We have hardly had time to stop in the last month or
two and so it was when we went as guests at Erica and Tomasz’s wedding in
Poland recently.
Along with good friends of ours, Chris and Carole, we
decided to tack on a side trip to Berlin which is nearby before driving just
across the border to Szczecin.
At Berlin we stayed at the Marriott which was built
after the reunification on ground that was part of the death strip on the East
Berlin side of the wall.
After arriving in Berlin we decided the best way to
see the highlights in the short time we had was to jump on an open top bus that
ran in a loop around city. And being as it was a hote day this proved to be a
wise idea.
We started near our hotel at Potsdamer Platz, a place
renowned for the musicians who stayed here such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop.
There are several sections of the wall displayed out side the new underground
station.
The tour took us passed all of the major landmarks and
we jumped of to get a closer look at Checkpoint Charlie where there are more
sections of the wall on display along with information and actors dressing up
as US Soldiers for the tourists to get there pictures with outside the
checkpoint box. We also got off at the Brandenburg Gate which Sue and I
revisited early the next morning before the crowds appeared when we went
walking in the park and visited the very moving Jewish Memorial.
Berlin is still undergoing a lot of change with roads
dug up and cranes littering the skyline and it has a very vibrant cultural
community with high brow classical events alongside underground raves, gay
clubs, burlesque clubs, music, dance and theatre of all sorts to choose from.
Feeling too old to go to a night club and not feeling intellectual enough for
theatre I found us a place that I thought might suit us better. We went out dancing
the night away at Clarchens Ballhaus with Cha Cha Walzer & Co. this was a
fabulous rough and ready old dancehall that hosted old school dancing of
different types – tonight was the cha-cha and waltzing. The place was really
buzzing and surprisingly full of youngsters in groups or as couples watching or
joining in with the enthusiastic dancers on the floor. There was a DJ who was
playing a variety of music from classics to more contemporary music alternating
the beat so that the dancing alternative from waltzes to more free form jive
dancing. I had done a little bit of jive dance decades ago so I dragged Sue out
for a few spins of the floor. It was a great night and inspired us to think
about finding somewhere to do more of this when we get back to the UK.
As we drove off towards Poland we made a couple of
detours and found a lovely lakeside village of Altenhof and another one at Penkun.
We crossed the border without any fuss just a sign at
the road and different speed limits (they seem to drive faster in Poland – at least
the taxi drivers do). Szczecin was a very pleasant surprise to us as we knew
next to nothing about the country and city.
We stayed at the lovely Hotel Atrium that was a short
walk away from the plac Jasne Blonia, a lovely park with informal and formal
gardens spread over many acres including a lake and an impressive open are
auditorium.
The visiting wedding party arranged to meet at Café 22
which was at the top of a tower with a view across the city. The café seemed to
be set up mainly for deserts and they certainly did some fabulous cakes which
we ate and washed down with wine as the sun set.
The wedding was held in the Dukes of Pomeranian Castle,
an imposing group of buildings in the old quarter of the town surrounded by a
great collection of churches and other structures of grand architecture.
The bridal party arrived in a horse drawn carriage and
we were guided into the vaulted hall where the civil ceremony took place. It
was a lovely venue and we could participate full as they provided an interpreter
for the none-Polish speakers of us.
The party afterwards was held at an allotment, which
sounded strange until we got there and found the these allotments were more
like a collection of holiday homes in fabulous gardens (some even had satellite
dishes on the top). In the middle of these allotments was a lovely hall that
faced out onto a green and it was here that the party began.
At the table were soft drinks, bottles of wine and
bottles of vodka. There were a few speeches and some toasts made with the vodka
and then the food came out, masses of lovely colourful and delicious food. We
thought we had come to the end of a sweet dish, but it was merely a pause as
more savoury dishes followed on all through the night.
Dancing started formally with the bride and groom
performing a piece they had learned and then it went on into full on party mode
with more dancing and more vodka. Knowing we were leaving the next day to
return home we were kind of glad not have to repeat this on the second evening
of celebration. There was perhaps a little too much vodka for some of us and we
left by midnight not staying t witness the conclusion at 4am.
On our drive back to the airport in Germany we had a
short break at an old walled town called Templin where we had an ice cream in a
small man made beach next to the town hall.
