Black ribbons and national pride

On Saturday 10th April, the President of Poland, with his wife and many members of the parliament - as well as representatives of other elite groups -were all killed when their plane crashed near Smolensk. The Tupolev was taking them to a memorial service at Katyn, and tragically the plane crashed into the ground in a forest killing everyone on board.

I think what is so poignant is not just this awful loss of life. It is the fact that they were en route to Katyn. After all these years, the Russians finally seemed to be accepting responsibility; they even appear to be trying to build bridges. Then this. While Poles were remembering Katyn and the joint service seemed a way forward, catastrophe struck. Now the sorrow is doubled. Not only do we mourn and remember 22,000 lives brutally murdered in 1940 but we also now mourn for those who died on Saturday.

Watching the news on Polish television it seemed that this was a tragedy that had struck at the heart of a nation. It would be true to say that while not everyone supported the late President's policies they all joined together in their grief for his awful death. To compound it, his wife was with him, thus giving a more familial feel to the face of grief.

Who could not feel for the late President's daughter as she knelt in front of her father's coffin? Or his twin brother, who earlier had undertaken the grim task of identifying his brother's remains? And who could not feel for every family affected by the crash; those who have lost someone dear to them?

A nation fell silent and in the two minutes thoughts turned to the victims and their families. A week of mourning may seem long, but what is a week, when the pain will be for ever with those directly affected, and remembered by the rest of us.

Poland is in mourning - yet it is with great dignity. Be still those of you who would lay blame. Hush your voices and keep thoughts of conspiracy theories to yourselves. Allow the dead to be laid to rest with pride and dignity and let your feelings, thoughts and prayers support the bereaved.

Bogurodzica dziewica, Bogiem slawiena Maryja,

U twego syna Gospodzina matko zwolena, Maryja!

Zyszczy nam, spusci nam.

Kyrieleison.

Time for a real wurst

Ho hum. It's been an age and really I wasn't sure if I'd be bothering to wriet more. However, I reckoned that unless I do this then I am bound to forget what I've been doing and worse than that - I'll probably merge things so that I become convinced that things that were done weren't and vice versa. You can tell I am rambling, can't you? Anyway, I'm doing a bit of work and not bothering to be too involved in anything - i.e. keep the stress levels low and enjoy.

As ever, the holidays loomed large in our planning. Because we came so late we missed out on the winter break. But not to worry! Easter gave us the chance to travel and we decided to go to Dresden. Reasoning was thus: need good wurst, want good beer and really hanging out for decent coffe, chocolate and leberkase. And on top of that we were in need of a commuication fix! By that I mean that we wanted to go somewhere we understood and could be understood. So Germany it was.

Dresden is a lovely city. We had a hotel by the river and the view was great. Walking distamce to the old town and so much to see. We went to the Frauenkirche, the Zwinger, the Semper Oper - just guided tours not performances unfortunately. The reconstruction has been so perfectly done and the centre is clean, attractive and of course has heaps of places for a beer and a coffee etc.

We managed a trip on the river in a steam paddle boat - excellent commentary in German but that was the day it decided to rain and be really cold. It took me about two hours to defrost afterwards and I admit all I wanted to do was sit and drink heisse schokolade!

We were pretty sure that nothing would be open on Easter Sunday - how wrong could we be??? We went walking out towards the VW factory - and wow! It was open. Brilliant. This place is something else. It really is a totally transparent factory. They make the VW Phaeton here - and there's a restaurant, guided tours, you can wander about. Well of course we had to go round didn't we? For those of you with a car mind try this link:

http://www.glaesernemanufaktur.de/gmd.jsp?dok=&lang=&docid=&ap=

In contrast to the beautiful old biuldings baroque by the way - there were still the ugly attempts from the socialist realism era. What is it about those people? The heroic workers struggling against capitalism yet no one ever looks happy in the pictures. Shouldn't they all have been so contented that there would never have been any desire for change? The usual palace of culture was there with the wonderful mural! Not sure if the detail is there but you get the idea!

And now we are thinking about the May holiday and planning what to do and where to go for that. Possibly somewhere to cycle and/or walk - we'll see. And again I make no apologies for the possibility of sparse blogs! In this, our second stay in Krakow, there is obviously less to say.