Krakow

Cracking Krakow! Crumbs, talk about hit the ground running (or hobbling fast in my case). We arrived at about 11 and found the apartment reception. Lovely welcome but can`t check in till 3. OK thats pretty standard, so left our big bags in the storage area and headed 5 minutes down the road to the old town main square. Stunning. On the top of each hour at St Marys`s church in the square a trumpeter plays the `hejnal`. Had a lovely leisurely lunch, people watching. Its a huge square, mainly pedestrian, and there are numerous pairs of horses and carriages dressed in finery, plumes, bells, feathers and all waiting to take you on a trip around the town. Wonderful sight in the lovely sunshine. We had a little stroll around and headed back to check in. 

Another lovely apartment! Not such a great view, but good location. Apartment is called Angel City by Turnau.  

We are only here for 3 nights! We really needed more. We bought tickets for the hopon-hopoff bus which was a bargain and gave us a speedy tour around with an English commentary. We did stop off by Shindlers factory but the queue was very long. So we found a `slow wine bar` just along the road and had lunch. This wine bar is amazing. It is in an old factory building and has old block and tackles and industrial piping in tact, but is lined with bottles and crates of wine. A young wineserver/somelier asked us what we liked. Mine would be white, quite dry, usually pino gris, sauvingnon blanc, sometimes partial to a reisling. Dont like the oaky oilyness of straight Chardonnay.  (Just in case one of you lovely readers wants too buy me one) Norman is a merlot, shiraz, cabinet sauvingon guy. He likes the big fruity flavours with a bit of tannin. We were giving a few samples and chose a red portugese wine which was delicious. We ordered hot toasted sandwiches of melty cheese and salad and shared a bottle of this delicious red. I am rediscovering reds! We also visited a glass blowing factory which was interesting.

Auschwitz and the salt mines - due to the shortage of time in Krakow (what was I thinking) we booked a whole day tour to include both.

Early start 7.30, then off to the salt mines (Wieliczca). There are over 400 steps down to the start of the tour then numerous ups and downs and a reasonable amount of walking which usually would have been no problem at all, but with my dodgy ankle it was enough! The salt mines are a magnificent feat of engineering. There are stunning carvings and statues and whole churches carved out by the miners. People get married down there. I should imagine it is quite magical lit by candles. They also hold meetings and have concerts as the accoustics are really good. 

Then off to Auschwitz and Birkenhau. I have read a lot about the atrocities, but nothing can prepare you for the scale of it. I recently read `The Tattoist of Auschwitz` and there it was in front of me. Our guide was very good, and you could hear the passion in her voice despite obviously doing this every day. How can human geings be so disgusting to each other? Words fail me. I do think that every person should visit there so that this horrible thing can never happen again. I really feel that there is a spirit of such sadness and horror that has stained that place, probably forever. It was so quiet, hardly a bird singing. Where there had once been a sea of mud (and human excrement etc) there is now lush grass and wild flowers. The railwaylines are still all there, we walked along them to the selection area where the transports unloaded thousands of people. Men, women and children (those that had survived the journey in dreadful conditions), SS `doctors` picked out a few who they thought might be strong enough to be usefull. The rest were taken off for a `shower`, they stripped off in changing rooms and were even told to remember the peg number so they could find thier possesions later. Shoes were tied together where possible. Of course `later` never came. The `showers` were gas chambers. They estimate it took 15-20 minutes to die a horrible death. I can imagine the panic and terror, the screaming and wailing. But for the poor prisioners who had to empty the chambers into the incinerators it must have been hideous. They saw what had happened to friends, family, children, old people that they knew. Both places have not been restored but simply preserved so that they will not deteriorate any more. It is an incredibly moving place, I am so glad to have been there. I will never forget it.

We got home after a long twelve hour day and packed for the journey to Budapest the next day.

I took few photos in Krakow, there simply wasnt time. We had arrived in the middle of the first day, spend the second day on the tour and had to catch the 08.05 train to Budapest on the third day. Not enough time! We needed a week there. Lesson learned.

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