The beautiful church outside our AirBnB in Poznan

Perogies!! This was the first place where we tried sweet perogies - berries and cheese - and we loved them!

Poznan’s beautiful, old town square

The first floor of our AirBnB had a sweet cafe where we ate breakfast each morning.

A scale replica of the city, it’s not only a lovely map, but it’s also geared to help people with visual impairments

These were the best perogies of the trip! We tried their traditional potato and onion and also their chicken liver; both were amazing!

We took a tour with an amazing guide of Września, the small town where Julien’s family had lived in Poland. At the time they lived there, it was part of Germany and called Wreschen. The city created a memorial where the Wreschen synagogue had been before Nazi takeover of the area.

Września is best known for a children’s uprising between 1901 and 1904. The children were protesting a school policy that forbade them to speak in Polish during their lessons.

Part of the Września history museum that describes key figures from the pre-war Jewish community

In the Września town square about halfway through our tour; we loved all the information our guide shared with us, and we felt somewhat overwhelmed to know that we were in a place that had been so important in our family history.

We knew a few details about the house where Julien’s relatives lived. We couldn’t be sure if it was still standing or where it would be because the house numbers and street names were all changed when this area became part of Poland after WWII. But we knew that this house would have been part of the Jewish area, and this house matched some of the description of Julien’s ancestors’ house… maybe we found it?

The two different house numbers are just one small example of how the city has changed over it’s recent history.

Szymon was our excellent tour guide! After visiting our roots, we stopped by a local brewery.

Every day, these two mechanical goats butt heads while the Poznan town hall clock rings at noon.

The beautiful interior of the town hall

There was some interesting modern art at the Stary Browar shopping mall, which had been built in an old brewery.

A tribute to the St. Martin Croissant, which is a legally protected pastry that was invented in Poland. It’s ingredients include white poppy seeds, raisins, orange peel, walnuts, biscuit crumbs, eggs and almond flavour. They’re very sweet, but we were glad to try them!

The Palace of Culture and Science in the center of Warsaw. It was Stalin’s “gift” to the city. Most locals we spoke with hate it. Its Wikipedia page says “a popular saying among some of the locals… insinuates that the Palace's observation deck has the city’s best view because it’s the only place in Warsaw with no view of the building."

Lovely street art in Warsaw (I guess it’s an ad, but it looks like street art)

We stumbled on a fabulous local band in Warsaw. They had been playing together for decades.

Brunch at the Jewish Community Center in Warsaw was an absolute highlight of our trip. We met about a dozen members of the growing Jewish community, some of whom had only recently learned about their Jewish heritage.

All of the dishes at brunch were homemade and served family style.

One of our favorite things to do in a new city is rent bikes and go exploring. We always find beautiful sights.

Some of the beautiful gardens in Warsaw's Royal Baths Park

The (aptly named) Palace on the Water

Statues in the surrounding gardens

It took a few days for us to find them, but we finally came across the “Chopin Benches” that give facts about Chopin and play works of the famous, Polish-born composer.

Legend has it that if you make a wish and walk around this bell three times, your wish will come true.

Supperlado was an excellent restaurant where we had two of the best sandwiches in our time in Europe made with their homemade bread and house-cured meats.

At Supperlardo, they’re very particular about slicing their meats and only use an antique slicing machine.

There are signs about key places in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising throughout the city.

Tucked in a small courtyard on a side street is the last standing piece of the Warsaw Ghetto wall.

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. It was named the European Museum of the Year in 2016. We had an excellent visit and learned an incredible amount.

Poznan was the first city we visited on our trip and has a long history as a center of Jewish culture in Poland.

One of the exhibits has a “reconstruction of the roof and ceiling of Gwoździec, a wooden synagogue from pre-war Poland.”

When in Poland… Na zdrowie!

We saw a wonderful Chopin concert in a cozy venue in the area where Chopin was born.