Szczecin, Poland

Szczecin is not really a tourist destination. We take a bus here from Swinoujscie for $4.50 each in real money. It's an hour and a half ride. Food, lodging and transportation seem very cheap in Poland compared to the U.S....More about the BIG MAC index later...it explains foreign currency imbalances in an easily digested manner...

We can see the church above from our window. It came though the war intact. The population of Szczecin shrank from 150,000 mostly Germans to 5,000 when the Russians rolled in. Later it was repopulated by Poles from western regions.

A streetcar named Pragnienie (that's "desire" in Polish).

The picture above shows what our street looked like before it was bombed by Americans and shelled by Russians....Notice the same church in the top picture....

The new Philharmonic Hall opened in 2014.

We have dinner at the Browar Polski...

We have a White Russian, a Pepsi, Polish sour soup, borscht with sausage, vegetables, Pork stuffed with horseradish, a pork cutlet and tip for the equivalent of $35.

The restaurant is huge. This is one wing down in the cellar of a brick building. It's easy to imagine hundreds of German SS troops drinking beer around the tables...

Lunch at The Vincent. The waiter wonders why two Americans would come here. We ask ourselves the same thing. On to Torun in a five hour train ride tomorrow...tickets were $18 each.

If you were still wondering about the BIG MAC index, click this link....