Poland: August 30. Poznan district.

Our Polish language lesson was fun today: we recited the poem Kiss My Ass, in Polish of course. I looked at it with my Google translator and it's pretty funny...

We took the van to Chwarszczany, which was long rumored as the hiding place for the Holy Grail.This land was granted to the Knights Templar, a religious group from Jerusalem, in 1232.  The chapel was built in 1250, and the Knights Templar were said to have carried the Holy Grail along the trade route to this area of Poland in the 13th century. It is said to be hidden in the church or the surrounding forest and people have been searching for it here since then.

The foundations beside the chapel are from the original structure built in 1250. 

The interior retains the white shield and red cross of the Knights Templar, but that order was dissolved by order of Pope Clement V in 1312. This site is reputed to be haunted: many people throughout the centuries have reported seeing lights and shadows near the chapel, and figures draped in white robes here and in the forest in the dark of night.

Archaeologists are still working here. The fresco below was uncovered in 2004, and dates to the original chapel. There is a series of frescoes depicting the life of Christ and the Knights Templar.

We then drove to Miedzyrzecz Fortified Region and Bat Sanctuary, a network of  underground chambers and tunnels built by the order of Hitler in the 1930s. This area was part of Germany then, near the Polish border. When built, this underground system extended 100 km. Parts of it were dynamited by the Soviets in 1945, but an extensive sytem remains.  It became a bat sanctuary in 1980, and houses about 35,000 bats of various species throught the winter. 

The first thing we saw was the "dragon's teeth" installation, a series of anti-tank defenses built of concrete; nothing could get through them. There were several tanks and other engines of war on the grounds. 

A guide (he taught himself to speak English) took us on a tour of the facility. The turrets below held anti-tank weapons during the war. Soviet tanks bombarded them from behind the "dragon's teeth" but were unable to penetrate them. The chambers underground were equipped with semi-automatic mortars, stationary flame throwers and machine guns similar to those that were in the turrets.

This is our guide. He led us through the door beside him and down into the bunkers.

Our first stop was 2 stories underground where there were communications rooms, sleeping quarters, kitchens, and an escape hatch. There are still live communication and electrical lines in the tunnels.

We descended another 10 stories underground to the main tunnel system. Mercedes Benz fulfilled its defense contracts building weapons and vehicles of war down here, using slave labor. There were also more living quarters and communcation centers on this level.

We walked about a mile through the tunnels, and then came back up all 12 flights of stairs to the surface. There was an open-air troop transport from the World War 2 era to take us back to where we started the tour. 

Anne, from Minnesota, is next to me in the troop trasnport. It was a wild ride!

We ended the tour at the bar, where we all had a beer. Aleksandra is beside me. The other photo shows Rick and Barb on the left and Veronica and Jeff on the right.

We stopped on the way to our hotel in Zielona Gora to see the large statue of Jesus Christ the King of the Universe. At 52 meters tall (including the crown,), it is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world, surpassing  the statue in Brazil by 10 feet.