Week one is done!

We've now been in Szczecin for a week! Well, in a few hours, it will be a week.

Here are a few photos from the last few days. For now you are getting iPhone photos, which are decent, but hopefully I'll be able to take more, and better photos as time goes on. Unfortunately my camera started doing something screwy during Matthew's baptism a couple of weeks ago and I've yet to figure out what is wrong. I think it may need a new battery which should be super easy to get here, right? Hehe.

On Monday, we found a playground.

Matthew loves to swing, but he was too little to be in this one alone, so his sister helped him out for a moment. I love that she tries to get him to smile for photos, and ends up making a goofy face or something and sometimes it works.

Monday night supper at an Italian restaurant. The weather here has been pretty nice, overall.

I couldn't pick a favorite, so here's another one. Aren't they the cutest?

I was told this is the gate to the city. but I have not read anything about it give you any history just yet. My phone could not capture how lovely it was with the sun setting, alas.

Lunch picnic in the hotel. We've done a lot of fruit, cheese, crackers, and nuts for lunch.

Rags was hidden in the first photo and I love how she is patiently waiting.

 

This is the Basilica that we visited over the weekend. I snapped a quick photo on our walk to dinner last night, from the walkway that goes across the road.

Matthew loves water! And he prefers to drink it from a cup. He will even drink the water "with gas", the carbonated water that Europeans love. His sister likes it, too. Traitors.

Tuesday night we wandered to an area that our current sponsor had suggested has lots of good restaurants. Emmy picked this one randomly.  This was probably one of the most beautiful meals I've seen. The beet and apple soup was beautiful, but I failed to take a photo before we started eating. This restaurant only had a few options, they cook with local ingredients, so their menu limited, at least I think that is why. It was rather fancy, probably would not have chosen it had we fully understood this, but we were brave. Emmy loves duck, she ate almost half of it (the photo on the left, served with cherries and charred potatoes). I, however, confirmed that I do not care for duck. The other plate is seafood, shrimp (with the heads, of course), a scallop, and trout.

Little dude is pulling up all the time, and today after his all to brief nap, I caught him looking like he was about to pull this suitcase down!

St. John the Baptist Basilica (near the mall, of course). Poland is almost entirely Catholic, and you certainly can tell just by the number of beautiful churches that I've noted in the small part of the city we've explored. We stopped into this one on our way to the mall to buy a GPS tonight. Construction began in 1888, and it was consecrated in 1890. In 1987 the spire of the tower was reconstructed, and from 1996-1998 the vaults and the roof were renovated and copper was added, though I'm not sure if that was to bring it back to it's original look or not. In 2008 Pope Benedict declared it a minor Basilica.  One thing we have noted in both churches we have entered, there is a large statue and/or chapel honoring Pope John Paul II, who of course was Polish.

They hydrangeas outside this church are so beautiful!

Statue of St. John the Baptist

I thought it was interesting that the bricks that are darker are actually glazed green. It is also interesting to see how many of the older historic buildings have been reconstructed and you can sometimes see where the original pieces are and where newer ones were added. I believe that the city has been rebuilt 3 times, most recently after WWII.

I'll say "good-night" with some sleeping cuteness. Emmy told me she wanted to take a nap this afternoon, so she did. And Rags decided she needed to be right next to her sister.  Some of you have asked how Rags is doing, and she seems to be handling it all quite well.  She really likes being walked 4 times a day, so in many ways hotel living is working great for her! I will be glad when we are in our house and can just let her out first thing in the morning and at night, but we need to do better and keep up the daily walks for sure. Europeans build their hotels pretty sturdy, so we don't hear a lot of noise from the other floors, which is good for her sake.

Charles now has his NATO ID and Badge, and I will get mine later this week. We opened our Polish bank account. I have no idea how to use it, but we have it! That will be necessary for paying bills in the near future. Our large shipment of household goods should arrive in port next week, as should our car, so fingers crossed everything clears customs and we have that all sooner rather than later. Our unaccompanied bags should have arrived today, but no word on that still.

We are hoping to rent a car this weekend so we can explore around the area more, and also take a trip down to Germany. Our best Army pals are leaving Germany to move back to the states (SAD) but we need to hug their necks before they go. They will be in Coburg, about 5.5 hours from here, for the weekend visiting friends and her parents and sister will also be here.  Charles got to stay with them back in March when he was delayed getting home after his work trip to Germany.  I have not seen them since we left Kansas so I'm super excited, even though we will only have a few hours with them. We have not seen her family in awhile, either, so we are excited to see Mama and Papa T and sister Kate. From there, we plan to drive down to Grafenwoehr, the closest Army post to us, and pick up somethings that they left for us there (microwave, phones, pantry items) with some other friends of ours who just moved to Germany in May. Graf is where we will go for well checks, immunizations, and other misc. things we may  need done. It is about 6 or so hours from here, so not exactly close. It is also where we can send mail from, because apparently we either have to take mail there or use the Polish system to send mail. So don't expect Christmas cards from us! Or Valentines, since I usually do those instead of Christmas cards. But this way we can explore Graf and that area a bit. Wish we could have done so with the Codys, but at least Charles spent a little time there with them and knows some of their favorite places, including where to find bratwurst stuffed schnitzel. WHAT?!!?

Anyways, having a chance to explore on our own (and maybe get over being intimidated by driving here) will be good. Now if only we could magically learn Polish...