A long London gap

It has been weeks since I did the blog. I haven’t done any since I have been back in London, the time just belts by and I couldn’t get to it.

Now we are getting ready to go back to Poland again.  Lots has happened but I will keep it brief.

We have been scouring the flea markets as usual and Stefan found this for the hall!  

Next door now has stairs 

We made a trip east to find a museum about Monte Casino, but we didn't find it. Instead we found this:

Orthodox  church and cemetery for Ukrainians and Poles, Radruż

Ruthenian, Late gothic style, built end 16^th cent. UNESCO world heritage list, one of the finest church in the world. Wooden churches were quite plentiful in this eastern region. It was closed so we couldn’t see the interior, which is rich in carved detail as well as polychrome. According to Wikipedia, the term Ruthenian used in the early modern era (whenever that was) referred to East Slavic minorities who today live in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and the Czech lands.

To Bełźec, in search of my grandmother

Stefanie with my mother, Vienna, around 1920

We travelled further and visited Bełźec, the concentration camp.  It is located on the Polish/Ukriane border.  With Hitler at the door my mother, at 18, escaped Vienna to London in 1938. The story goes her father took off to Shanghai with his girlfriend, and left his unfortunate wife, my grandmother, to her fate in Vienna. Apparently she was sent to the ghetto in Izbica, Poland and may have been sent on to Bełźec, the nearest concentration camp. 

Life in London continues. The parents are doing reasonably well, father still battling to the swimming on the bus when we are gone. Of course when we are here we take it in turns to get him there, which he loves. Mother now has short daily visits from the Carers, which helps everybody. I have been baking bread, exploring in further depth now. I have been learning about sourdough and the results are well worth the extra time and effort. My Christmas pressie was a super Larousse book on baking. 

Back to the sorting, ready for the next trip!