Wroclaw continuted

Just beyond "Hansel and Grettel" was a church. An old church! There were a bunch of churches in this rynek. And since we are religious people, we went inside them!

This church is trying to gather donations to build a new oregon. Theirs was destroyed by fire. It had an oregon tower to house such an instrument which stood lonely and bare... I thought for 2 secondes about making a donation and then walked away... Does the thought count?

and another church... this time it was a Gothic cathedral... from the Baroque period. What a treat!

outside of the Goth church...

Inside that same Goth church...

One of my very favorite things about Poland is the ornate architecture. It is often breath taking! Really... set against the landscape makes for moments of wonder and awe...
Even the doors have particular attention given to them. Their colors and decor, fine materials and aged spots speak volumes of their lives on hinges.

Bailey by a cool old metal door near the University.

Who knew that blue doors could be so wonderful?


McKay and Cole by another cool old door.

The University in the Rynek was unreal! The artifacts inside made me want to go back to school... there! AMAZING!




Just inside was a stair case with painted ceilings... leading up to the 17th maridian.


One of the Professors here made a cyclindar shaped tool which allowed light to come in through the window and marked the 17th meridian right through the center of the university. McKay is sitting by it's masterful display!

The room used for orientation of students, etc was an old Gothic, Baroque style master piece! It was one the very first room we went into. It was so palacial in art with antique furniture. Even the way the wood floors creeked made it seem ancient!

mcKay at the front of the Gothic style room.


At the top of the university was a platform to look out over Wroclaw.

family shot taken from University platform... overlooking Wroclaw away from the rynek.

We were ready for lunch by this point... But rather than stop to eat, we tied ourselves over with a cupcake from the muffin store. I wished I had a business card in my purse to "Sugar Mama Sweets". They could use the phone number and call Michell for some advise on how to make a real cupcake! But I didn't... and so we just enjoyed the cake and then continued with our tour.

Right into the garden at the library...

Since when is their this kind of detail for the library garden? park benches! fountains! pebble stone walk ways! Designer manicured vegitation... so dreamy!

And our next stop was "slaughter alley". haha... from fantasy to nightmare!

This little alley isn't really a nightmare... it has been transformed from a slaughter alley where a bunch of stores once stood as a processing center to butcher livestock to a tourist's shopping dream. And on the patio out front is a memorial to all the animals who's lives were taken to feed the hungry mouths of men. Bless them. Bless them for carrying out the measure of their creation!

From there we took a walk toward the Catholic center. This is where the Catholic church owns all the buildings with an enormous cathedreal in it's center. The surrounding structures are used to house nuns and priests, school them, and I understand some buildings are rented out for other uses... other than church work. It probably compares a little bit to temple square.

The walk over was obviously exquisit. The river gave a nice touch... hence the nik-name "the Venice of Poland".

Could these boys be any cuter? yummy! And they had a blast sight seeing all of it!

We had to cross the water to get to the Catholic center: But it isn't just any bridge... it was the "lock bridge".

People hand a lock on the bridge representing their union... some in matramony and others not... and then they toss the keys in the river. I wished I had a lock to secure representing Mr. Mecham and Myself... and to leave our mark on beautiful Wroclaw. You can guarentee that I will before I leave this country! :)

there were literally thousands upon thousands of locks. Quite a sight!

So appearantly before Russia took over Wroclaw it belonged to Germany. But when the Russians were battling for Wroclaw they didn't quite obliterate it like they did in Warszawa, but they bombed the holy moly out of it... and so much of this little center was partially destroyed... and then rebuilt.


Right outside the cathedral is this little statue... I'm sure it has significance. I couldn't find it... and I forgot to ask Agnieska what is was. AWESOME!

This Cathedral was among the partially destructed buildings! The towers going up were blown off. It has since been rebuilt.

Bailey entering its jaws.


the stained glass is fabulous!


the oregon looked powerful!


Coley looked AMAZING! :) haha.. Many of these old churches remind me of the movies... Like robin Hood... with the concrete floors, old wooden benches, musty smells and long winding brick stair cases and secret rooms.

We went to the top of the church. First we walked the stairs... but only a fraction of the way to the top... Then we waited for the elevator to take us the rest of the way.

The man who ran the elevator was one to remember. He had one googly eye, probably fake, that looked like it might pop out if he held his breath too long. He had a cureous laugh and created a creepy feeling when we spoke directly at us. But once in the elevator that was not big enough to pull a bike into (we fit 12 people in it), he pulled the door closed, it dropped maybe 3 feet before it started going up and I was worried... That old scary elevator man cracked a few jokes and somewhat redeemed himself.


Once on top there was another platform divulging the beauty of what seemed beyond the horizon... I am drawn to platform look outs. They show another side of wherever we seem to find ourselves.

Nate heading down that mystical stairwell... on our way out.

Then we went to lunch at a Polish Milk bar. The fresh apple juice here is every bit as wonderful as the fresh orange juice back home. It quenches thirst and has amazing flavor. The dill potatoes, perfectly shaped into balls, the breaded chicken stuffed with ham and cheese and the cream spinach made us full, fat and happy! WoWzers... these Polish folk know how to use their dill... and it is ohhhh sooo yummy! Agata and Agnieska joined us for late lunch before they headed out. What fun to share an entire day with such kind strangers who quickly became friends.

They told us they are moving to the Lakes region up north in a few years. I didn't know there was a lakes region... and so it is that we uncovered yet another part of Poland to still explore! I think spring or summer might be a better time though... The lake's region is COLD... toward the Russian boarder... close to the enormous Baltic. I can't wait!

We finished off the day by hunting gnomes and purchasing souveneirs. I even found a Polish pottery shop... which I have been looking for since Sister Nielson clued me in on its power to bake impossibly wonderful foods in them. I was simply delighted.

nate and kids with Mr. Fat and Nakey gnome... on the top to of the bridge that heads under ground back to our hotel...

To finish off the night Bailey and I had a little bit of a sureal experience. I will share tomorrow.

On another note:
The kids have been sick. Sniffling. Sneezing. Coughing. Aching. feverish...
Dear Nyquil... where art thou?

Touring Wroclaw with a tour guide!

Touring Poland is pretty cool... I have to admit. But visiting its breath taking beauty, drooling over its lush landscape and flirting with its tasty foods don't make you a pro on Poland. There is a history seeded deep here... it is a treat to learn of its richness. We read things here and there... and typically try to get some info before we skip off to a new place, but we've never known how to get a tour guide. Well, Andrzej knows people... he has friends with friends that have friends... and so it is that he made a few phone calls and next thing you know we had an English speaking tour guide who wore us out in Wroclaw! It was AWESOME!!! to have little trivial facts as well as those with historical significance. Agnieska is her name. She brought her daughter Agata. They were delightful to be with... We are loving our new friends!

They took us on a walking tour of the rynek and then to a great Polish restaraunt for lunch!



This is an old opera house!
It is still is use today. Wroclaw is the cultural head quarters for Poland! I think we've run in to several Opera houses... but we typically don't know what they are and we certainly didn't understand their significance until we did a little research... The Mecham's aren't huge fans of Opera... even though we love musicals... we don't care so much for the drama in the opera... or the high voices.



This hotel is right across from the opera house. During the time when Adolf Hitler would come to Poland he had two favorite places to stay: (1) Krakow (2) Wroclaw. Now I am Hitler's least favorite fan... I assure you... but I love trivia... so here it is: This hotel was where Hitler stayed while in Wroclaw. And it stands pretty today! I understand it is ridiculously expensive to stay in... even in U.S. dollars.


We started noticing little gnomes all over. Agnieska made up a game. She explained that there were dozens of these gnomes all over the rynek. They are symbolic of an anti-communist movement from years past. The Polish citizens were not allowed to assault the Russian Police, obviously, or even be rude to them. However, they could give them flowers or something like that and they did it in a mocking way. This kept them from trouble. The gnomes are representative of this movement. The game was to see who could find the most gnomes in the rynek. We hunted nomes until long past sun set... what fun!



Nate with the professor gnome outside the University



McKay with the worker gnome



Cole with the sleepy gnome... he was very sleepy from walking all day and found it most appropriate to be photographed with this one! Cole also bought a gnome hunting map... we found almost 70 gnomes! There were still more to be hunted!



Bailey with the Piarogi gnome outside a restaraunt. This was her favorite... a gnome to represent Wroclaw and a piarodgi (polish dumplings) to represent Poland.



It sure made souveneir shopping a breeze... anything gnome. :)

The rynek is the town center. Each town has a center where you can find not only housing, but also a church, stores of every kind, a pharmacy and entertainment. In my humble opinion, Wroclaw has the best rynek so far... and I thought nothing could beat G'dansk! The German influence here is quite obvious.

Most of the pics I have in the rynek were of Bailey for two reasons: (1) she looks good. (2) The rest of the fam was far ahead while she and I were relishing every step of the way!



The rynek in Wroclaw is HUGE and the buildings are painted so beatifully! Appearantly, when the country was divided up Wroclaw became a part of Poland while the Ukraine was it's own country... and so all the Poll's who lived in the Ukraine were transported to Wroclaw and given an ugly old flat in the rynek. Today those same flats sell for top dollar and are definately not ugly. I guess there is silver lining in everything after all!



The rynek in Wroclaw is quite big compared to many of the other town centers that we have seen. This part is the "little rynek" which is a side of the rynek. And the colors and attention to detail is exquisit!


Bailey in artistic alley.


Bailey and McKay in the main part of the rynek.


Cole in rynek (old town)


This old cellar is in operation today and has been open since the 15th century! It was once a place mostly for people to come and drink Polish Vodka (the strong stuff!) but has been turned in to a restaraunt today.

The ornimentation on the side of the building was fabulous!


I don't know if I can ever love the southwest adobe homes again! This architecture has truely spoiled us!


This was my favorite building in the whole town square! It is nik-named "Hansel and Grettel." What could be cuter than that? The arch way leads to the cathedral.

Isn't that just story bookish?
Wroclaw will be continued...

On a seperate note:
It is getting dark early.

The moon out my kitchen window at 4:15 p.m. on 11 11 11...

Happy Veteran's Day to America!
Happy Independance day to Poland!

Wroclaw

5 highlights about our drive into Wroclaw and our first day there:

5) The fall colors are still here.



We keep thinking that Autumn has ended. BOY HOWDY it has been a long time since we experienced Autumn... because it is still here even though we thought that surely it was on its way out! The colors are still there... mostly browns now... but the leaves haven't all fallen. And we don't have any snow yet! With as cold as it is getting I am certain that we are in for an eye opener when winter actually comes to stay.

4)The roads! Oh Bless them!



Wide open free way systems are unheard of here in Poland... except for the space between Krakow and Wroclaw. We were so excited to see a real freeway! And even more delighted that we could drive fast enough for bugs to actually splat on our windshield rather than just land and take a free ride to the next town. Two of the free way roads are toll roads... for 7zt. Which Mr. Mecham openly admitted he would have paid 70 zt to travel on that road! He was like a kid in a candy store!



3)Papa Nate was the happiest he's been in years when he put the medal to the floor and navigated us on open roads! He is still talking about it and we've been home for nearly a week.

He may or may not have broken the speed limit a little... but perhaps he couldn't help express the feelings of liberation he felt on such an open road!



2) The Dr. Seuss trees... I finally got a picture of them.

While Mr. Mecham was making record times, I was trying to photograph the trees which inevitably inspired Dr. Seuss... Every time I see this tree I wish I was standing still enough to photograph it. They are out in the country mostly... and I think they are trippy!

If the balls were colored red, yellow, pink, blue and green then they would fit right in to the Dr. Seusse's beloved story, "Oh The Places You'll Go"! I am quite confident that Dr. Seuss traveled to Poland... atleast whomever it was that illustrated for him did!

1) Taking the Elders to dinner. We ate at the Sphinx... it was yummy!


We have a little tradition that we take the elders to dinner when we visit each of the parts of Poland. We have grown fond of each of them and love how friendly they are and how beautifully they speak English. With each of them we find some association to home sweet home and often know some of the same people. Elder Ball is from Nate's old stomping grounds in Utah. And though he was a baby when Nate was leaving home, they had much to talk about. Elder Gladun is serving in Poland and his parents are in our branch! He is the only Polish missionary currently serving in the entire world! :) We had packages to deliver from home and found out that we love Elder Gladun as much as we love his awesome mother, father and younger brother. What a great family!

On another note:

last night we bid farewell to Elder Basha who was transferred this morning to Lodz. It is selfishly a very sombering day for us. Elder Basha has been among the most significant of the tender mercies we've had since coming to Poland. Perhaps the greatest. And though we have tried so hard to be excited for his work to continue here, we let him go with heavy hearts. The Mechams will forever be thankful to a loving Heavenly Father who allowed us an association with such a profound individual!



Favorite things about Elder Basha:

*love. love. love. his sense of humor! It will take him far in this life!


*his willingness to leave his comfy home and serve Heavenly Father

*He gets an A+ for effort in the Polish Language! He is GOOD! When you talk about gift of tongues, he has it... and even better, he is willing to share anything/everything he knows with others.

*He has guts! I have sat back in amazment on multiple occasions while watching Elder Bash-ski converse with preachers of other faiths, laughed about his willingness to take time for the endless transients who approach him and courageously and shamelessly state the facts of our belief and then defend its teachings.

*He will eat anything and smile and tell you its good! I know he hates it... but he will eat it and then eat more and then thank you for it. An angel, really.

*The laugh! Oh that laugh! It is not only contageous, but also so very welcomed!

*friendships. Elder Basha must have a trillion friends. I can't imagine a single person not loving him.

*his humility is honorable.

*he is passionate about everything he does.

*He might have the biggest heart of any person I've ever met.

*He puts others before himself. He is 100% selfless.

*Love that his face turns every color of red when he is embarassed.

*when I can see tired in his face, it is never visible in his effort.

*his knowledge and understanding of this great work.

We have adopted a little saying to get us through. It goes like this: "don't cry because he's gone, smile because he happened>"

I have said it before, I hope my boys are as well prepared as Elder Bash-ski when the time comes for them to serve Heavenly Father.

Wroclaw, the Venice of Poland, was marvelous

Our ACN team back home gave us this GPS that has SAVED OUR BACON!!! It is the greatest navigator of all time... and helped keep us from safe from countless accidents! This past weekend it took us to the ACN Wroclaw offices... where we were past due on a trip to figure it out! I am more excited about it now than I ever was before! In Poland ACN partnered with the BIGGEST phone companies and internet companies... YIPPEE!

We took care of business first...

and then we played our brains out!

I took so many pictures that I will have to post in segments all week. We planned to head over to Prague, which is only a few hours from Wroclaw (VROTSWAV) but when we figured out how much there was to see in the rynek we planted ourselves and had a fabulous weekend. Prague will wait... maybe in the spring... or when Mr. Holt comes over... whichever comes first! ;)

P.S.
A Happy Birthday on Sunday past to 3 of my favorited sisters... Lesa Mecham, T. bird and weezers. We thought of you. We tried to call. We love and miss you. Hope your day was delightful! I know ours was! If yours wasn't, just feel good knowing that we celebrated it beautifully for you!

Dzień Wszystkich Świętych

All Saints Day in Poland is a National Holiday! That means the Mr. Mecham got off work! But really he just worked from home. We were told that this holiday was as big as Christmas... almost... and I think it was! The stores were cluttered with candles for sale since the back to school supplies cleared the isles... Nearly 1 1/2 months! People came out of the woodworks to purchase candles and lovely flower arrangements. When talking about Polish classes and music lessons for the kids everyone put us off until "after the holidays". I was thinking Christmas while they were thinking about "Day of the Dead". It was a sight to behold! I can't give the most accurate explaination of this holiday. I have read a few things and I had it explained to me by several different people... As near as I can tell it is a holiday much like Memorial day (but bigger) that was adopted by the Catholics. It is to mock death and honor their ancestors. All of the cemetaries are amazing!


We met the missionaries, Andrew and Blanca and took Jasmine and Cody and we went to see this sight... and a sight to behold it was! It felt like Christmas lights! Except everyone was walking around somber like. It was quiet and PACKED house!



Elder Basha wished he had his scariest mask ever to hide and scare people while Blanca knew exactly what to do because she has celebrated this holiday her whole life.


It was a treat to see and we even purchased candles to put on the graves.... the kids looked for the onesie twosies in the cemetary who looked like they had no candles at all... and decorated their grave with a single candle... they were few and far between.


Sending a Happy Birthday to Uncle Loran! We sure love you! Next year at this time you will be a dad! WOOT WOOT! Have a great day!

Party was a HUGMUNGO Success

(the camera couldn't fit everyone in... but this is a good start!)

I couldn't be more excited to say that the Halloween party was awesome! Andje came through with FLYING colors! We all crammed into a 3 room apartment (that is our church house) and ate sloppy joes, chips, drinks and sugar cookies. The Gladun's brought homemade donuts. Ewa brought salad. Ella brought salad. Somebody else ordered pizza and several people brought desserts. And then for kind gifts I was given a chocolate liquor rose and a bottle of Argentine wine! :) We had about 50ish people there. It was awesome!

(The Gladun's pumpkin! The Gladun's helped us set up for the party! They are the most solid members of the church I have ever met!)

We carved pumpkins.

This was Jasmine's jack-0-lantern. She has carved before, but many of the guests carved a jack-o-lantern for their first time!
It was a new experience to see carving pumpkins such a joy on a whole new level!!

Sister Gladun has an apple tree. She brought tons of apples and we bobbed for them! Elder Marsing was showing us how it was done... and there was water EVERYWHERE! He was soaked! And if bobbing for apples was ever going to be fun then Elder Marsing must be at the party!

We played pass the orange (they youth were loving this one!), toss up, "don't eat Pete", catch the Ghost (Thank you grandma Chrissy for the Ghosts!), Dr. and Jenny Davis' famous animal game (Was played over and over), Toss the sticky eye on the spider! (again... thanks mom and dad for the package with all the fun Halloween games and goodies! They were a HIT!)
As our new friends were leaving they made comments like: "My children have never had s o much fun at a party!" "We envy you for this holiday!" and so forth.



Cody and Jasmine brought some of their friends who are in Medical School with them. Cody and Jasmine are some of my very favorite people ever! When we talk about debth to a person Mr. Cody definately comes to mind! Jamine is an absolute angel! I am in love with her optimism on every angle. These two are going somewhere big! I sure love them.



(the Simons and Mikoaj... Mikoaj is the only ym in Lublin and has been his entire life! He is one of 4 in Poland. Right now he serves as the branch translater. I love this kid!)

The Simons came from Warsaw to our party! They are serving a mission here to build the YSA and institute in Poland. I had 3 mothers growing up: Mum (who gave me life), Claudia Hawkins and Dixie Wilson. I lived at Dixie's from the time I was 2 until I moved from Logan when I was 12. Dixie and Sister Simons are cousins... favorite cousins! So I consider the Simons family... I am so happy they are here! They make Poland a great place!



And last but certainly not least, we thank those awesome Elders! They met Andje one day when they were down town working... and then they introduced us to Andje and Ewa and their 3wonderful children. And from there Andje invited some of his friends. And then the missionaries also brought 2 more Americans; Blanca and Andrew from New Mexico. They are here going to medical school in Lublin. Those boys are something else!!!... their mums would be so proud! Look at all the success from them existing in the right place at the right time! :) Thank you Elders Marsing and Basha!!! I hope my boys are missionaries just like you: thick skinned, diligent, faithful, happy, positive and the hardest working men I've ever met! You are most beloved by our family.