Or: Biblioteka jest ponownie otwarta dla biznesu, if you prefer.

Just arrived back from a week in Berlin, Cracow and Warsaw, currently editing around 900 photographs. Here's a couple for starters from the Luftwaffe Museum at Gatow:






I visited/revisited a number of museums (and not a few bars) along the way, all of them fascinating but not without a few disappointments:


  • Luftwaffe Museum Gatow - All of the WW1 exhibits have now been removed (and most of the WW2 ones), presumably all gone to Rechlin to the new museum there. The main Hangar 3 now sparsely populated and the side rooms that housed models and uniforms are now closed. A lot of the aircraft that were parked outside seem to have gone as well.
  • The Technical Museum in Berlin has a good display of aircraft but a number of them including their 109E are suspended from the ceiling. Not a problem as there is an elevated walkway from which to view and photograph them, but - guess what was closed off?
  • Arrived in Cracow on Thursday, which happened to be Corpus Christi when all the museums shut. Only found this out after schlepping all the way out to the Aviation Museum!
  • Take 2, Friday - Aviation Museum open (hooray!), main hangar closed for renovation (Boo!). This meant that all the exhibits were parked outside and most of the older types with open cockpits were wrapped in plastic against the weather, not great for photography. Also there is a building behind the main hangar that houses some very old and very rare planes. This was shut as well....
  • Moving on, the Home Army Museum in Cracow itself was very good but the lighting was not that great, making it difficult to read the captions on the exhibits.
  • The same applied to the Rising Museum in Warsaw - excellent museum with poor lighting.
  • The Warsaw Military Museum was a delight to wander around, although I seem to remember a large backlot packed with post-war armour that you could see but couldn't get to - this all seems to have disappeared and the area landscaped over.
  • The Military Technical Museum at Fort Sadowa on the outskirts of Warsaw - lots of external exhibits (tanks, planes, radar systems, helicopters) mouldering away, but the internal exhibition in the fort itself was closed and fenced off.


Notwithstanding all this, a good time was had by all, no doubt a few pics will end up on the forum in due course.