We're in love with Poland

Poland, here we come! We'd heard rumors, and most of our friends had already been to Krakow, Poland, and so we thought we'd jump on the bandwagon. We didn't do any research, we made no reservations, and we didn't have any plans. In the backs of our minds we knew that we wanted to go to Auschwitz, the salt mines, and perhaps rent bicycles. But nothing was definite. In that vein, it shouldn't be surprising that we were filled with a sense of adventure from the moment we bought our train tickets (at 9:00 pm) on Friday until the train started moving (9:18 pm). Overnight trains always seem like a good idea at the time...

The train stopped in some small Czech town near the Polish border at about 3:00 am. We didn't know that we were supposed to get off and switch trains. So we peacefully sat there and waited. Finally the train started moving and again, and we fell asleep. We woke up when the ticket man started pounding on the door. He pleasantly told us that we had missed our transfer and that if we didn't change trains we'd end up in Warsaw. Oh, and he also charged us for a new ticket. I think he pocketed the money, but I'm not sure. Either way, we didn't get a new ticket or a receipt. We were told that if we got off at Katovice we could catch a 5:45 am train to Krakow. So we spent about 45 minutes wandering the train station and surrounding area in Katovice before heading in the direction of Krakow. Another city to say we've been to, I guess. But 45 minutes wasn't enough for anything but an ATM to get our first Polish Zlotys.


We arrived in Krakow, walked to a hostel that was recommended to us by a friend in Prague, checked in, locked up our stuff, and found out that the bus for Auschwitz left in about 30 minutes. So immediately we scarfed some sandwiches and headed for the bus station.

Polish buses are very different. They are all very small. Perhaps 15 people at the most could squeeze in one. And the drivers can pretty much do what they want. Roads are different, as well. There aren't main streets or highways between towns. Just small, meandering roads that connect villages to towns to cities. It's hard to explain. The point is that on the 1.5 hour trip to Auschwitz we saw lots of Poland.

I took a lot of pictures at Auschwitz. I didn't take pictures at the concentration camp I visited in Germany back in '99 because it just didn't seem appropriate. At Auschwitz I was motivated to take pictures because I know that I will probably teach The Diary of Anne Frank (Diary of a Young Girl) in the future. And I want to be able to show the teenages pictures to make the history more real to them. K and I decided to put them here, but there isn't much commentary because nothing really can be said.

Arbeit Macht Frei = Works Makes You Free. Main gate at Auschwitz.

Crematorium at Auschwitz.

Originally the barracks here were built before WWII by the Polish for the Polish Army. The Nazi's used their barracks to house early political prisoners in 1940.

About 4 kilometers away from Auschwitz the Nazis built Birkenau. They gave it a different name to fool the Red Cross. But it was all part of the same camp system. Responsible for about 1.5 million murders.

The poorly built wooden barracks built at Birkenau were disassembled after the war to help people build houses in other parts of Poland because there was such a shortage of materials. All that is left are the chimneys, which now serve to mark the rows where barracks once stood.

Inside one of the preserved barracks.

This was where trains unloaded thousands of Jews and where families were separated. Most people were sent straight to the gas chambers.

We took a train from Auschwitz back to Krakow and walked around the town for a bit. This is the main square, which is actually a perfect square! After all the rectangular squares we've seen throughout our travels, it's nice when a square is a square. Who would have thought... but Old Town Rectangle just doesn't have the same ring.

And finally, Polish food! Below you'll see Bigos, but Pierogi was the tastiest thing we've had in a while. Awesome. It seemed like food was of higher quality and lower cost than in Prague. Which means one thing: complete bliss!

An after-dinner walk yielded the following picture of the Wawel Castle reflected on the Vistula river. I suppose we haven't said anything about the weather. You can see from all the pictures that we had nothing but blue skies and perfect weather.

On Sunday we woke up early to catch a bus to Wieliczka to see the historic and ancient salt mine there. During pre-history Poland was underwater, and there is still lots of salt to be found in the area. People have been mining salt from Wieliczka for hundreds of years, and as they tunnelled into the ground they built all kinds of statues, monuments, chapels, and underwater lakes.

At this point we are about 300 feet underground.

I couldn't resist. Even though they told us not to lick the walls, they also told us that they were made of rock salt! It's true, they were salty. But not as salty as I expected...

"Hurry and get your licks in, because we don't have time to wait around!" We raced out of the salt mine at 12:00 and caught a bus back to Krakov in time for the 1:00 bicycle tour. The tour started and we cruised through the streets of Krakov in style. Coincidentally, three of the other people on the tour were students visiting from Prague. We're big fans of bike tours--you see lots of sights without all the agonizing walking and standing. And you can get outside the center of town. Basically, they're awesome. And this one lived up to our expectations!

We saw countless things of interest on our tour. One of them: The fire-breathing statue of the dragon that Krak killed. Yes, it's true. A knight named Krak slew the dragon and married the princess and renamed the town Krakov (Krak's town). No, Krak is no longer a popular Polish name. And no, it's not true, but it is a good legend. And the dragon breathes real fire periodically. I missed it on camera, though.

John, our fearless and extremely knowledgable tour guide tells us something interesting:

The Jewish cemetary in Krakow. It's still used, but with an almost nonexistant Jewish population in Krakow there is nobody to maintain it.

If you look at the tombstones in the cemetary above and then look at the architectually and defensively useless design of the wall the Nazi's built around the Jewish Ghetto you'll see another example of how sick they were: People in the Ghetto were in a cemetary for the living.

A monument to the victims of the Ghetto:

Another stop on our tour was the factory where Oscar Schindler employed Jewish people. As you can see, we saw and learned so much on our tour.

After the tour we talked our tour guide into showing us a good restaurant, and it was one of the best meals we've had in a long time. Polish potatoe and sausage soup, baked potato, and pierogi. Yum. B if only we had a picture....

And finally:

I must say that when I saw this sign I was a little confused. But after asking around, I found that Krakow, Poland, and Rochester, NY, are sister cities. So, at least for a moment we were only 7400 kilometers from Rochester. And for you very astute blog readers, you'll recognize another sister city connection.

We know that many of the pictures in this post were not uplifting or exciting. Although it might be half of the blog about Krakow, it only represents a small part of what Poland and Krakow have to offer. Krakow is a city we'll recommend to anyone for a short visit and a place we'll encourage any European traveller to put on their list of places they "must see".

Catch your breath, because next weekend: Brussels and Amsterdam!