Krakow
We left Berlin at 9am by private minibus for a planned 7 hour trip to Krakow in Lower Poland. A series of motor vehicle accidents on the road ahead forced us into a rather slow detour for an hour or so before we were able to rejoin the highway. We arrived at out hotel at approx. 6:30 a full 2 hours behind schedule. The hotel, the GLOBETROTER was a sprawl of room in an older building near the city centre. After dumping our luggage and grabbing a quick shower we had a group meal at a local restaurant featuring duck, goulash, pirogies etc.’
A massive thunderstorm greeted us as we left the restaurant and we mad dashed through the rain to our hotel, roughly 1km distant. It had been the plan to do a city walk at 9pm bu this was delayed somewhat till the rain subsided. While we were expecting a basic walking tour it turned out not to be. Our guide, named Golden ( he had red hair) was a professional city guide who apparently was in demand my royalty and various bands ( RHCP and Metallica) for his entertaining tours. Ours was called Dance Macabre and discussed the various locations and punishments meted out to criminals over the years. He apparently has a PHD in the study of capital punishment and was formerly a commando in the Polish army.
Wednesday morning we were driven to Auschwitz-Birkenau for a privately guided tour of both concentration camps. The Auschwitz portion allowed us to see inside a number of the buidlings where the prisoners were housed. Massive displays of personal effects confiscated proved rather unsettling, massive mounds of prescription eye glasses, bales and piles of human hair, massive piles of shoes, toothbrushes etc brought home the enormity of the genocide.
A final stop at the one remaining gas chamber and crematorium proved a little too much for several of the group.
Having already experienced the horror of Dacau we were less disturbed by this killing factory, even though the scale and horror was actually much worse.
Bircenau is much larger, geographically but there are few buildings remaining, only the remnants of chimneys and the remains of 2 destroyed crematoria- blown up prior to the arrival of the Russian Army in 1945 in an attempt to hide their crimes.
3 or 4 wooden bunkers were left to show the living conditions of the prisoners, These buildings housed approx. 800 people sharing 2 small washing areas and toilets and sleeping in bunks stacked 3 high which slept about 8 people per bed platfrom- an obvious breeding ground for disease.
Returning to Krakow our tour leader Vanessa gave us an abreviated tour of the city before another thunderstorm came barrelling in forcing us to seek shelter in the castle for a half hour before Susanna and I set off for dinner.
Thursday morning the rest of our group made a trip to the Salt mines for several hours while Susanna and I opted to explore the city.
Krakow city centre has at least 33 churches and is the home of the former Pope John Paul so we toured a number of those before we stopped for lunch.
Guided by a mapping app with inaccurate co-ordinates we arrived at Otto Schindler’s Museum ( factory) an hour later than planned. Essentially a serious of photographic exhibits depicting the actions of Germany on Krakow from 1939 to 1945 it was informative but somewhat depressing. The subdued lighting also made it difficult to read a number of the descriptions.
We hired a taxi to return to the city centre, getting severely ripped off in the process- 40zlt instead of the usual 20 (but still less than a typical taxi ride in Canada)
We returned to the main square to tour the underground museum. Between 2005 and 2010 the entire city square, the biggest in Europe was torn up to reveal and archeological treasure trove of various artifacts which revealed the town’s history over a thousand years and more. The whole thing was eventually recovered leaving a network of tunnels under the square where displays and video touch displays had been set up providing explanations in several languages.
Arriving back at the hotel around 7 pm (13.4km total walking distance) we wasted no time getting showered and changed before joining our group for a birthday dinner for one of the youngest members of our tour ( 29 years old)
Declining the invite to hit a Vodka Bar we went through the now routine ritual of packing for the next segment of our trip.
A massive thunderstorm greeted us as we left the restaurant and we mad dashed through the rain to our hotel, roughly 1km distant. It had been the plan to do a city walk at 9pm bu this was delayed somewhat till the rain subsided. While we were expecting a basic walking tour it turned out not to be. Our guide, named Golden ( he had red hair) was a professional city guide who apparently was in demand my royalty and various bands ( RHCP and Metallica) for his entertaining tours. Ours was called Dance Macabre and discussed the various locations and punishments meted out to criminals over the years. He apparently has a PHD in the study of capital punishment and was formerly a commando in the Polish army.
Wednesday morning we were driven to Auschwitz-Birkenau for a privately guided tour of both concentration camps. The Auschwitz portion allowed us to see inside a number of the buidlings where the prisoners were housed. Massive displays of personal effects confiscated proved rather unsettling, massive mounds of prescription eye glasses, bales and piles of human hair, massive piles of shoes, toothbrushes etc brought home the enormity of the genocide.
A final stop at the one remaining gas chamber and crematorium proved a little too much for several of the group.
Having already experienced the horror of Dacau we were less disturbed by this killing factory, even though the scale and horror was actually much worse.
Bircenau is much larger, geographically but there are few buildings remaining, only the remnants of chimneys and the remains of 2 destroyed crematoria- blown up prior to the arrival of the Russian Army in 1945 in an attempt to hide their crimes.
3 or 4 wooden bunkers were left to show the living conditions of the prisoners, These buildings housed approx. 800 people sharing 2 small washing areas and toilets and sleeping in bunks stacked 3 high which slept about 8 people per bed platfrom- an obvious breeding ground for disease.
Returning to Krakow our tour leader Vanessa gave us an abreviated tour of the city before another thunderstorm came barrelling in forcing us to seek shelter in the castle for a half hour before Susanna and I set off for dinner.
Thursday morning the rest of our group made a trip to the Salt mines for several hours while Susanna and I opted to explore the city.
Krakow city centre has at least 33 churches and is the home of the former Pope John Paul so we toured a number of those before we stopped for lunch.
Guided by a mapping app with inaccurate co-ordinates we arrived at Otto Schindler’s Museum ( factory) an hour later than planned. Essentially a serious of photographic exhibits depicting the actions of Germany on Krakow from 1939 to 1945 it was informative but somewhat depressing. The subdued lighting also made it difficult to read a number of the descriptions.
We hired a taxi to return to the city centre, getting severely ripped off in the process- 40zlt instead of the usual 20 (but still less than a typical taxi ride in Canada)
We returned to the main square to tour the underground museum. Between 2005 and 2010 the entire city square, the biggest in Europe was torn up to reveal and archeological treasure trove of various artifacts which revealed the town’s history over a thousand years and more. The whole thing was eventually recovered leaving a network of tunnels under the square where displays and video touch displays had been set up providing explanations in several languages.
Arriving back at the hotel around 7 pm (13.4km total walking distance) we wasted no time getting showered and changed before joining our group for a birthday dinner for one of the youngest members of our tour ( 29 years old)
Declining the invite to hit a Vodka Bar we went through the now routine ritual of packing for the next segment of our trip.
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