On a personal note ...

Country no. 32  ...  Poland

I've just returned from a lovely visit to Poland, specifically the beautiful city of Krakow. It wouldn't quite rate as a relaxing holiday as there's too much to see and do; and the main purpose of my trip was to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau (more of that later).

One of the first things we came across as we started to explore to Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter, was a Banksy painting. Just a wee added bonus on our trip.




                                                                                                                                                            Krakow is a city of churches, trams, horses and amazing architecture ...

The Hotel Tournet where we stayed was very conveniently located and a place I would definitely recommend.

 

We had a fab day trip to the Wieliczka Salt Mines which include dozens of salt statues plus four chapels, including St Kings's, carved out of the salt. In addition to 778 steps!!!

Just a few of the 778 steps we went down.

One just has to lick the wall to check out its saltiness!!

My trip also included lots of other sightseeing and plenty of eating - Polish food is good!! ...

Whilst there was a lot of pleasant tourist stuff to do in Krakow the main purpose of my visit was to go to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi concentration and extermination camps between 1940-45; as well as the Oskar Schindler Factory Museum.  

There is little that I want to actually say about the places I visited ... I would rather allow the photos to speak for themselves.

Oskar Schindler is credited with saving the lives
of 1,200 Jewish people by employing them in his
enamelware and ammunitions factories.

Plac Bohaterow Getta, also known as Ghetto Heroes Square, is 'furnished' with 70 metal chairs representing Jewish inhabitants who were rounded up an sent to concentration camps. Each chair represents 1,000 people!!! 

Auschwitz-Birkenau

'Arbeit Macht Frei' - Work brings freedom

On a lighter note, I also got to spend two lovely days with Ania & Oliwia Fujak who were both students when I worked in Scotland. We had a marvellous two days in Zakopane. Unfortunately, because of weather and volume of traffic the two hour drive there took us almost four!! 

 

This is where we stayed overnight.

All in all, it was a wonderful and memorable trip.