12th Day - Friday

Spray mist

Today it was incredibly hot here. The city of Katowice has installed cooling spray mist systems:

Naturally, I had to go through them:

Underground museum

Where does a mining and metallurgical industry metropolis build its museum? Underground, of course.

The new Silesian Museum (Muzeum Śląskie) doesn't have a ground floor, it starts at level -1 and goes down to level -4. You can only visit wearing a fleece jacket.

Outside, you can only see a few glass or plastic boxes, nothing particularly beautiful:

The blocks serve to let daylight into the exhibition rooms.

I go straight to level -4, department of history:

Here I have to stamp first..

..as one does, I'm underground.

History lesson

Today I want to understand how Upper Silesia was divided in 1922. This is how it happened...

..and then Upper Silesia was divided:

Smolensk

Do you remember? On April 10, 2010, a Polish government plane crashed while approaching an airport in Smolensk, Russia. Polish President Lech Kaczyński, government officials, parliamentarians, and military personnel were killed in the crash. Poland's government was virtually wiped out.

The investigation into this crash is a highly sensitive issue here in Poland. There are numerous investigations into the cause of the crash. Each one presents its own truth, it seems.

Today, the film 'Smolensk' premiered here...

..which brings up one of the conspiracy theories that the plane was detonated shortly before landing. By whom, I wonder?

As I said, all of Poland was at the cinema today, whole families, elderly ladies and gentlemen. Sold out everywhere, but of course I was prepared ;-)

After the screening, an older lady started talking to me. I didn't understand anything, but somehow I did. Smolensk, a highly emotional, Polish affair.

Outside the cinema, there was an improvised Smolensk memorial:

Note: Red and white does not mean construction site here!

Podziękowanie (Thank you)

And now my journey through Silesia is coming to an end. It was nice that you traveled with me. Thank you and see you soon!

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This is how it was in Warsaw in 2017

This is how it was in Krakow in 2018