adventure & fishing & lifestyle

When I'm looking through the window - it's snowing. More nad more. It's still very cold.
Some days ago I was fishing by the Warta river. It was also cold, but a little bit less. River was not frozen, fishes bit so-so pot, but i was a great time. I have to repeat it again.

Radomsko, -16 degrees. It's very cold. Coldest winter since 2006, when on January temperature dropped to 17 degrees below zero.

Beautiful winter came, -8 degrees, sun, snow, but to work is necessary now. Work and plan spring-summer trips. I start with February, but destination unknown yet.
Surely somewhere in mountains. Surely somewhere in Poland. Maybe Ochodzita, maybe Karpacz, maybe Krynica. I don't know.
We will see.
As yet Lodz.

Programming in C++ is not my current every day work, so for not to forget of this language I thought up project, which I can develop continuously, if I have free time and good mood for it. The basic version, that is Adventure Chess v.028, took me 28 days of work (hence version numbering) and was finished at 20 November 2008. It wasn't continuous work, but here and there snatched half an hour in long Swedish evenings, or football match break, or rainy Saturday.
Some people say, that chess are difficult subject for programming, but how occured later, subject could be closed in less than 2000 lines of source code. However I am beaware that number of these lines will be growing up along with the level of advance.
Everybody willing to help with programming or testing are welcome
Game in version for Linux, Sun OS, Windows and Source Code is available for download below:
Adventure Chess

Well, that we got bad way...

...And arrived first to KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau - Brzezinka, which is situated about three kilometers from maternal camp. Camp is vast, built on 175 ha, was built-up by 300 barracks, from which saved entirely only 45 bricked and 22 wooden. In place of burned and damaged wooden barracs today stand only chimneys, but contours of places, which occupied particular barracs show their scale and number, what you can see also on photos.

Camp Birkenau is as huge, that if we would begin our tour from camp Auschwitz I - to Birkenau we would not come at all, first because of tiredness, second because of psyche, which is not so tolerant in these places.

Camps in Oswiecim (KL Auschwitz I) and Brzezinka (KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau) are retained in form of reservation and made available for visitors. The most important objects are: in Brzezinka - remains after four crematories and gas chambers, as well as burning stacks (corpses of prisoners was burned there at the end of 1944, when crematories fell behind with burning dead bodies; it was so much cruel, that children were sometimes burned alive), railway platform, where carried out selection of deported to camp (famous picture from the movie "Schindler's List" by Steven Spielberg from 1993), pond with human ashes, and in Oswiecim - "Block of Death".
Further in both camps are retained blocks and part of prisoner's barracks, also camp gates, guardhouses and barbed wire fences. Some of destroyed by SS objects were reconstructed from original elements - for example furnaces in Crematory I, which were pulled down during liquidation of camps in 1945.

More about these camps you can read on http://www.auschwitz.org.pl.
More photos you an see at my homepage http://www.adventure.go.pl/oswiecim2006.php?english=1

Plan was easy: to get up early, to get on bicycle and go to Vadstena. Such a paltry... 50 kilometers. The weather forecast was so-so pot, probability of rain about 30%, strong wind and temperature no indexing to heats...

We departured according to plan, that is 15 minutes past nine . At once at beginning it turned out, that on the ocassion of Midsummer planned food shopping on track we have to put off at least to 11 hour.
Slowly, with wind straight into eyes (I would name it gale, but so be it, that it was wind , rain hanged above heads, we moved on passing by the way runic stones and looking at Sweden, which is worth to see. To Vadstena we arrived a few minutes past fourteen with strong resolution any step more.
What is Vadstena - everybody can read in guidebooks: the most important two sights are cathedral with hallows of St. Brigida as well as Middle Aged castle rounded by moat, which is now used as parking place for various types of yachts and motorboats. From the castle spreads amazing view over the Vattern lake, which is more like sea than Swedish Baltic.

The homecoming was amazing: three hours with long stopovers, that is on the average about 17 kilometers per hour. In this way wind returned us what took by the way to Vadstena. The sky also cleared, probably in reward for achievement of destination.
There is no point in describing all that we saw by the way. Simply you have to go and see it. The nearest chanse was on Saturday on route around Roxen lake.

You can read more and see photo at http://www.adventure.go.pl/vadstena2008.php?english=1

Czaplinek (in English it should be read as Tschaplinek) is small, pleasant, placed on the lake named Drawsko (Dravsko), so because it was old capital of the Order of the Temple (Knights Templar) in Poland, we decided to prolong our trip to home and stay for a some time just in this town. It could be interesting stopover.
And it was.

Location of the town is typically tourist: from the market to the marina on the shore of the lake is maybe 200 meters, market is nice, clean, from Middle Ages, goodwill of people gigantic in comparison with inhabitants of seaside places. It turns out that in Poland also you may walk smiled and kind, and not to have in eyes two PLNs instead of pupils. I know that on the Polish sea weather is checked, water is cold, and season short, but if people who offers us services will be only profit-minded I don't know how long yet they will have customers.

But let's come back to Czaplinek. There is Tourist Information on the marketplace, where you can get free (yes, we are really in Poland) guidebooks and maps of terrain including bicycle and water routes. The market has typically Middle Aged development, on the East is placed big historic church from XIX century, but we were looked for another one - remains of Templars. Unfortunately, as we have read in guidebook, actually there are no remains of the Order of the Temple in Czaplinek and built in XIV century church of the Holy Trinity has with Templars such connection, that is built when was placed their old wooden stronghold. But I have to say that the church also makes impression.

From more interesting things there is also museum room on the marketplace, castle Drahim (we haven't been there because of lack of time, we had to return to Radomsko yet this day), or rather its remains near town, and restored early Middle Aged settlement - Slawogrod (Slavogrod). Similar settlement also is restored in cooperation with Czech Republic near Byczyna (Bytschyna) on the Brzozki reservoir in Opole Province, but about this I will write later by the way fishing expedition.

And at least it is worth going there also for the sake of big lake with fourty-meters high cliffs and a lot of islands. If somebody looks for calmness, possibility for yachting and warm water to swim, Czaplinek is one of the better places.

You can read more and see photo at http://www.adventure.go.pl/pomorze2008.php?english=1

Wolin is the bigest Polish island. Wolin as city become the target of our trip mainly from one isue: I wanted to compare polish culture of Vikings and Slavs with Scandinavian one, which I had opportunity to observe last six months. City didn't make big impression on me: small center, besides which life freezes. Behind the center city is awfully run-down and it shows that West Pomerania except direct shore of Baltic Sea is not richest part of Poland. Everywhere we can see poverty and alcoholism.

On the way we stopped at two curious places. First from them was village Jarszewo, where not far away from main road (which also wasn't one of main roads in Poland) there is a church from 1913, with wooden belfry and curiously painted interior. Wooden ceiling of this church is half-round and also covered by paintings.

Similar construction has chapel we have seen in village Siwin. Unfortunately it is very run-down and if nobody takes care of it soon only ruins will left.

In Wolin we planned to see reconstructed practically from ruins St. Mikolaj church (walls was built to this part which remained in 1993, one wall of church tower remained crooked, and even the new doors are constructed to save this remained construction), Vikings village and barrows on Hangmen Hill. We wanted also to visit museum of the city, but despite of assurances that it is opened every day - on 15 august wasn't.

Vikings village looks presentable - it is showed perfectly from marketplace. Apart from wooden and clayed huts there are also two runic stones, on which except runic writing there are other paintings and this is the difference from those which I've seen in Sweden.

To Hangmen Hill we went, when already was raining. Fortunately, that only rain, because, as we have known from our family, through our home region went whirlwind at this time.

From barrows left, probably, only earth hills. All content stayed managed by archaeologists long time ago, and erlier by treasure-diggers and adventurers in XIX century.

You can read more and see photo at http://www.adventure.go.pl/pomorze2008.php?english=1

A lot of water have to flow by the river until I will accustom to live in Poland again. Arriving from Sweden to Poland is comparable with, maybe, arriving from Poland to India. More people, traffic, cars, speed on roads, no possibility to cross over road by foot, no bicycle tracks, people almost never smiled on streets...
But from the other side this is still my Poland. Now is beginning beautiful Polish autumn - it is very warm outside, not to much rain, morning fogs, evenings bonfires and smokes on fields.

Really!
Swede Peter Ekroth has become coach of Polish Hockey National Team! :-)
Maybe now is the chance to promote to group A?