WINDING DOWN IN POLAND

We’re down to the last couple of days so this may be our last post from Poland. 
At the end of the “castle hills” lies the city of Czestochowa, the location of the largest cathedral in Poland and the home of the “Black Madonna”.   
It was written that when the Communists took over in 1945 they set up a program to diminish the importance of religion in the country by turning  this city into an industrial center.  So there are several tall smoke stacks belching out smoke, but none of them ever superseded the importance or dominance of the cathedral. 
The story of the Black Madonna is that the image was painted by Saint Luke on the wood panel from the House of Nazareth.  First the icon was kept in Jerusalem, then in Constantinople and finally, it was brought to Poland in the 14th Century.  In 1430, the image was damaged by robbers who slashed the face with swords.  You can still see the slashes today.  Surrounding the cathedral are several buildings housing museums.  This picture of the Pope along with the Nobel Peace Prize medallion won by Lech Walesa This is the only actual gold medallion Peace Prize that we have ever seen, but unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures of it.  This is an aerial view of the grounds with the masses gathered to hear Pope John Paul speak.
From here, we headed towards Warsaw with two stops in mind.  One at a Skansen, an outdoor village museum with buildings representing different periods.    Marlene was interested to see what the living conditions were like when her ancestors lived in the area.  These are some buildings of around 1860. 
   In one of the houses there were household implements like this loom.  
Here are a couple of more parting shots from our travels today.  An airliner turned into a restaurant/ gas station similar to the Bomber in Milwaukie, Oregon,  and the rainbow building in Warsaw which was near the hotel we stayed in the first few days we were in the country.  Last night, we stayed in a hotel about 15 minutes outside Warsaw.  We drove into the neighborhood where our first hotel was and had a celebration dinner at our favorite restaurant in Warsaw. 
 
We had a great time winding down and reminiscing about our month long celebration of our 50 years together.