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| In Pursuit of Polish Pottery April 2005 |
| One weekend in April, Karen drove to Poland to shop for pottery with friend Angela (below, left) and Angela's sister Bonnie visiting from the US. The "girls only" trip started at 5 a.m. on a Friday and ended back home about 48 hours later with a van full. The town of Boleslawiec, not far from the German border, is about 550 miles from The Hague. |
| One of the many factory shops that we visited in the area was Manufaktura. Above is a backroom at their factory with shelves filled with stock. Many of the shelves were filled with pottery destined for the US. We shopped here in a slightly more organized front room. Left, the same company also had an outlet closer to small downtown of Boleslawiec. Saturday was interesting as shops opened at 7 a.m. and many closed between 2 and 4 p.m. We also had to try to avoid the tour busses letting off swarms of (fellow) American shoppers! Needless to say there was no time for lunch! |
| Angela and sister in front of our hotel. We shared a nice room and enjoyed a Polish meal in the restaurant on Friday evening after a bit of shopping on our way into town. Breakfast was provided as well, before our marathon shopping day. |
| Karen in front of the Zaklady factory outlet shop. The trip was possible largely because Angela had spent 3 days in this town in the fall of 2004. She knew her way around, made the hotel reservations and provided the inspiration for the trip. We even ran into another group of ex-pat moms from the kids' school shopping the same weekend - small world. Ralph and Angela's husband held down the home fronts while we were away and aided us with prayer coverage!! |
| These are some of the pieces Karen brought home. The tea set pattern at right is a variation on one of the more traditional designs. If you are shopping on-line you might find it described as "flowering peacock". Below are assorted designs in other pieces. All factories in the town are allowed to produce the traditional designs and then each factory has exclusive patterns as well. The selection was really amazing! |