Tuesday 23/04/2019

Today we are heading for Kraków, so pack up and caught taxi to the station to get the airport train, arriving in good time to check in a lodge our bags, everything is so much easier once you have got rid of them, time to sit and have coffee and would you believe I had fruit salad, the first since leaving Australia as I have not been able to find a supermarket or fruit stand. Our flight is once again with Lufthansa and is only 60 minute flight. Arriving at Kraków airport we proceeded to collect our luggage and then to find a taxi to go into the city and find our accommodation, which Chrissy had arrange through AIRBNB, we were to meet the apartment owner Anna at a designated place and once met she took us up to the apartment, no lifts but plenty of stairs, the apartment is really nice and as we are not spending much time in it really just what you need, we are situated within the old city and the city square, everything you need right at your doorstop. The square is just busy and loaded with outdoor eating places. Once settled in we went for a walk to find the old Jewish section, finally finding the old synagogue, I don't think we saw much of the area as it was quite confusing to really pinpoint the exact location, a lot of renovations going on, working our way back to the apartment and having a rest before going out to dinner, now this was a quandary in itself as the selection of restaraunts was enormous and we just didn't know what we wanted to eat finally finding a place and sitting down to Caesar salad, bruschetta and steamed veges.
The next morning we packed a parcel of clothes and shoes and souvenirs to send back home as once again we had overloaded our cases, God only knows when they will arrive back in Bendigo, we may even be home before them

Wednesday

A good sleep in was had and we had spotted a cafe that had crepes on their menu and we headed for that for breakfast but unfortunately they only serve them after 1pm so settled for croissants and coffee very nice. Today the weather is overcast and trying to rain
Today we have arranged to take a tour of Auscwitz and we were to be at a meeting place at 11:40am so made our way over to the agent and left in a bus with about 20 other people, Auscwitz is a good 90 minutes drive, but thankfully by the time we got there the weather had cleared up
Firstly we were assembled and met our tour guide who as she walked us around gave a precise and historical account about Auschwitz this went on for about 90 minutes going from building to building in some we were not allowed to take photos and even though it looked as though there were a crowd it was all very well organised, I must admit that I didn't know that the blocks were all brick and I think I only saw one wooden block

We were then driven over to Birkenau and in this you could see the row upon row of wooden huts although a lot were destroyed by the Germans trying to cover their tracks, the ovens were a pile of rubble as they were blown up by the Germans before the liberation. On one side are row upon row of brick huts which are still intact and the brick huts were built first as the land was once a polish estate and the Germans seized the land and destroyed the houses and used the bricks to build the first lot of huts, on the other side is the wooden huts,, built with wood as the Germans had run out of bricks, although there are only a few rows left standing, you can see where the huts where for a far as you can see, we then walked down to the actual siding where the train carriages halted and then onto to the end of the line where the gas ovens where but are now just rubble as the Germans destroyed them as they were retreating from the camps, further on we were able to go into one of the brick huts.

I thought I would be an emotional wreck on this tour and was at a loss to understand my feelings about it all, arriving in Birkenau and seeing row upon row of wooden huts as far as the eye could see and then walking on the railway siding it semed to make sense, but in stating that, the tour guide while very factual and precise about the whole Nazi regime was very unemotional, now from my understanding the Germans do not like talking about this period in their history, they know it happened and they hope this would never happen again, and I know if this is your role to be a tour guide in this area you cannot be emotional but her voice never changed it was flat at all times.
Arriving back at Kraków we got dropped off at the railway station as we needed to find the quickest way there to be able to catch the train to the airport on Friday morning, walking back to our apartments we found a Mexican cafe and sat down for dinner, day over.

Thursday

It was arranged to visit the Wieliczka Salt mines and after breakfast we met the tour company and was transported to .Wieliczka which lies within the Krakow Metropolitan area, only about a 30 minute drive from Krakow

The mines were excavated from the 13th century producing salt continouosly until 2007. Commercial salt mining was discontinued in 1996 due to falling salt prices, the mine reaches a depth of 327 metres and extends via horizontal passages and chambers for over 287 kilometres, the rock salt is naturally of varing shades of grey, resembling unpolished granite rather than the white crystalline that might be expected.

The mine features an underground lake, exhibits on the history of salt mining all carved in salt, and a 3.5 kilometre visitors route.

During the Nazi occupation, several thousand Jews were transported from the forced labour camps to the mine to work in the underground armament factory set up by the Germans, however manufactoring never began as the Soviet offensive was nearing

I really enjoyed this tour and I believe all up we went down 800 odd stairs, thankfully all downwards, I would never had made it if we had to climb upwards, we went through numerous chambers with displays of historic salt mining technology and underground lake that is so salty I believe that you would float in it,

We did come to one section that had water runnning and I had a taste and it was so salty, you could also find a piece of fresh calcified salt, touch it and taste it, but you got to find a piece that no-one else has touched, Yuk!!!

There are four chapels and numerous statues all carved out of salt by the miners, and a chapel and reception room that is used for private functions, including weddings.

An elevator returns us to the surface and only takes around 30 seconds and even though you cannot smell the salt it was good to get outside in the light and the fresh air.

At the end we lost our tour guide and joined another group to get out of the mines.

Back to the apartment to start packing cases and general clean up, after a rest out for dinner the last night in Kraków
Early to bed as Anna is going to pick us up at 4am and take us to the airport

Friday

Once at the Kraków airport we went to check in for our flight only to be told that the plane had been overbooked and we were now on standby, I am a loss to understand how our booking had been done over 6 months ago and we were the ones put on standby, went up to the boarding gate and had to wait until the other passengers had boarded and then we were giving our seats and were on our way, arriving at Munich then we had to get over to another building to catch our plane to Berlin, made it with time to spare, arriving in Berlin 50 minutes later, then on to our hotel, then a walk to find breakfast.