Day 3 - Wieliczka Salt Mines

Our third day in Krakow took us to the famous salt mines and what an amazing place!  Everything from the floors to the walls to parts of the chandeliers hanging down are made of salt!  Utterly fascinating and beautiful!  A working mine since the 13th century, it is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  The mine has miles and miles of passages, with only 1% (2.2 miles) of them being on the tourist route.  The mine also has underground lakes, dozens of historical and mythical statues all carved from rock salt, a large chapel...all from salt!  Our local guide in the mine was witty and fun - she gave a great tour!

The front of Wieliszka

All smiles

One of many statues made of salt

A recreation of the story of how the mine came to be...
A princess, an engagement, a gift to her country, a ring in the mine
and a surprise find in the first salt that was mined.

Working the mine

The chapel, made completely of salt, where services are still held

Do you see the "mistake" in the carving?

 A friend of the mine, carved in salt

Tour guide Kyla

And Brendan...looking sharp in uniform

Following our tour of the mines, we headed back to the Rynek area and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon around town taking a second look at some places, like the Barbican and Florians Gate, Cloth Hall (thought to be oldest 'mall' in the world), a stop for snacks in the market, and then a little shopping followed by...cupcakes :)

Cloth Hall

My cuties

Barbican

Who knew they had transition lenses back then?

Cracking up over this one.  Kyla thought it was so funny!

The happiest man in Krakow...beer and Polish sausage = heaven

After the market, we headed back over to Wawel to see the fire breathing dragon actually breathe fire and wrap up our day.  Just a couple other things to note...we did eat at what is know as a "milk bar" - delicious and super cheap food, hit Cupcake Corner one last time, and saw several other cathedrals like Saint Peter and Paul's Church.

The dragon...

Ahhh, the elusive fire on camera...love the lady jumping out of the way.  Ha ha ha!!!

We loved Krakow!  Our next day...back to the train station to catch the train back to Warsaw.  Now that was an adventure so stay tuned...

Day 2 - Auschwitz and Birkenau

Our second day in Krakow was a day trip out to the concentration camps where we met up with a private guide.  She was excellent and very thorough.  We could tell she was a little concerned about how much to say with the kids, but we told her we had talked about it before and to tell us what she would any other group.

She proceeded to walk us through the bunks and various buildings, some looking as they did and some  with photos and displays.  We went through Auschwitz first.  I took some photos, mostly outside.  I could have taken more inside, but to be perfectly honest, it just didn't feel right to take pictures of many of those things...display cases full of suitcases, shoes, combs and brushes, dishes...these people were lied to, told they were being relocated to another country, to take their most important belongings...some even paid money for their "relocation" - only once they were herded into train cars in deplorable conditions and arrived at the camps where "selection" occurred as they stepped out of the train car and many were immediately marched to a gas chamber did they realize their fate.  I think the most disturbing display for me was the piles of human hair.  They would actually collect it and send it to be used in making textiles.

Front gate

A view down the 'street' in Auschwitz

The shoes...thousands of them and this is maybe only 1% of what passed through these gates

Memorial at the sight of the firing wall

Guard stand where the Nazi would stay dry while the daily count of prisoners was taking place

At the end of the tour here, we walked through what had been the gas chamber and crematorium.  This facility was too small...so nearby, Birkenau was constructed.  Instead of brick construction buildings, it had wood bunks and for over a year, no running water.  Conditions were intolerable and the crematoriums in this facility were much larger and there were several of them.  I don't think I need to explain any further... I could give you more details and tell you some of the things our guide told us, but let me say, it is even worse than you can imagine.  Here are some photos from our second stop - Birkenau.

The tracks down the middle of Birkenau

Inside a bunk house - multiple people in each bunk, each house
holding hundreds (maybe even a thousand) people

A train car - inside would be as many as a hundred or more
people, one bucket for water, one for waste.  People
could be in one of these cars for days or even weeks
depending on where it was coming from.

The memorial at Birkenau

Plaques in every language of a person who lost
their life here, plus a plaque in Englis

The remains of what was once a very large crematorium

On either side of these tracks, the brick chimneys that remain of all the
wooden bunk houses stretch as far as you can see.

It was a solemn day, lots of learning, lots of history...but also a very real lesson in tolerance and compassion for all people.

Once back in Krakow, we searched out a restaurant that had great reviews and the efforts paid off - fun atmosphere, decorations, and amazing traditional Polish food to match!

Our last stop of the day...
Cupcake Corner :)

Poland!!!

As promised...Poland (and pierogi and potato dumplings and...)

Poland has been at the top of my list of places to visit, so we decided if we were going, we were going full out and made stops in both Krakow and Warsaw.  We set off on Saturday, March 31 and arrived in Warsaw where we met our driver who was taking us to the train station to head to Krakow for the first part of the week. He was so sweet and knew we had several hours before our train, so he offered to drive us around Warsaw for a little bit.  We, of course took him up on the offer and he took us around for about 30 minutes pointing out various buildings and sights.  He was very excited to show us the new stadium that was just been built for the European Football Championship (soccer) - very cool!

He then dropped us off at the train station and we made a quick stop to eat before we caught our train.  We thought we were so prepared and all we had to do was hop on the train, but we realized just shortly before that although we had tickets for the train, we did not have seat assignments, so we jumped in line and were able to secure our seats.  We made it down to the platform and wouldn't you know, two trains pulled up at the same time, so we had a moment of panic trying to figure out which train was the correct one, but managed to hop on and were on our way!

We arrived in Krakow and were greeted with...snow falling.  Ha!  Later in the week when we were having a particularly interesting weather day, we heard a tour guide comment that only in Poland could you get all 4 seasons in one day!  Spencer and I had to laugh - sometimes Stavanger is like that too!  We checked into our hotel - the Novatel, very nice :) - and took in our fantastic view from our window!  We had a perfect view of Wawel Castle!

We then set off in search of dinner and lucky for us, the Hard Rock Cafe Krakow wasn't too far away :)  After a good, American-themed dinner, we turned in for the night because our guided city tour was the next morning!

Our first tour was the city tour and it happened to also be Palm Sunday.  We started our tour in the Jewish Quarter and made our way through various sections of the city, made a stop at Wawel Castle, and then headed toward the main square called Rynek, the heart of the city.  Here, we heard about St. Mary's Basilica and got a quick peak inside.  Due to Palm Sunday services, it was a bit harder to see the insides of the cathedrals and take photos, but let me say, the glimpses we had were spectacular!  We also noticed that the people did not carry palm branches, but instead these (see the photo) in all sizes and designs.  They were being sold all over the market square as well.

Our tour guide was this older woman and obviously loved doing the tours.  She had no qualms about parading our little group through mass services and telling other groups to move out of her way so she could show us something or another.  She had a pocket full of little candies and kept giving the kids treats and at the end of the tour, I think she emptied her pockets and gave them the rest!
Here are some photos from our city tour.

Jewish Quarter

Memorial in Jewish Quarter to Polish Jew victims of Holocaust

Jewish cemetery and various plaques and memorials

Wawel Castle area - gold domes building is the private cathedral

The fire-breathing dragon that protects the castle

Candy!

In the Jagiellonian University area - Krakow is home to about 285,000 students

St. Mary's Basilica

Once our tour ended, we stayed in the market square to enjoy lunch and wander around a bit.  We enjoyed the big Easter market!  We had our first taste of pierogi (and fell in love!)  Later, we found Cupcake Corner (thanks for the tip, Deb!) and ended up there 3 times in 3 days!

Lunch time :)

Pottery in the market - yes, I bought a small piece!

Kids' favorite statue..."the huge head" :)  

Decorations in the square for Palm Sunday and Easter

The old city walls - Barbican just past Florians Gate.  Interesting to note that Krakow was a closed city and the walls would open each morning and close each night with the signal being the chimes from St. Mary's

Cupcake Corner = heavenly

My handsome guy with his cappuccino.  Look at that smile...

I took so many pictures, it is hard to only include a few!

So, that was Day 1 in Krakow...next stop, our day at Auschwitz and Birkenau.  I will save that for the next blog.