difficult to find. So when I saw comments online about it’s location within the mall, I made note. I’ll add to that description now in case you’re planning a visit.

The factory during its heyday

The museum is near the cinema and arcade at the northern end of the complex, so follow the signs in that direction. There is an elevator just outside the cinema, take that to the 2nd floor. (Being a silly American, I got a little confused because I had already taken the escalator up one flight, so I mistakenly thought I was on the second floor. I’ve been here long enough that I should know better; the ground level is 0. Take the elevator to the top floor or 2nd floor.) There you’ll find the entrance; admission is 4 zl, about $1.50.

The museum is small, but with photographs, samples of machinery and the cloth produced, and even enlarged architechural drawings of this magniciant building, they tell the story of this texile mill and the people who lived here. The signage is in Polish and English, so I was able to get the full story.

The buildings that made up this complex were plain and functional on the inside. On the outside, the red brick work involved such beauty and architectural detail right down to the huge smokestacks. There is no doubt that the intention was to create something akin to a monument.

This series of factories rose to prominence in the late 1800s and were the property of Izrael Poznanski, a Jewish merchant. His factories drew workers from much of Poland as well as other countries. There were tenements built for the workers. Some of these are still standing and are on my sightseeing list for the next visit to Łódź. The factory complex was a self-contained town right down to its own brass band.

The museum is very visitor friendly, and includes some hands on activities for children. Photography is encouraged. There was a group on school kids on a tour, and the docent started up on of the looms for them. Can you imagine what the noise would have been like with the hundreds on machines running in the photo at the top of this post?

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