Details!

Dear followers,

I just wanted to thank you all again for being patient in my posts - waiting for further details, my thoughts, etc. I hope you've passed my blog address around to your friends and family and are helping me in the educational aspect of this trip: through this blog I hope I have touched others, got you thinking, and hopefully, shown compassion for the human race - something I trust you, also, will do.

Map of camps during Hitler's reign of WWII, found on
historyplace.com

I can finally reveal a few more details of my trip with you, as we have received the first copy of our itinerary. While I've been told this is still subject to change, I assume the changes will be minor and regarding time constraints, etc.

I'll be departing Toronto, local time, at 0620pm on 15 May. I hope you'll all be praying I can sleep on the overnight flight as we begin a tour of Berlin, Germany shortly after arriving at 1130am local time.

We're only in Berlin for one day, and time permitting we'll be trying to visit some of the following sites: Hitler's bunker, Holocaust Memorial and Museum, Reichstag/Brandenburg Gate, etc. Before leaving Berlin the next morning we'll be visiting Track 17: where thousands of Jews were packed onto trains and sent to Auschwitz.

On Wednesday, 18 May, we'll be visiting both Auschwitz I and Birkneau...doing our March between the two, and presenting who we'll be marching for (click here to read about Philip Riteman, my inspiration for the trip). While still in Krakow, we'll have a short tour of the city and Holocaust-related sites before departing for Lublin.

We're only in Lublin for a short amount of time, to visit Majdanek Camp, and then departing for Warsaw.

I'm looking forward to our time in Warsaw, as we'll be having a Sabbath dinner, and on top of scheduled events such as a walking tour of the Warsaw ghetto area, but we'll also have an early evening and hopefully a bit of time to ourselves to try some Polish beer, but we'll also have a few hours of "free time" in Old Town, Warsaw.

I'm really looking forward to a few presentations we'll be attending while in Warsaw: one on the Righteous Amongst the Nations, which I really know little about but am interested in, and also (to be confirmed), a presentation by a rescuer, which I know will be emotional.

We'll also be making quick stops at the Tykocin Synagogue, and Triblenka.

I'm already looking forward to coming home to my bed, just after reading the itinerary - after long days, early mornings, and late nights, and a very long day of traveling to get home, my bed will be much appreciated.

I'll be leaving for the Warsaw airport (with a stopover in Dusseldorf, Germany and a fairly lengthy wait in Toronto) at 0600am local time on 23 May, and arriving back in Fredericton at 0100am on 24 May local time.

I look forward to hearing more details as the trip gets closer, and during the final webinar tomorrow evening.

Stay tuned!

"The dew of compassion is a tear" - Lord Byron