Day 17 - 13 April 2019 Saturday - Krakow - Day trip to Auschwitz and Salt Mine

Cold today and I have a cold, but I am soldiering on like the good little trooper that I am.

Today is a full day out, getting picked up by the bus at the hotel at 8.20am and then returning at about 8.00pm.  However after today I have three days in Krakow with nothing much organised apart from visiting the obligatory, castles, cathedrals and museums including the museum located at Oskar Schindler's factory of Schindler's List fame (or of the book Schindler's Ark written by the Australian author Thomas Kenneally that the movie was based on).

At 8.20am, as arranged I am picked up at the hotel by a mini bus for the journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau with 8 tourists already on board.  There are 2 youngish English couples and one couple's daughter, Millie or Minnie, I was never quite sure which, and an Australian couple, Brian and Rae, about my age, from Rye. 

Auschwitz-Birkenau is the complex of concentration camps created by the Germans in WW2 and is about 70 kilometres out of Krakow.  The camp is comprised of 2 separate facilities, the first being an old Polish army barracks that the Germans used as the basis for the Auschwitz concentration camp and the second was the Birkenau camp that was built from scratch.  The images that you maybe familiar with; the trains arriving at the camp, the selection process etc actually took place at Birkenau.  Birkenau also had the largest gas chambers and crematorium, although Auschwitz also had a smaller gas chamber.  Between them the two camps were responsible for the deaths of between 1.1 and 1.5 million people, the majority of them Jewish.

Auschwitz

Auschwitz

Birkenau

Birkenau

Salt Carving in the Salt Mine

Chapel in the salt mine with salt chandeliers

As you could imagine a visit to these two camps was a very sobering experience.  The atmosphere was also heightened by it being very cold, grey and bleak.  The Birkenau camp is also on a flat open plain and the cold was bone chilling.  Although the tours of both facilities were well organised, due to the volumes of people going through they were a little rushed particularly at Auschwitz and we didn't really get any time for quiet contemplation or to try and absorb the magnitude of what we were experiencing.

After leaving Auschwitz-Birkenau we drove back towards Krakow and after a late lunch (miner's plate for me, two sausages, a heap of potatoes and a mountain of sauerkraut served in a sizzling fry pan), we visited the salt mine at a place whose name I cant remember.  Anyway this is a proper underground salt mine that has been in operation since 1500 something.  I was a little disappointed as I expected a salt mine to be all white shiny reflective crystals, but no, underground salt is a dirty grey and almost rock like.  Anyway it was quite interesting and warmer than above ground level.

Back at the hotel by about 7.00 after a big day and a day with a significant emotional impact.

Fun Facts:  On the way back from a concentration camp nobody wants to have a sing song on the bus.

Step count: 9,351

Observation: I have fallen behind with the blog but will catch up over the next couple of days.