Wolfs Lair (Wolfsschanze)

During our trip to the Polish lake-district we paid a visit to Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair). Built in 1940 it was the place where Hitler spent most of the war. The site consists of a number of (huge) bunkers which were disguised from sight by trees, so could not be spotted either by road or air.

A lot of the complex was destroyed by the Germans on their retreat, but the size of the walls (and their reinforcement) meant that despite large amounts of explosives a number of the buildings still stand.

The place is also noteable as it was there that Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate Hitler (something which is now being made into a film called Valkyrie unfortunately starring Tom Cruise)

The Wolf's Lair is a huge area (around 2.5km square) and as we were the only visitors trudging round the place it was slightly eerie. We were not sure whether it was called Wolf's Lair before or after Hitler moved there - there were other towns he could have chosen nearby (one called Pish and another called Lazy) but thought perhaps that they wouldn't have given the right impression...

The bunker where the attempted assisination took place

Hitler's sauna(!)

The typing bunker

Ruciane-Nida

We've just come back from a short trip (3 days) to Ruciane-Nida. It's in the north of Poland and is a really beautiful area of lakes and forests. It's also a big sailing destination in the summer, when hoards of Poles take holidays up there. As it's early March there weren't many people around (one night we were the only people staying at the hotel).

We hired a car for our journey as reaching the place by public transport looked to be a bit of a challenge. The driving was a bit terrifying at times - most of the journey was single carriageway, but it didn't stop the Polish attempting suicidal overtaking manoeuvres. More than once we were grateful to still be alive!

Indigo Bay, Newbury

While I was back in the UK (and Amy was doing such a good job of looking after Audrey) I had a bit of a get-together with some old friends at Indigo Bay curry house in Newbury. It was good to catch up with Sam, Paul, Natalie, Andy, Liz and of course Robin and Shan. It was great to hear the news of Andy and Liz's forthcoming arrival! - best wishes to you both and hoping that everything goes well.

Home Alone!

Trevor headed off to the UK for the weekend very early on Friday morning leaving Audrey and I home alone! Audrey must have sensed something was different as she decided to wake up at 5am instead of her usual 6:15-6:30am. I realised then that it was going to be a long and exhausting time looking after her by myself 24/7 for 3 days! I have to admit that despite this I was looking forward to having her to myself.

The highlight was definitely getting to take her to her Bumps and Babies group on Friday morning. She absolutely loves seeing the other kids and getting cuddles from the other Mums (sometimes on the sly when their kids aren't looking!). She also gets to play with other toys that are, of course, always more interesting than her own. By the end of the hour and a bit that we were there she was exhausted and fell asleep as soon as we hit the road to head home.

The rest of the weekend has gone by in a blur. It's amazing how quickly the days fly by. We went to the shops on Saturday and I bundled her up so that she'd look like all the other Polish babies (and so I wouldn't get in trouble from the grandmas who love to stop people and tell them that their child isn't wearing enough layers/doesn't have enough blankets/they are bad parents etc). However, when we got outside it was really quite warm and I was hot so I decided to be daring and strip her down by one layer. Sure enough, an old lady peered into the pram as we waited at the stoplights. Here we go, I thought. Imagine my surprise when I turned to the old lady and saw her smiling and waving at Audrey and saying how lovely she is, how good, how pretty etc. (Imagine my chest also puffing out with pride!). Audrey responded on cue with a lovely ear-splitting grin. Holding her dolly just topped off the picture! This was repeated twice more on the way back.

The rest of the time we spent reading, singing and chilling out on the playmat. We had a lovely time together but we were happy to see Trevor/Daddy when he arrived home on Sunday night (although Audrey didn't get to see him until Monday morning).

Roadworks on Puławska

Not the most exciting of journal entries, but here is a view of Ul Puławska, the main road near our apartment. It's a major arterial road in and out of Warsaw, and despite this used to have a surface which resembled that of the moon.

Improvements on the road are now half complete - (routes out of the city were fixed last year), although work seemed to have halted yesterday because of a heavy snowstorm, resulting in this beautiful(?) wintery scene!

Prince Harry in Afghanistan

I liked this quote courtesey of the BBC news website from Prince Harry...

Solids!

A couple of weeks ago we started 'weaning' Audrey. Weaning is a weird term that for some reason always reminds me of puppies being weaned.

Anyway, basically it means we've started giving her solid food in addition to her milk.

Apparently babies have many more taste buds (both on the sides and the roof of the mouth as well as the tongue) and so are receptive to lots of different tastes. It always amazes me to think that every taste Audrey tries, is the first time she's ever experienced that particular taste.

Most of the food we've given her so far has been pureed into gook. I've read that you can go straight ahead with finger food, but we've not risked our cream carpet and dining chairs thus far.

There's been some definite hits amongst her first foods - pear, apple, sweet potato and pineapple all went down with consummate ease. In comparison her palate hasn't given us many misses - Audrey wasn't terribly keen on spinach first time around and peas were a bit husky and mostly ended up on her bib.

It's been a period of really great fun though, watching the anticipation in her little face as we move a spoon full of fruit-gunk or yogurt towards her open 'baby-bird' mouth.