When travelling, there are certain museums and sights one has to see. Auschwitz - Birkenau is one of these. We actually debated whether our kids should see this historical horror, hesitating because, right now, our children are very optimistic about life. They believe in God and in the goodness of people. War, hatred, even most racism is far removed from their everyday lives, and we didn't want them to be disturbed by the graphic truths this visit would reveal. However, one of our reasons for travelling was to learn and to become better people, and we knew that seeing this place would also do that. At the beginning of the tour, we took seats in a theatre and watched a half hour program of real footage of the concentration camps and the liberation in 1945. Then we toured Auschwitz, led by a very serious, young guide named Lucas who walked us around the buildings, starting at the gate and taking us to the barracks, cells, and crematorium. He explained the reasons why Jewish people (11 million of them) were targeted, and we were not surprised that it had much more to do with economics than religion or race. After our tour of Auschwitz, we took a free shuttle to Birkenau and walked the huge grounds, horrified at the size of the place. We can't even imagine what it was like so, instead, we took a few moments at the monument to think about the souls that left this place and to hope such a thing never happens again. When we returned to Krakow, we walked through a mall as modern as anything we have at home. The contrast from the starkness of the Camps to the luxury of the mall was staggering. We noticed that prices of goods are cheaper here than in Canada, but with little room in our backpacks, we didn't take advantage. On the way to our hostel, we walked past the Florian Gate (the only original gate to the city still standing), ate at the same restaurant as yesterday, found a delicious ice cream for each of us, and to finish off our wanderings, accidentally hit upon Wawel Hill so we explored the castle grounds. Tired, but pleased with our day, and with a lot to think about, we headed back to the hostel to relax and get ready for Slovakia.