Warsaw

Today was our first full day about the city. The Old Town is quite charming despite it being a recreation. 85% of the city was razed during the was but was painstakingly rebuilt using photos, drawings and paintings by artists like Cannaletto.

We visited one of the palaces used hy the King In the middle of a beautiful park. We then had lunch near the old town square. Amber is very abundant here and is used in all manner of crafts. It's alro reasonably priced. I sence fifty bits. We headed over to the Polish military Museum for the opening of a Hussar display. Lots of guys in costume. Some amazing work. The exhibit was amazing. Some stunning examples of arms and armor. Well displayed.

The upstairs dealt with later periods. The Napoleanic uniforms were just awesome. They really knew how to dress for war back then. Outside the grounds are littered with planes, tanks and other weapons including an ingenious armored car built for the Polish uprising.

Tomorrow opens the battle event with a parade and practice. Since we haven't drilled with these guys before (and I have zero experience) I will likely be assigned to cannon fodder duty. My job will be to die during some volley fire I'm fine with that. I'm just keen to be on the field Sunday with the largest group of winged Hussars in 300 years.

Land of my ancestors

At last we are off to Poland, but to what I cannot say exactly. Unlike prvious trips I really don't have a good grasp on Poland, even though it is the land of some of my forefathers. It's not that I don't like Poland, far from it. But for one reason or another I've been somewhat behind on every project this spring. We've been playing catchup and as a result I never got a lot of time to sit down and learn more about this amazing country. What little I did read was fascinating. I found a very good film called "with Fire and Sword" which was beautiful. It was a little tricky to follow because Poland (like much of the world beck then) had shifting alliances. The Cossacks in particular seem to have a volatile relationship with the Poles.

The tour group we are traveling with is being led by some die hard Hussar reenactors out of Chicago. They've come to participate in the 400th anniversary battle of Kluszyn. We already met one of them at the airport. He's traveling with his armor, helm, swords and wings (do a search for winged Hussars, it's impressive). I'm traveling much lighter. A zupan jacket, hat, trews and my pointed boots from Son of Sandlar. Of yeah, and my new haircut.

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Poland!

Here are some details of the tour we are taking to Poland.