Novy Sacz, Poland - April 22, 2003
Part I / II / III / IV / V / VI / VII
Last but not least I made a trip out to Novy Sacz, the home of a great grandfather to the best of grandma's recollection. 2 and a half hours by train from Krakow. Here are some pictures from along the way of the Polish countryside, which is what most of Poland looks like. It's not really so hard to relate to...sure everyone has chickens running around their yard just as grandma's family did, but the countryside isn't so different from parts of the US. Particularly the midwest, where many Poles wound up in fact.
Homes were generally pretty well kept up tho modest. There were areas where buildings were in shambles and there were areas that had quite nice looking buildings.
Fields everywhere!
But room is still made for soccer...
These homes look quite nice in the distance...
Lots of horses...especially working in the fields. Clearly technology hasn't infiltrated into the average Polish farmer's daily routine. Then again, I did see a few satellite dishes here and there...
Another modest but nice looking community on a river...
Hard to see, but in the distance on the hill is a fortification of some sort. Can't imagine how old it is, but it harkens back to another era of invading forces...
Farming is a family affair...saw plenty of kids out working with their parents and seemingly grandparents...in fact many older folks still working the land like they were youngins'...I suppose there's no time to get old when you're so busy working on the fields.
And here we are in Nowy Sacz, where the town map has been painted on the side of a restaurant. You may not have guessed, but it's a decent-sized town of 81,000 people...
A monument at a cemetary I visited...no evidence of former family members.
A monument leading into one of the parks in Novy Sacz...Poles need a place to stroll around it seems.
Arriving in the main square of Nowy Sacz.
The square from a new angle.
Perhaps the main church in Nowy Sacz...a basilica.
Which is again quite ornate inside.
And again, this is a formerly walled city as you can see a bit of here. This little guy decided he wanted to be in my picture...
Just outside the square, here's a panoramic shot of Novy Sacz. Hard to see perhaps, but on this side of the river there is a fisherman about cast his line. On the far side of the river there is another soccer field where kids are kicking a ball around. Pretty quaint!
And with that, my trip to Poland was complete!