EuroTour Day 3 & 4

Day 3 Berlin - Krakow

The road to Krakow (pronounced Krakov) took over 8 hours in which time we watched the movie "Schindler's List" in preparation of the day ahead.

Arriving at the hotel just on dark, we quickly checked in to the hotel before driving into the old Jewish Quater of the city where we had dinner at a traditional Jewish restaurant with a traditional Yiddish band playing. 

 (Me, Anya (Tasmania) and Eligh (Canada)

 (The restaurant)

(Tomato, onion and potato soup)

Day 4 Krakow/Auschwitz

 The next morning we were taken into town past Schindler's old factory before being dropped off for our city tour. We starting in the Old Jewish quater before walking through the castle and on to the town square.

(The chairs are a sign of respect for the school children killed in the Holocaust)  

 (our tour guide)

 (street of the Jewish quarter)

(David and Alessandro the Kiwis)

(Old Jewish styled cafés)

 (The river dividing Krakow in two)

(It was the Canadian National Day so a lot of people were wearing the Canadian Flag)

 (The gate to the castle)

 (Julia and Felix were our 20yr old Chaperones, same Chaperones as the Åre Ski Trip)

(All but one Aussie on the trip was present in this photo)

 (The castle courtyard)

 (Jesuit Church of Krakow)

 (Old Yedish couple)

 (David's New Zealand pendant)

 (In the centre of the town Square was an undercover market)

(The old Church had a trumpet player play ever hour from the top of the bell tower on the left)

(Joni from China with McDonalds... the international food of Exchange Students)

After having Lunch in the town square all boarded the bus and made the 1.5 hour trip to Auschwitz.

 (The crest of Krakow)

 (Outside Auschwitz I)

It was about 34 degrees, the second hottest day of the trip and was the hottest I had felt in a long while.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp was divided into 3 main camps all around a central river junction. Our first stop was Auschwitz I, the first of the three to be constructed and where 3-400,000 people lost their lives to the first of the gassings, individual executions or medical experimentation. Some prisoners were simply worked to death.

 I was only allowed to take pictures outside of the buildings

This was the execution area, in between the two medical buildings. It was in the basement of the building to the left where the first experimental gassings took place.

 (The only remaining gas-chamber with replica oven and reconstructed chimney)

We were then bussed over to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the second and largest of the Camps. Birkenau is where nearly 1 million people were killed, either by the gas-chambers, desease or starvation.

Together with Auschwitz I, approximately 1.3 million people were killed in the Auschwitz concentration camps.

 (The main 'twin' gas chambers lie in ruin at the end of the tracks)

 (All that remains of some of the sheds is the fireplaces)

Our tour guide informed us that the day after our tour would be his 5 yr anniversary as an Auschwitz tour guide. He shared our astonishment that he had survived in the job as long as he had.

 Returning to the hotel we had dinner and continued to celebrate Canada Day.

 (Joe being Joe)

 That night was the Final match of the European Football Championship so again we found ourselves searching the city to find a pub to watch Spain triumph over Italy in a landslide 4-0 making history as the only country to win the championship 2 years in a row.