Sad news,

Started off the day with sad news, actually two pieces of sad news though the latter is just a little setback.

Cousin Duane Kazmierczak passed away on July 4th at age 64. Duane and I were buddies when we were young, lost track of each other for many years as we got older and then finally reconnected about 7 years ago. I visited him in Virginia some years ago and was suppose to see him again during our Christmas trip to North Carolina but that didn't happen.  I talked with him a few times last year and we joked about him coming to Poland.  Today I received an email from his older sister, Sandy, that he was found dead in his bed. I don't know why.

The other piece of news is that our landlord wants to take the china cabinet from our flat for his new house.  It belongs to his wife so I have no problem with that but it means that now we will have to search for a replacement.

We left Poznań at 9:20 and took the new road, S5, from the motorway to Gniezno.  I must say that this road cuts off about half an hours travel time and is very nice to drive on  After passing Gniezno we took the highway to Torun and encountered a huge traffice jam that delayed our arrival in Chelmno. We took the road less travelled from Torun to Chelmno, through the countryside and small villages. We didn't have any time schedule to follow so the ride was enjoyable and easy.

The weather is hot, 33c and without air-conditioning we travelled with all of the windows down to collect whatever breeze we could get.  Once we reached the valley of the Wisła it did get a few degrees cooler but it was still hot.

We took a short walk around Chelmno and discovered the market square is under construction as well as a few other places.  However, there were still no noticeable amounts of tourists here so they haven't figured out how to attract them to this city.