We leave for Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Krakow, Berlin and other possible places, today First JFK, then Frankfurt. Long travel day ahead, but we are excited and ready to go. We return June 3 about 6 PM ET. If you need anything or an emergency arises, just call my cell. It should work. WE will be exploring, and have no solid plan other than heading South, East, NE and back West, once we leave Frankfurt. I am so looking forward to seeing the places where my paternal grandparents came from. Thanks to John, and some amazing documents, passports and Granda John Slazyks Army documents, we have names of cities and regions to see where the Slazyk’s and Folvarski’s came from. Johann Slazyk, Corporal in the Kaiser’s Army, 1905! It’s going to be interesting. Jack and Allie, I can’t wait to share pictures of our trip with you when Grandpa Steve and I come home. I know you are having funfilled days.
Love,
Grandma Jane, Jane, Mom xxx ooo 
We had a wonderful time in Central and Eastern Eruope and Steve is pulling together our pictures. In particular photos of NovyTarg, Oswiciem and Krakow turned out pretty well. Krakow is a vital, beautiful city with wonderful people. We stayed at the Grand Hotel, which was a palace at one time. Our room was wonderful. Visiting Wavel Castle is a mystical experience. Seeing the magic dragon and learning about many myths and legends of Krakow brought back many memories of stories from my childhood. It seems as if every other building in Krakow was a church. Almost everyone spoke some English, which was better than our Polish! The people are hardworking and eager to improve their lives. Oswiciem was a very rural town and visiting Auschwitz I and Auschwitz Berkenau took almost four hours. We had a wonderful tour guide, Aga. Aga was about 20 years old and is committed to showing the world how the truth about the Holocaust. I am glad that we went. I am glad to know that my grandparents left this area before this terrible tragedy occured. NovyTarg was a very small town, much like Charleston, Illinois! Tru;ly, there was a town square, and on the evening we were there, everyone was gathered at various ice cream parlors, around their cars and talking with their friends. We stopped a young couple and asked for the name of a good local restaurant and they sent us to the “villa tuscany” – Italian! Leaving NovyTarg we drove through the Tatra Mountains into the Slovak Republic on the way to Bratislava and to Vienna. More to follow.