Off to Boleslawic Poland

Ruth Rich invited me to go on a "girls" trip to Boleslawic Poland to shop at the famous Polish pottery shops.  Carol Von Tonder, and Jill Roberts also came.  Carol was our tour guide and Jean Claude Von Tonder's  (head of the finance dept.) wife.  It was a long drive, six hours but we are so glad we went!  We arrived and had dinner at the hotel.  The hotel was a wonderful "bed and breakfast".  The building was, at one time, a barn set in a field of Beetroots, therefore the name....."The Blue Beetroot".  One of the most popular uses for beet root is moonshine.  The legend goes, in 1791, the fields were all planted with the beetroot and the alcohol was all stored in the basement which now houses the wood to keep the barn and guests warm.  Only a few of the locals knew that the carts coming from the barn hid a stash of moonshine below.  The story goes that one evening the farmers left the barn with goods in tow  and the horses bolted and slipped  badly on the ice and the farmers, horses, carriage, beetroot and moonshine ended up in the pond!  Despite dredging, everything mysteriously disappeared ..... this story has been passed down thru generations and every once in a while a blue beetroot will float to the surface of the pond with a strange blue color and of course completely impregnated with alcohol.

 All the furniture was made by hand and the building is a real tutor half timbered barn.  It was just beautiful.  Jill and Ruth and I slept in this room and Carol had the adjoining room thru the door at the right.  It was very comfortable.

 Dinner at the Blue Beetroot.  I think this room was once a wine cellar.

 All the pottery shops that we visited had some kind of decor outside with their broken pottery.  I just loved the colors.

 The Blue Beetroot

 We visited many stores, this is just one of them......so quaint.

 Jill and Ruth will be leaving our mission to head home.  Ruth leaves in another week and Jill will leave in 5 weeks.  I will miss them both terribly!

 Carol Von Tonder, has made a small business of traveling to the southwest corner of Poland to pick up pottery pieces and sells them when she gets back.  she knows her pottery!

 These are some of the pottery pieces that I just loved but they are very heavy and would cost a fortune to send to America.

 Jill getting a closer look at some of the pottery plates she liked.

 This was fun......Ruth decided she want to buy plates and Jill helped her mix and match some patterns..... they came up with a really cute pattern of mixed plates and salad plates.

 These were some of my finds.  These "little" tea cups only hold about 2 oz's of liquid.  We went to dinner at the Lundquist's home after dinner, Kay served us this wonderful "thick" hot chocolate drink with whipping cream on top.  You really couldn't drink much more than just a few ounces.  It was such a fun desert to have after dinner.  I've been looking for these little tea cups since Christmas and  I couldn't fin them n France.  Instead, I found them in Poland!  I also bought ornaments for my girls for their Christmas trees  and a small  gift for my sister.  It was a fun trip! 

 Dinner at the Blue Beetroot.  Salmon, rice and curry sauce with a salad.  Staying on my weight watchers plan!

 This is a picture of a pitcher that I really wanted but had to start saying no, there were just so many thing I wanted to purchase!

 Adding more to my wish list!

 Unfortunately the three of us came down with the flu, at exactly the same time......Hit like a ton of bricks!  We are all fighting this off now!!  Just love these two ladies!

Each store had some kind of decoration outside with pottery...look at the cups hanging on the branch!

 I took this as we were driving, most of the buildings looked gray but some of the architecture is beautiful.

Oh how do I resist......these are MY colors!!!!

 

Poland was one of the first places to be taken over by the Germans in WWII.  The Germans actually started the pottery business and then the Polish took it over after the war ended.