Poland sings. Nobody told me how extremely beautiful the cities would be, how moving the history, how welcoming the people, how brave with hope a Polish future seems. Poland is a country of cultured cities, palaces and churches, ancient castles and a past of joy, war and tragedy. It was in Poland that the German death camps were scattered like evil toadstools.
Situated between Western Europe and Russia, Poland is possibly the most interesting of the countries inhabiting today's Europe. The name Poland comes from the Polonians (people of the open fields), the tribes that inhabited the great plain that is Poland today. It was around about the 10th century that the tribes united and the nation Poland came into being. At that time it was ruled by the Piast dynasty for over 300 years.
But throughout the centuries, everyone wanted a piece - or all - of Poland. Russia, Lithuania, Prussia, Austria, France, Germany, they all grabbed away, fighting their ugly wars, and finally, Poland's weakness in the 18th century led to its downfall. Literally.
In 1797, the name Poland disappeared off the map of Europe when the country was partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria. Despite the partitioning, the Poles remained staunchly Polish within. And, after World War I, when the might of the German, Russian and Austrian empires was effectively crushed, Poland rose like a phoenix from the ashes, in November 1918, and Jozef Pilsudski became Poland's head of state.
Border conflicts continued and Poland gained significant land during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919 and 1920. Nevertheless, the Russians under Stalin fought for Polish land in the east. Not much changes with the Russians. Then, in 1933, Adolf Hitler cast his evil eye upon Poland from the west and on September 1 1939 marched into Poland, thus starting World War 2.
The slaughter of Polish Jews by the Germans during World War 2 is well-documented. What is not as well known is that millions of Poles were also murdered. Poland, more than any European country, was devastated, losing more than 25 percent of its population, a horrendous loss.
In 1947, mainly by default, the communists came into power, and once again, Poland was crushed, exploited and under a foreign power's rule. It was only as recently as 1990, that the Polish People's Republic and communist rule came to an end.
Okay, this is the briefest history of Poland you will ever read and historians will shudder at the simplification, but I felt I had to give an introduction to one of the most remarkable journeys on which I had ever been.
A small group of South African journalists was invited by Andrzej Morstin of the Polish Embassy in Pretoria and the Polish Tourist Association to visit Poland, "first" for South Africans.
"I think you will find my country most interesting," said Andrzej Morstin. An understatement.
In 10 short days we would visit the cities of Warsaw, Poznan, Wroclaw, Gniezno, Krakow. We would stay in the private home of a Polish farmer, spend time in the hills of Silesia and see the wooden churches of Krempna.
We'd wander through Jewish re-emerging Poland, visit synagogues and museums, climb the bell and clock towers of the tallest townhalls and cathedrals. We'd drink coffee and vodka on ancient town squares, and spend a day at Auschwitz, the German death camp. It is here that one of my colleagues, Andrzej Sawa, and I lost our grandparents.
Andrzej's two Catholic Polish resistance grandfathers and my Jewish grandmother all perished.
We'd come face-to-face with Frederic Chopin, and Copernicus and we'd ride a horse and carriage through Polish meadows.
On our arrival in Warsaw we were booked into the historical Bristol Hotel, Warsaw's finest during the first part of the last century and today, still one of the best in the city. Built in 1901, and owned by Poland's then premier, the musician Ignacy Paderewski, like Poland, its history has been turbulent.
Used as a secret wartime resistance base, it was requisitioned by the Nazis, then by communists.
I enjoyed the thought that I might have inherited the same room as Edvard Grieg the composer (he stayed on many occasions) or, more recently, that of Charles de Gaulle, the Rolling Stones or even Maggie Thatcher. Had Mick Jagger sat on my toilet?
Magnificently situated on the Royal Route, it overlooks the Presidential Palace.
Within moments, we'd showered and were trotting past the Palace to Stare Miasto, the Old Town Square.