Hi every one! its the travellers again. This time we are in Poland after travelling through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany then into Southern Poland. We started off on Monday at 9.50 am. from Rushden, stopped quite a few times on the way. We did have a sleep in the car for a bit longer than we intended to do. (5 hours!) and finally entered Poland 9.45am Tuesday. We then stopped quite a few times and each time getting more frequent. Finally arriving at our first destination at Oswiecicn or Auschwitz at 3.10pm milage was approx 1,024 miles. Hotel Superior Galcija. The hotel is really good and a good 4 star! not what wer'e used to either. The standard might just go down a bit from now on.
Wednesday - The reason with coming here is so that we could visit the Concentration camps. We went to the first one Auschwitz and my first impression is the utter dispair that the people must have felt when arriving here, just no where to go there were thousands of poor soles here and to try and get away on their own even for one second just wasn't on. We looked at the barracks that are still preservered although they are now museums filled with photographs, there were a lot of original documents Why the Germans didn't get rid of them we couldn't understand. It was a shame that the documents were without any translations as we can't read german or polish oh well we got the jist of it and there were a few explanartory posters about. The one thing that really got to me was the way some of the visitors were behaving (they weren't english either probably German!) but they were taking pictures of just about everything they could, even items of childrens clothing and personal items like tooth brushes that had been taken from the prisoners. I found that just too much and so invasive of the poor peoples terrible plight.
12.00 We then made our way to Birkenau the biggest of the two camps. We parked up and cooked ourselves potatoes and tinned steak and then made our way towards the camp, it was huge and must have been a terrifying sight in its day to arrive how they did. We walked around for a very long time taking it all in and going to where the gas chambers and crematoria were. We both had said that we had heard of people saying about not hearing any birds well that is so true! Amongst the trees there just wasn't a single bird song the whole time we were there and we did spend a bit of time there just sitting. Also came across a group of youngsters playing a guitar and praying that was quite piognant.
Thursday
Now arrived in Krackow 11.15am. What a fantastic place. The hotel is about 35 minute walk away from the centre, so we decided after dumping our luggage to have a good look at the centre of the city. After walking in 30+ degree heat we arrived to the main centre and there was so much going on. Some kind of folk festival where different regions of Poland had gathered together in the main square. Wonderful atmosphere and loads of craft stalls, singing, dancing just lovely. We just wondered around for hours taking it all in. This is a really lovely city to visit.
Early night tonight 9.30pm knackered!
Friday
Decided we would go to Wewal Castle just on the outskirts of the old town so we hopped onto a tram, luckily I negotiated the tickets before hand although we found out that you could get them on the tram. The tram took us all the way to the castle and we then visited the huge cathedral inside and climbed up into the old bell tour, fantastic views from the top overlooking the city of Krackow. The weather is superb at the moment its just so hot. After seeing what we wanted made our way to the Jewish quarter where the germans had made a good part of it into a Ghetto during the war. Great little back streets and we found a lovely bar with a garden in the back and had lunch. Went through the main square on the way back to the trams and come across more singing and dancing and displays of Falconary, that was good to see the birds flying low over peoples heads when they weren't expecting it! Now back at hotel and knackered again although we may make the effort and go a little further than the hotel for our evening meal, maybe! On our way tomorrow for the next place in the mountains looking forward to that as well as we just don't know what we shall come across next, quite an adventure. So far we have found the people so friendly and helpful again just like last time we came to Poland.
Wednesday - The reason with coming here is so that we could visit the Concentration camps. We went to the first one Auschwitz and my first impression is the utter dispair that the people must have felt when arriving here, just no where to go there were thousands of poor soles here and to try and get away on their own even for one second just wasn't on. We looked at the barracks that are still preservered although they are now museums filled with photographs, there were a lot of original documents Why the Germans didn't get rid of them we couldn't understand. It was a shame that the documents were without any translations as we can't read german or polish oh well we got the jist of it and there were a few explanartory posters about. The one thing that really got to me was the way some of the visitors were behaving (they weren't english either probably German!) but they were taking pictures of just about everything they could, even items of childrens clothing and personal items like tooth brushes that had been taken from the prisoners. I found that just too much and so invasive of the poor peoples terrible plight.
12.00 We then made our way to Birkenau the biggest of the two camps. We parked up and cooked ourselves potatoes and tinned steak and then made our way towards the camp, it was huge and must have been a terrifying sight in its day to arrive how they did. We walked around for a very long time taking it all in and going to where the gas chambers and crematoria were. We both had said that we had heard of people saying about not hearing any birds well that is so true! Amongst the trees there just wasn't a single bird song the whole time we were there and we did spend a bit of time there just sitting. Also came across a group of youngsters playing a guitar and praying that was quite piognant.
Thursday
Now arrived in Krackow 11.15am. What a fantastic place. The hotel is about 35 minute walk away from the centre, so we decided after dumping our luggage to have a good look at the centre of the city. After walking in 30+ degree heat we arrived to the main centre and there was so much going on. Some kind of folk festival where different regions of Poland had gathered together in the main square. Wonderful atmosphere and loads of craft stalls, singing, dancing just lovely. We just wondered around for hours taking it all in. This is a really lovely city to visit.
Early night tonight 9.30pm knackered!
Friday
Decided we would go to Wewal Castle just on the outskirts of the old town so we hopped onto a tram, luckily I negotiated the tickets before hand although we found out that you could get them on the tram. The tram took us all the way to the castle and we then visited the huge cathedral inside and climbed up into the old bell tour, fantastic views from the top overlooking the city of Krackow. The weather is superb at the moment its just so hot. After seeing what we wanted made our way to the Jewish quarter where the germans had made a good part of it into a Ghetto during the war. Great little back streets and we found a lovely bar with a garden in the back and had lunch. Went through the main square on the way back to the trams and come across more singing and dancing and displays of Falconary, that was good to see the birds flying low over peoples heads when they weren't expecting it! Now back at hotel and knackered again although we may make the effort and go a little further than the hotel for our evening meal, maybe! On our way tomorrow for the next place in the mountains looking forward to that as well as we just don't know what we shall come across next, quite an adventure. So far we have found the people so friendly and helpful again just like last time we came to Poland.
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