The photo below shows our rental car. It's a Skoda Octavia and not a bad little car once you get used to it's stop/start engine technology. It did startle me when we stopped at the first stop light. I was sure the engine had stalled. Of course when I took my foot off the brake the engine fired up again and off we went. So all in all, it's a perfectly good little car. The rental agency (Avis), even arranged for an automatic transmission, assuming with us being from Canada, we wouldn't know how to drive standard.
Somehow, despite having and using a perfectly serviceable automobile today, we still managed to log 20,000 steps according to Mary's Fitbit.
This morning was dedicated to a search for birth and land registry records, to aid in filling the missing family tree links and to identify exactly which house was the original household of Benedict and Katarzina Kopys, our paternal grandparents. After a 30 minute drive from our hotel in Kielce, we arrived at the church below which we had been assured kept birth records for the Nieczulice parish.
Once we finally found the rectory and met the pastor, we were disappointed to hear this lead was a dead end and that he suggested those records would be kept at the church in Chybice where we assumed dad had been baptized (pictured in yesterday's blog entry). We had already visited that church, with no success.
Our next stop is the land registry office in the town of Pawlow. It took a little work to find the specific office but once we did, two younger gents seemed eager to help us out and exercise their high school English at the same time. We spent at least 90 minutes there searching records that just didn't seem to go back quite far enough. We did however identify a couple more addresses owned by Kopys's, but still have not identified the original Kopys house.
We left the office with a meeting scheduled for Thursday (tomorrow is a holiday), to meet with an "older colleague" who is more familiar with the area and some of the older paper records. The one young fellow (Matthew), even promised to speak to his grandfather who knew people in Nieczulice.
We were also given the address of a historical archive office back in Kielce, which we decide to visit.
On the way back, we stop to take the photo below, in an attempt to show the scale and confused layout of the cemetery we searched yesterday. It's at least 3 times the size of what's seen in this photo.
Now back in Kielce, we decide we need sustenance and walk to the near by (and now becoming a favourite), Azzurro restaurant pictured below. Same spot as our first meal in Poland.
After another delicious pizza and Lech beer, we're off to the historical archive office we'd been told about.
"It's a little distance but shouldn't be too much more than our walk on Sunday", says Mary. "Let's walk".
Steve and I reluctantly agree to leave that perfectly serviceable rental vehicle behind and set off on foot. Yup, you guessed it. This is where the majority of those 20k steps, as measured by Mary's fitbit, take place. Oh, and here is also where Mary's considerable navigation skills, fail us.
We are searching for a specific address and after about 9000 steps, Mary assures us it's not much
further.
We are now walking a roadway that cuts through a forest, with trees as far as the eye can see. It's a pretty forest but when have you last seen a tree with and address. Besides, I'm pretty sure this was supposed to be a bricks and mortar building, unless of course they are still using birch bark for archival media. So I resort to Google and sure enough, we had missed a turn. After another 3000 or so steps, we finally arrive at our destination.
Looks pretty deserted. No cars in the parking lot. Gates are locked. Closed!
Another 15,000 steps (ya, I know the math doesn't work, but it sure felt that way), get us back to the hotel where the Skoda sits idle.
Tomorrow is a national holiday. Most. businesses and offices will be closed. So we've designated tomorrow as a purely "tourist" day. We'll explore the local tourist sites.
Sounds like more walking to me.
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