Going a bit gray...but otherwise well :)

The flight was not too bad. We were all able to sleep a little bit on the plane, which really is key to decreasing the effects of jet lag. Definitely not cake though...entertaining little ones for hours in a confined space requires having a lot of tricks up one's sleeves ;)

We were picked up in Copenhagen by our good friend and stayed at his house for the night. We had some wonderful, wonderful food and slept as much as possible My husband did the EXACT opposite, though, and payed for it dearly the next day...heeheehee. The next day we headed out right away towards Germany with my husband's mother, who flew in that morning to take the road trip with us. We then spent the night in Berlin and did some sightseeing the next day.

This is a picture of one of the remaining city gates into Berlin...in fact I think it is the last one. There used to be, I believe, 18 of them at one time. I'll have to double check that fact.


This next picture is of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The blocks signify headstones in a graveyard, which are unmarked. It was eerily beautiful....


Next we drove into Poland and stayed one night on the border then drove to the port city of Gdansk. This place is wonderful. All of the gothic and renaissance architecture is beautifully preserved. I am in love with history....so it is always such an exciting experience for me to be in these places that are the backdrops to these stories. When I first came to Europe I took soo many pictures of the cobblestone streets....I know, I know, I'm sure I looked like such a nerd :)


I look irritated....I may have been. My boys were such monkeys today!!!

So here is one of the main reasons we came to this city. Gdansk is known for its amber. After searching high and low, it looks like we have found a connection. There are hundreds of shops that sell beautiful amber jewelry and luckily one of the shop owners shared their contact. Below is a sample of some of the amber I bought.

We will look for some more in some of the smaller seaside towns here in Poland as well as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Below are a few more pics of the city....

You can see some of those amber shops along the streets below.

Baltic amber here seems to be what turquoise is to where I am from in the southwest.

Well we head out to Lithuania tomorrow....I'll post again soon!

See you in a few days....