2004 1.5 DCi 80 Dyna
Here goes, my annual trip to Europe! This year we decided on Poland as being our main tour, with Germany, The Czech Republic & a bit of France thrown in for good measure.
There are many sites that we did, too many pictures to post, all of them can be found on my website,
www.photoaddiction.co.uk
I have put the best of each site (there may not be a lot of pictures on each place in this thread, but we would be here forever waiting for images to load!! Again, check my site out for the full image sets).
I travelled over with Chris, we had a pretty much 24 hour drive from Birmingham to our guides house in Poland and spent 2 hours in Gridlock in Germany before being turned around and sent back up the Autobahn the wrong way!!
We had a fantastic guide and could not had asked for better hospitality.
If you can wait to reply until I have posted the France images, that would be kind
Lets get it started shall we?
Poland
1st off we went to (imagine Jeremy Clarkson saying this).. The Biggest Jesus in the WORLD!!
(There are no Jesus pics on my site, although I only took a few pics of him)
1.
2.
The next day we went to the Miedzyrzecki Rejon Umocniony (or MRU for short!)
The MRU bunkers were built by the Germans (not the Polish) as a defence against the Red Army at the start of WWII.
The bunkers tunnel network originally ran for around 30km although many are now blocked off/sealed/collapsed.
The planning started between 1932 to 1936 and work commenced in 1937/38 and was expected to be completed in 1951.
Unfortunately for the Germans, the Soviet Army were so quick to advance, the Germans barely had a chance to fully man the complex and the Soviets took the fortifications in only 3 days at the start of 1945!
When The Germans knew of the Russian incoming advance, they hid local artifacts and other important items inside the tunnels and destroyed the area at both ends, locking them inside. You could still see the points where dynamite was screwed in to the walls.
The Russians found these artifacts and took them back to their country. After the war, a fraction of these items have been returned to Poland.
3.
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We spent 7 hours in the MRU which took us pretty much to the end of the day, although I managed to capture a nice sunset shot...
8.
We then retired back to our guides house to have an amazing meal and try his dads homemade 3 year old 70% proof Wodka (vodka) and my word was it nice! I had about 5 or 6 shots and not a single bit of a hangover the next morning.
Which was good, as the following day we woke up nice and early.
Traveling through the forrest, past droves of people picking mushrooms...
9.
We arrived at the Dynamite Factory.
Built in the woods, this place is imminent danger of being bulldozed by the Forestry Commission as they would like to keep the forrest and add more trees (not that Poland doesn't have enough!!!).
2 people camped here in recent years, they lit a camp fire and blew themselves into small chunks as it ignited some old explosives! Guess what Chris did when we got out of the car, lit up a cigarette!! I took several paces away from him!
10.
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The site is on a boundary line from a Polish armed forces base that does chemical warfare testing. The 'no-mans land' area around it reminded me of the Berlin Wall...
15.
We saw about 1/12th of the site before we left to our next explore...
The 1797 Evangelical German Church (The village was in Germany before Poland took back the land after WWII).
The church was constructed from 1796-1797 and was designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans (who also designed Brandenburg Gate).
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20.
Continued in next post...
There are many sites that we did, too many pictures to post, all of them can be found on my website,
www.photoaddiction.co.uk
I have put the best of each site (there may not be a lot of pictures on each place in this thread, but we would be here forever waiting for images to load!! Again, check my site out for the full image sets).
I travelled over with Chris, we had a pretty much 24 hour drive from Birmingham to our guides house in Poland and spent 2 hours in Gridlock in Germany before being turned around and sent back up the Autobahn the wrong way!!
We had a fantastic guide and could not had asked for better hospitality.
If you can wait to reply until I have posted the France images, that would be kind
Lets get it started shall we?
Poland
1st off we went to (imagine Jeremy Clarkson saying this).. The Biggest Jesus in the WORLD!!
(There are no Jesus pics on my site, although I only took a few pics of him)
1.
2.
The next day we went to the Miedzyrzecki Rejon Umocniony (or MRU for short!)
The MRU bunkers were built by the Germans (not the Polish) as a defence against the Red Army at the start of WWII.
The bunkers tunnel network originally ran for around 30km although many are now blocked off/sealed/collapsed.
The planning started between 1932 to 1936 and work commenced in 1937/38 and was expected to be completed in 1951.
Unfortunately for the Germans, the Soviet Army were so quick to advance, the Germans barely had a chance to fully man the complex and the Soviets took the fortifications in only 3 days at the start of 1945!
When The Germans knew of the Russian incoming advance, they hid local artifacts and other important items inside the tunnels and destroyed the area at both ends, locking them inside. You could still see the points where dynamite was screwed in to the walls.
The Russians found these artifacts and took them back to their country. After the war, a fraction of these items have been returned to Poland.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
We spent 7 hours in the MRU which took us pretty much to the end of the day, although I managed to capture a nice sunset shot...
8.
We then retired back to our guides house to have an amazing meal and try his dads homemade 3 year old 70% proof Wodka (vodka) and my word was it nice! I had about 5 or 6 shots and not a single bit of a hangover the next morning.
Which was good, as the following day we woke up nice and early.
Traveling through the forrest, past droves of people picking mushrooms...
9.
We arrived at the Dynamite Factory.
Built in the woods, this place is imminent danger of being bulldozed by the Forestry Commission as they would like to keep the forrest and add more trees (not that Poland doesn't have enough!!!).
2 people camped here in recent years, they lit a camp fire and blew themselves into small chunks as it ignited some old explosives! Guess what Chris did when we got out of the car, lit up a cigarette!! I took several paces away from him!
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
The site is on a boundary line from a Polish armed forces base that does chemical warfare testing. The 'no-mans land' area around it reminded me of the Berlin Wall...
15.
We saw about 1/12th of the site before we left to our next explore...
The 1797 Evangelical German Church (The village was in Germany before Poland took back the land after WWII).
The church was constructed from 1796-1797 and was designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans (who also designed Brandenburg Gate).
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Continued in next post...