Day tripping to Poland: Berlin Day 4 (28 Sep 2013)

For our daytrip out of Berlin, the logical thing would have been Potsdam, but we decided to go in a different direction, to the twin towns on the Oder/Odra River, Frankfurt an der Oder (59,000 people) in Germany and Słubice (17,000 people) in Poland. We left first thing as it was going to take three train trips and over an hour and a half to get there. As it turned out, a bus was involved too because, for some reason, every second train wasn’t going right though to Frankfurt (Oder).

First stop on arrival was the Tourist Office, where we got maps. We decided to head to Słubice first, where we’d sussed out a likely lunch place, and to return to do the historic walk of Frankfurt (Oder) in the afternoon.

Słubice

It took about 10 minutes to walk from the tourist office over the bridge to Poland. We were fascinated by the regular stream of car and pedestrian traffic making the trip in both directions. As the woman in the tourist office said, there’s no border issues anymore. Things are, however, much cheaper over in Słubice, and before we even got off the bridge we were confronted with multiple advertisements for zigarretten, which initially seemed very expensive, until we realised the prices were in zloty! We had noticed police on the German side of the bridge preparing to stop cars. Were they doing Customs checks we wondered later?

The second thing we noticed was an attractive and very modern Biblioteka for something called the Collegium Polonicum. Later research told us that it is “a cross-border, academic institution … being maintained by the European University Viadrina and the Adam Mickiewicz University“. Its aim, says its website, is to “develop into an academic and cultural meeting place between Poland and Germany”.

We wandered the streets for a little while enjoying looking at buildings that seemed similar and yet subtly different (like Qantas planes used to be!). And then we located our lunch place – Restaurant Ramzes – which we’d read took Euros and which, despite its Egyptian theme, was said to serve Polish food. And so it did, alongside pasta, pizza, kebabs, and so on. We shared a plate of mushroom pierogies (of which, as they are wheat-based, Len ate the major share). Sue then had a Polish pork stew served with mashed potato, sliced pickled gherkins, and cold shredded beetroot salad. It was filling but very tasty. Len had beef rouladen served with the potato and beetroot but not the pickle.

We decided we’d like to see a Polish church. We thought that would be easy – just check the skyline for a spire or dome with a cross. Could we see one? Nope. Eventually, after fruitless wandering, we were told the town had two churches and were pointed in the direction of the nearest. We got there only to find it locked up! We haven’t seen that before in our travels. Our tourist office notes, plus Wikipedia, gave us some info.  It’s the Church of the Holy Virgin Mary The Queen of Poland (Kościół Najświętszej Maryi Panny Królowej). The building dates back to 1775 and was a rifle range/clubhouse until 1946 when it became the town’s first church.

We then walked back to Frankfurt (Oder) along the Oder Dike and River, enjoying watching a family of swans in some wetlands, and several people fishing on their Saturday afternoon.

Frankfurt (Oder)

We walked through parts of Frankfurt (Oder) cobbling together a route from several walks in a tourist office leaflet. Highlights included:

• Street sculptures, not described in the leaflets, but Sue had spotted them early on. They were scattered about the town, were dated from several decades ago to very recent, and ranged from conventional to modern, from figurative to abstract. You’ll see some in the slideshow.
• the Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach concert hall. CPE Bach, son of Johann Sebastian and born in Weimar, studied at the university here from 1734-1738 and, the notes said, “formed much of the musical life of the town”.
• Friedenskirche, the town’s oldest church and also closed!
• Kleist Museum which the notes said is “deemed to be the most beautiful literature museum in Germany” but we wouldn’t know as it was closed  – and anyhow, we tend to find literature museums in non-English countries don’t work well for non-speakers of the language.
• Marienkirche, dating from 1250s, which was badly damaged by bombing in the war and is undergoing reconstruction. Our notes said it’s the largest northern German basilica in brick gothic. It’s also famous for its stained glass windows.
• Old riverfront buildings like the Packofgebäude (in which we had a lovely, restorative afternoon tea) and the Oderspeicher (old salt storehouse)

Near the end of our walk was the old Rathaus, or town hall. It is an attractive building, also in northern German brick gothic, and it accommodates, at one end, the Museum Junge Kunst, or Museum of Young Art. We suspect “young” means “recent” in this context, but can’t be sure. Anyhow, our notes said that it has “one of the most significant collections of East German formative art”. We went in. Their current exhibition was Die Kunst der Zeichnung (the art of drawing). We didn’t know any of the 30+ artists but enjoyed the exhibition, which included a few works from each of the artists. Sue enjoyed some of the portraits in particular, such as: Cornelia Schleime’s (b. 1953) series featuring a girl’s head with typical German plaits but arrayed in unexpected directions; Gerhard Kettner’s (1928-1993) uncompromising portrait of an old woman; Kate Diehn-Bitt’s (1900-1978) contrasting innocent young girl; and Max Lachnit’s (1900-1972) “Paar und Tod” (a couple or pair, and death) which was clearly Picasso influenced.

Middle Eastern dinner

It was quite late when we got back, so we popped across the road to a Middle-eastern-cum-Mediterranean restaurant called Jalla Jalla, and shared a vegetarian platter. Tasty, simple and familiar.

Three-words

LEN: Shabby, old, attractive
SUE: Fascinating, Surprising, Different

and the stills…

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