July 22, Krakow and Auschwitz Today we took a bus to the Polish town of Oswiecim. This is the town where the German Third Reich operated the largest concentration and extermination camp named Auschwitz from June 1940 to January 1945. It is actually made up of 3 sites, Auschwitz I the base camp, Auschwitz II Birkenau the extermination camp, and Auschwitz III Monowitz a labour camp. We started our tour at Auschwitz I where we entered under the sign ARBEIT MA...

July 21, Krakow and Wieliczka (Salt Mines) Well staying right in the Krakow town square at the hostel has advantages and disadvantages. It is good that you are in the middle of all the action without having to go anywhere, the bad is that the action keeps going almost all hours. I was awoken a few times during the night by the younger, party crowd out in the square and in the hostel halls. We had a bit of a sleep-in day today then after breakfast we did a ...

July 20, Berlin to Krakow This morning our plan was to finish up Berlin before heading to Krakow Poland. We first walked back to Zoologischer Garten where the bakery was and got some scones before walking back to see the 220 foot tall Victory Column in the daylight. The column sits on a large base of red granite with reliefs of war scenes emblazoned on metal melted down from captured canons and is topped with a golden statue of Victoria, goddess of victory...