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Oct 07, 2007

Beautiful Krakow

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Krakow;
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Auschwitz

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Beautiful Krakow.  What a place.  We said goodbye to Ted in Prauge and set off to Poland. We had heard of how beautiful Krakow was so we couldn't miss the opportunity being so close. It certainly was a great suprise to the three of us. This is truely a fantastic place that is finally walking out from behind the iron curtain. Krakow had all the beautiful things of Western Europe without the crowds. We spent the day on a walking tour learning so much about the plight of the Polish people through history. We also go to see the places where the late Pope John Paul II was bishop and cardinal.

We could not go to Krakow without going out to see the very insanity of the Nazi and the deaths camps of Auschwitz Birkenau where the Nazi's had developed the 'final solution'. It is truely shocking to hear of the things that happened to the people in these camps. It is very chilling and a reminder of the things people will do and endure.     
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The main street down from the park that surrounds the city to the town hall. This used to be the moat around the old town
Beautiful Krakow town square.. These pictures don't do it justice. It is surrounded by old buildings and houses. This is the old cloth
Ted eat your heart out (but by now he is somewhere in Austria with Homer). We found him the perfect BBQ of delites. I was in
The main street down from the park that surrounds the city to the town hall. This used to be the moat around the old town wall. Beautiful Krakow town square.. These pictures don't do it justice. It is surrounded by old buildings and houses. This is the old cloth hall. Ted eat your heart out (but by now he is somewhere in Austria with Homer). We found him the perfect BBQ of delites. I was in heaven.
Inside the old cloth hall they still hold markets to this
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A fraction more of the town square. The tower on the right holds a small apartment in the top left tower where a guard stays for 24 hour shifts playing the bugel on the hour. He stops half way through as the original player 100's of years ago was shot with an arrow while telling the town they were about to be
Inside the old cloth hall they still hold markets to this day. A fraction more of the town square. The tower on the right holds a small apartment in the top left tower where a guard stays for 24 hour shifts playing the bugel on the hour. He stops half way through as the original player 100's of years ago was shot with an arrow while telling the town they were about to be attacked.
This is heading up to the top of the hill where the castle, cathedral and administration buildings
This is up the top of the castle that overlooks the whole city. There is an ancient church up there
This guy ... it
This is heading up to the top of the hill where the castle, cathedral and administration buildings are. This is up the top of the castle that overlooks the whole city. There is an ancient church up there aswell. This guy ... it's pronounced differently...quirky point... is our Mount Koziosko guy. He was a Polish mercenry that went around in different wars.
Pope John Paul II was born in a little town outside Krakow and was a bishop in Krakow and used to visit here regularly. Here is his seat in the Cathedral he used to visit across from the Bishops
Our tour guide told us about this gem of a restaurant and we well and truely stuffed
We visited the death camp of Auschwitz Birkenau which was an absolute eye opener. An important part of anyones growth but very disturbing. It was good going to Dachau first which had contained prisoners but was not a death camp. You can definitely see the same model and system that was used in Dachau here but much
Pope John Paul II was born in a little town outside Krakow and was a bishop in Krakow and used to visit here regularly. Here is his seat in the Cathedral he used to visit across from the Bishops house. Our tour guide told us about this gem of a restaurant and we well and truely stuffed ourselves. We visited the death camp of Auschwitz Birkenau which was an absolute eye opener. An important part of anyones growth but very disturbing. It was good going to Dachau first which had contained prisoners but was not a death camp. You can definitely see the same model and system that was used in Dachau here but much more extreme.
These were the original prisoner blocks until they made Birkenau 3 kms away for the overflow. Some of these blocks are museums now that our guide took us through. I can't express to the people back home how horrible this side of the nazi reign was. They made money off everything. One room was full of hair
Here is the roll call area. You can not believe how cold it gets here. Everyone had to stand every morning in the roll call area, in snow, rain, whatever. This is the weak little guard shelter so he didn
This is the wall of death where individuals were liquidated if they had survived too long in the camp. The average lifespan in the camp before you were worked to death was 2 - 3
These were the original prisoner blocks until they made Birkenau 3 kms away for the overflow. Some of these blocks are museums now that our guide took us through. I can't express to the people back home how horrible this side of the nazi reign was. They made money off everything. One room was full of hair that was shaved from the dead after they were taken from the gas chamber. The hair was then sent to a factory and made into soldiers uniforms. That is a tiny part of the horror that just can't be expressed in photos. Here is the roll call area. You can not believe how cold it gets here. Everyone had to stand every morning in the roll call area, in snow, rain, whatever. This is the weak little guard shelter so he didn't get wet. Many many prisoners would die on this area. This is the wall of death where individuals were liquidated if they had survived too long in the camp. The average lifespan in the camp before you were worked to death was 2 - 3 months.
This is one of the enormous gas chambers (showers) that wasn't destroyed by the SS Guards before
I just can't explain how horrible this place is and how lucky we are to not have this political reign in our lives. Concentration camps are still used in some places to this day in the world
This is 3kms away in Birkenau where the death trains would bring the Jewish families right into the camp before they were to go through a rough selection. Left you live long enough to be worked to death and right you go for a shower. All women and children went for a shower. There were massive storerooms of
This is one of the enormous gas chambers (showers) that wasn't destroyed by the SS Guards before liberation. I just can't explain how horrible this place is and how lucky we are to not have this political reign in our lives. Concentration camps are still used in some places to this day in the world !!! This is 3kms away in Birkenau where the death trains would bring the Jewish families right into the camp before they were to go through a rough selection. Left you live long enough to be worked to death and right you go for a shower. All women and children went for a shower. There were massive storerooms of suitcases and belongings that the SS Guards would sell or reuse for other prisoners.
The teasing slogans of properganda from the SS
One of the biggest gas chambers in the world at the end of the railway tracks to death. The Nazi's destroyed everything they could in the last weeks before liberation on the order of Himmler. They thought they could hide everything. They even went to the lengths of keeping blocks of Jewish families separated
The memorial that is next to the gas chambers at the back of the
The teasing slogans of properganda from the SS Guards. One of the biggest gas chambers in the world at the end of the railway tracks to death. The Nazi's destroyed everything they could in the last weeks before liberation on the order of Himmler. They thought they could hide everything. They even went to the lengths of keeping blocks of Jewish families separated and well fed for when they were inspected. The memorial that is next to the gas chambers at the back of the complex.

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