In Our Grandfathers' Footsteps

Day 33,34 - September 29/30, 2017: Heading Home Editors Notes: Trip summary to come

Day 31 - Sept 27, 2017 - Kraków and Area We started the day with a visit to the Kraków Rakowicki Cemetery in a Krakow. This site contains the CWGC section as well as a section for Polish, Russian and German soldiers killed in World War II. Many famous locals are buried in this cemetery as well including the parents of Pope John Paul II. CWGC Kraków Rakawicki Cemetery 522 Casualties, 15 Canadians, 3 unidentified, 24 non-war casualties including two CWGC gardeners. This cemetery is the largest of three CWGC cemeteries in Poland. It contains the graves of those who died while interred at the Lamsdorf Prisoner of War camp as well as airmen shutdown during Warsaw supply drops and bombings of factories, railways and other strategic targets.   The graves of seven airmen is located in the cemetery - five with the Royal Canadian Air Force and two of the Royal Air Force. In August 1944, their Halifax bomber left Italy to drop supplies to the Polish Home Army fighting in the Warsaw uprising. Thei

Day 30 - Sept 26, 2017:  Lambinowice to Kraków Editors note: I am still here! Thank you for your patience! I am disappointed with always having to ask that of you because of the poor wifi I have encountered. And maybe it is just my rotten luck but the last hotel we were in for three nights had four wifi servers yet every one would kick out before a picture could be uploaded. Bill said he experinenced similar wifi challenges last year in Africa, I expected better in Europe I guess. Anyway, I will be updating the posts from Day 26 on before adding more. Site of National Remembrance Lambinowice A 40 minute drive from Opole is the Site of National Remembrance in Labinowice located in the Silesia region of Poland. Several locations within the site boundaries make up the Lamsdorf Stalag VIII Prisoner of War camp. We met our tour guide Sebastian at the Poland Central Prisoner of War Museum. He was a wealth of knowledge, spoke perfect English and made the trip a great experience

Day 29 - Sept 25, 2017:  Paris to Opole, Poland Note: Edits and photos to follow. It was a day of travel. We flew into Kraków, grabbed our rental car and drove approximately two hours to Opole. We stayed at the Hotel de Silva and must say this is a top notch hotel. We were treated to a gourmet Polish dinner in their restaurant that was incredibly prepared and had unbelievable flavour for under $20.00. The service was exceptional and we had a lady playing lounge music on the piano. The whole thing was terrific! 

Day 28 - Sept 24, 2017:  Delfzjil to Paris Note: Edits and photos to follow. On the way from  the far northeast corner of the Netherlands to Paris we stopped at the Holten Canadian War Cemetery. Holten Canadian War Cemetery. 1394 burials, 1355 Canadians This cemetery was under repair which indicated it will be in great shape for yet another generation. Those soldiers buried here were the ones killed in the Netherlands and Germany during the final stages of the war or after the war had ended. We couldn't help but think that some of the soldiers buried here from the 1st Division would have fought almost two years since the landings in Sicily - the many battles they were involved in, the many horrific experiences they witnessed - only to die within days of the end of the war. We had both noticed that this cemetery contained more recipients of honours than any other cemetery. One woman with the Woman's Service Corp is laid to rest here. Sadly enough she was marri