A group of spouses from the squadron caravaned to Poland ... it was a quick 7 1/2 hour drive (especially when your chatting the entire trip)! We left Friday morning and arrived in Poland in time for a few "spa treatments" and a nice dinner at the Blue Beetroot (the Inn/B&B). The Blue Beetroot is a restored 18th century barn owned by a wonderful English couple that "retired" in Poland ... it was truly charming and beautiful ... and the owners were extremely helpful (as you will soon see) ......
After a great Polish dinner (perogies!!) we retired to our rooms so we could get a 6am start in the morning ....
... we had a yummy little breakfast with GREAT coffee... hopped in the cars
... and
... I conveniently ran over a piece of metal while pulling out of the parking area and slashed the tire! It started with just a few of us girls getting ready to put on the spare .....
... then the crowd grew
... and grew
... and grew!It literally got the point where I couldn't even get close enough to my own vehicle to change the tire (which I knew how to do!). As you can see, I retired to the background and just went with the flow ... they guys were pretty persistent in solving this problem for the "damsel in distress". Sigh. After realizing that we DIDN'T have a full-size spare ... I called Al to work out some options. The spare is only rated to 45 mph ... yikes!
I did find a can of fix-a-flat ... if it were only that easy!!The owner, Barbara ... kindly insisted on finding a tire for us while we were out shopping for the day! She had a "tire guy" and I don't speak Polish so my willingness to stay behind to find a tire would have been pointless. I accepted her offer and we left for a day of shopping!
Floor to ceiling pottery! We hit a total of 13 stores!
Before this trip, I wasn't even certain I LIKED Polish pottery ... I'm pretty attached to my Fiestaware ... but it was only a matter of time before I fell in love with a pattern and was throwing elbows and hoarding everything I could find in "my pattern". The pottery is all handmade and for the most part, shops sell their pieces directly out of their pottery studio ... it's not like these shops have a storage room with extra pieces ... most of the time, what you see is what you can get!
One of the pottery studios.So .... it wasn't until after we got back Saturday evening from our shopping excursion that Barbara regretfully told me that there were no 19" tires to be found .... SUV's and big tires are not common, especially in Poland!! We really had very limited options ... we were in Poland people ... Tire Kingdoms and businesses in the like are not to be found here! Even getting your insurance involved is not as easy as a road-side assistance phone call. After an evening of phone calls between Al and I we decided our inconvenient but only option was to drive back SLOW on our spare and if it felt uncomfortable we would stop in Germany and work out tow arrangements. Sigh. Not fun.
Thankfully, as we were wrapping up our evening with dinner at the Blue Beetroot, Barbara came up to share the news that one of her kitchen staff had a relative that just got in from Luxembourg with a tire order ... and he had one that "would work"! The next morning I drove with Barbara (and my friend Chrissy) to get the tire. It was a low-profile tire ... bigger than the spare but not as big as our other tires ... but it had a good speed rating and worked! We wrapped things up ... hit the road ... stopped at 1 last pottery shopped (where I DOUBLED my spending total!) and had a safe and pleasant drive back)!
... and that my friends, was our fun and fearless trip to Poland! I'm just not driving next time!
Oh! I did bring "My Sister's Shoe's" and I will be sharing the photos in a post of it's own.
Your life is such an adventure! If I drive 7.5 hrs, I'll just be someplace dull and American like Georgia... although I bet it's easier to get tires there =)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! It's always an adventure right!?!? Glad you had fun and I can't wait to see what pattern you bought =)
ReplyDeleteThat looks like fun! Thanks for posting at Favorite Things Friday and for such a nice comment!
ReplyDeleteWell...do we get to see the pottery pieces you fought for? LOL
ReplyDeletethats hilarious...
ReplyDeletecouldn't come up with any polish jokes about changing a tire??
What an adventure!! Glad to hear it had a happy ending. The Polish pottery looks amazing - I can see why you couldn't resist.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to Poland it was a little "sketchy" we had to keep an eye on the car and did not feel very safe....we ended up at a store that had a huge gate around it. They had pottery hangin in the trees as you drive up. They also had some beautiful baskets. I ended up with the peacock pattern. I love my pottery, i whip it out as often as possible :) I think I spent around $200 and got a very good amount of stuff....course this was when the exchange rate was a lil better too :) Love to see your pattern...which did you get...I went with the basic "peacock" pattern. I was drawn to it, and It was a lil cheaper so i could buy more ;)
ReplyDelete