Off to the Mountains - Cieszyn

Witek's cousin, Ela Grabowska is the Executive Director of an S.O.S. home for displaced children age 3 - 18 years near the town of Cieszyn. The home is in a residential neighborhood a short walk from the magnificent Wistula River - the longest river in Poland. The headwaters are near here in the Beskidy Mountains. The place is very peaceful.

Ela has a nice apartment on the lower floor of the building that houses 12 children in the upstairs with 24 hour-a-day staff. She enjoys a large, pleasant kitchen and has two bedrooms, a TV room with a dining table and sofa that folds down into a guest bed. This is the room I was given and it was lovely. Witek and Aneta brought a blow up bed and took the second bedroom with Ania. We had a wonderful time.

the plan the first day was to rise early and go to the mountains, ride a Gondola to the top and take in the spectacular views before walking off the mountain for our daily exercise. However, the weather Thrusday was overcast, cold and foggy. Not a good day to go hunting for a viewscape on a mountain top. So Aneta made a couple of phone calls and arrangements to take me to Zywiec to visit the brewery.

Fot: Zywiec brewery, Aneta

I wasn't all that excited about seeing a brewery but what a wonderful surprise I had in store for me. We were able to get into the 11:30 AM guided tour but we had to drive like a bat out of a hot place to make it on time. We got there just as the tour was beginning. This is so much more than a brewery. In fact what we toured was the brewery museum and it was absolutely one of the best I have ever seen. The exhibits were all interactive and historically accurate in depicting the time.

Fot: Old barrels, Aneta

A pub from the 1800's has been recreated, wherein you actually sit down as if you were a customer and soak up the atmosphere just like it would have been in 1830, or you sit at a cafe in 1939 and hear Eva Hapsburg tell the story of the German take over of the city followed by the Russion Red Army coming and what happened to the town and the brewery during those historic times. The brewery and the town were both owned by the Hapsburgs of Germany but the man who founded the brewery became a Polish citizen and the family was thereafter referred to as "the Polish Hapsburghs". Production at the brewery went up 60% under the Germans but the quality went down in equal portions because they added so much more water to the beer.

Fot: Krakus advertisement in USA, Aneta

This beer was sent to the German troops. After the war the brewery ws able to regain its reputation for a quality beer. They lay claim to a special group of springs from which the water is exclusively used in the making of Zyweich beer. In a dry year production is reduced to compensate and in a wet year they are able to increase production but there is no compromise by adding water from a different source to maintain production in a dry year.

Fot: One of the exibit in Zywiec brewery, Aneta

At the end of the tour we were guided to a cafe where we were able to order a beer with our entrance ticket. I drank my beer (I am so not a beer drinker that this was a stellar effort on my part; Aneta couldn't drink any because she was driving)and actually enjoyed it. Then we stood up to go. Oh wow was I drunk. I never remember feeling drunk like this in my life. My speech was slurred, I couldn't walk straight, my head was spinning and I was generally inebriated. I don't know the alcohol content of that tasty beer but it sure as heck gave me a cheap drunk. Aneta took ahold of my arm and guided me into the closest restaurant and ordered me a big lunch. I felt fine after I ate but it was touch and go there for a half-hour or so. We were each given a free beer glass as we left the tour as well. A nice souvenir.

Fot: Traditional Zywiec clothes, Aneta

Our next stop was the Zywiec castle and Palace. We purchased tickets to see the cultural heritage, archeological exhibits and the torture museum. The palace museum was really a great find. The cultural heritage of this unique town was on full display right down to the clothing that is worn no where else in Poland, this region or the world. The Hapsburgh's lived in this palace until fairly rent times. The displays of artifacts, the artworks, the interpretation of exhibits was all very well done. We were allowed to go through at our own pace with audio boxes located in each room with a variety of languages from which to chose your narration. It was so nice to hear American English narration and I got so much more out of the tour for having that opportunity.

Fot: Zywiec Park, Aneta

By the time we left the palace in Zywiec it was dark out and we had quite a drive back to Ela's. Rush hour in Poland seems to happen everywhere. We were hung up in traffic for a couple of hours for what was a 40 minute drive in the morning. Ela fixed a nice light supper and we had a pleasant evening
visiting.

Fot: Small gifts from the Zywiec Museum

Linda