A short 3 hour train journey took us to our next port of call, Krakow. We were staying at the small, quaint Hotel Abel. After dumping our bags, it was straight off for an orientation / sightseeing tour of the city since our time here was limited.
Krakow is renowned as the most beautiful Polish city. Certainly, one thing I noticed during the walk is how stunningly beautiful the women are, the most beautiful women I've seen since Moscow! The origin of the city involves the defeat of a dragon by either Prince Krakus or a cobbler's apprentice (depending on what you read). During the 14th to 16th centuries, it was the capital of Poland. Due to a miraculous escape from destruction during WWII, the city is graced with magnificent medieval buildings and streets in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Old Town with a stunning historical centrepiece, Wawel Castle. South of this lies the Jewish Quarter, Kazimierz, where our hotel was located, with a lively nightlife scene. It was also where Spielberg filmed Schindler's List.
Some of the main tourist sights we saw were:
Wawel Hill: The hill is crowned by a castle and a cathedral, which was the coronation and burial place for Polish royalty for four centuries.
Main Square: The centre of Old Town is the Main Market Square, which contains the Cloth Hall, housing a large souvenir market. Along one side of the square is 14th century Gothic masterpiece, St. Mary's Church. The square also contains the Town Hall tower.
We walked along the "Royal Route" from Florian Gate to Wawel Castle - the historical coronation path of Polish kings when Krakow was the capital. The Church of Saints Peter and Paul contains a series of striking sculptures of the 12 Disciples on its exterior.
In the afternoon, I went on an optional excursion to the Wieliczka Salt Mines, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Salt deposits formed millions of years ago have been mined here for hundreds of years (the salt is mainly dark rather than white because of other elements contained with the salt). There are ~2,000 mining chambers joined by ~300km of tunnels. If the Eiffel Tower was placed on the bottom level of the mine, the top would not reach the surface. The tour described the mining practices over the centuries, and showcased the sculptures and artworks that now adorned many of the chambers. Some of the chambers were large enough to hold sporting events and concerts. The tour culminated in the magnificent Chapel of the Blessed Kings, a church which had been decorated with religious bas reliefs and carvings by miners, displaying amazing dimension and realism. Even the chandeliers are made with salt crystals.
We had an evening meal at Starka down the road, a Polish restaurant which serves up flavoured vodkas, very dangerous since the flavouring takes away the feeling you are drinking vodka, as Manuel attested to on one of his previous trips! A few drinks at a bar afterwards, but it seemed everywhere shut at 11.30pm and we got kicked out, it was Sunday night though!
Monday. Auschwitz. Originally established in 1940 to hold Polish prisoners, it was later expanded into the largest extermination camp of European Jews. Two more adjoining camps were also established. Between 1 and 1.5 million people (men, women and children) were murdered in these death factories, 90% of them Jews, it's unimaginable. They were brought here in trains, the fit selected for work, the unfit or infirm stripped and sent to "showers" where, unsuspecting, they were killed with toxic Zyklon B gas and the bodies cremated, after the hair was shaved off and gold teeth were extracted. As you're walking around the sites, you conjure up images of treading in the footsteps of prisoners, the sky thick with ash of cremated bodies.
The Auschwitz I former prison blocks now serve as a museum. Some rooms hold original items from the prisoners - suitcases, clothes, toothbrushes, spectacles, artificial limbs, children's shoes and toys. The room holding a massive mound of hair (now turned grey) shaved from the dead is particularly unsettling. Other rooms depict shocking images of starved prisoners and human experiments carried out on women and children. The corridor walls are full of mugshots of the dead.
Auschwitz II (Berkenau) was where the murder of huge numbers of people took. The camp housed up to 200,000 inmates at any time in prison barracks which stretched as far as the eye could see. There are four huge gas chambers complete with crematoria. Each gas chamber held up to 2,000 people and electric lifts raised the bodies to the ovens; German ingenuity and precision in the means of murdering masses of human beings. Much of the camp was destroyed by the fleeing Nazis.
Writing the above paragraphs and looking through my photos was difficult, I want to wash away memories of the visit from my mind. But as our guide said "We should never forget".
In the evening, we camped out at a shopping centre with a range of fast food places, followed by an overnight 9 hour train trip to Prague.
Auschwitz
Monday, October 25, 2010
Krakow, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland
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