Day 12 - Returning from Kracow

The train ride was suppose to be 7 hours home...it was an hour late so it ended up being 8 hours. Our train didn't have air conditioning and by the time we got home we were pretty sick of being on a train. Nathan thought the sign was funny below. The hammer of safety is behind glass that you have to break so you can break the window out if you need to.

Day 11, Tour of the Salt Mines

Day 11 is actually Sunday, June 8th. We toured the Salt Mines. They were alright. Below you'll see lots of carvings out of the Salt.

Outside of Salt Mines

Scupture made out of salt.

Scupture made out of Salt to honor a queen of long ago.

Scupture of salt.

Gnomes sculptures

Scupture in the salt of The Last Supper.

This is a sculpture of Joesph and Mary with baby Jesus.

Day 10 - Auschwitz/Bickenau

This is the most interesting (and disturbing) day of the whole trip. We first had breakfast in the basement of our hotel in this little inlet.

We had a driver come and pick us up and take us to Auschwitz where we joined a group tour. Words can not really describe this day, nor pictures but I'll do my best. By the way, the kids did fine during the tours of the concentration camps.

Auschwitz was broken down into three camps...Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II (aka Bickenau) and Auschwitz III (Monowice...a chemical plant no longer there).

We first started at Auschwitz I.

The day started with a 15 minute video about the Holocaust with some very graphic pictures of when the Soviets came and and what they found. This picture is a sculpture outside the theatre where we saw the 15 minute movie.
The gate with the famous words...."Work Brings Freedom". Which of course was a lie.

Electric fence at Auchwitz I.

Bunker where Nazi would go if they thought they were under attack.

On the grounds. We each wore a headset so we could hear the tour guide. The tour guide is the woman with the sunglasses facing us. Chuck and Mackinzi are on the left.

More grounds. Inside these building are the artifacts and pictures. A urn full of ashes, human hair (by the tons), luggage (by the tons), hair brushes/tooth brushes (by the tons), cloths, jewish prayer robes, children cloths, etc.

This is a square where they shot prisoners, hung them, and/or tortured them. The building on the right is where a lot of medical experiments and torture occured.


This is the gas chamber/crematorium standing at Auschwitz I. We walked through there. Approx 60,000 people lost their lives in this building.

The second part of the tour was at Auschwitz II (more commonly known as Bickenau).

Guard area where trains would come through.


Wooden barracks built by the prisoners. Only a few are left standing.

Bathrooms

Bunks where up to 10 individuals slept on one bunk.

Women gave birth on these slabs in the middle.

This is where the train would stop and the selection process would start. Women and children (mostly) would go to the gas chamber and strong men and children would be selected to work to death.

The gas chambers and crematorium were positioned in front of those trees. Once the people got off the train, they would walk that way thinking they would be taking a shower.

Ruins of the biggest gas chambers where millions of Jews, political prisoners, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses and many, many others went to there death. The entrance below is where they thought the "shower' was but was actually the gas chamber.

Human ash ponds.

Those white dots are not pebbles by Kinzi shoe, they are human bone fragments.

Ruins of the gas chamber/crematorium.

Memorial at Bickenau.

I'll have many more picture once I get a copy of Don's as well. He took some pictures inside the buildings. I'll post those when I get them.

After we finished the tours and went back to the hotel to eat, we decided to go geocaching. On the way there, we walked through the square where there is a lot of activity going on. There were people in some freaky costumes. Here's one...Kinzi is making friends. You give him 1 zloty and he'll let you take picture. Nathan wouldn't go near him.

Kids hanging out on a statue.

We went geocaching by this mound. Long, long, long, long, long walk.

Day 9 - Traveling to Kracow

After traveling to Kracow this past weekend, I've decided it was time to get back blogging! We took the train to Kracow which took 7 hours. It really wasn't to bad going there but they didn't have snacks and we were a little under prepared for food. We also traveled with another person from Chuck squadron. His name is Don...you'll see him in some of the pictures. Once we arrived in Kracow, we knew our hotel was just a short walk from the train station so we decided to walk. However, that didn't go so well and we headed in the wrong direction and it took more that 30 minutes to find the hotel.



The first two pictures are of our hotel room. We are staying right on the square in Kracow and it's very expensive. Our hotel room was the biggest in the hotel. At least we had our own bathroom! Many of the rooms had to share bathrooms.

Here we are leaving our hotel and walking to the square. The church you see in front of us is called Church of our Lady (or St. Mary's Church). There will be better pictures down below. Don is on the left of Chuck and Nathan.

Looking into the square. Mackinzi has her orange hood on, Nathan is in yellow, Chuck and Don.

Beautiful design on St. Mary's Church.

A grandpa having fun with his grandson in the square. There are pigeons everywhere and everyone feeds them all the time.

St. Mary's Church. Every hour a bugler comes out of the windows almost at the top and starts playing then abruptly stops. He will do this 4 times. Once on each side of the building. It stops abruptly to commemorate an unknown bugler struck in the throat by an arrow as he was playing his call to warn the city of an imminent attack.
They are in the process of building a Hard Rock cafe. The cafe isn't complete but the gift shop is already open.

Horse drawn carriage rides were available in the square.



While we were geocaching (I'll blog about that later). We walked by this construction area. These guys are hand laying a granite street.

Church of Saints Peter and Paul. The figures are the 12 apostles. Yep, that's Chuck!

Wawel Castle. The next six pictures are of Wawel Castle. We didn't take a tour but thought the castle was very pretty.

That's Chuck and Mackinzi!

Jewish cemetery that Steven Spielburg used to film Schindler's List.

Outside the Jewish cemetery that Steven Spielburg used to film Schindler's List. Don, Mackinzi, Nathan and Chuck.