In the bleak midwinter
It was the first fall of snow we had seen and made the trip out to Auschwitz a very long and slow one as our coach struggled along the back-roads in a tail of vehicles moving at little more than 40kph.
Articles tagged as 'kraków'
Poland 2006: Part 2
Birthday Boy
Certain rules have to be followed with my father for birthdays and one is that he likes his balloons and jelly. Thus JJ and I had taken balloons with us along with party blowers so we could annoy them by making duck noises outside the adjoining door between the two rooms. One wonders what other clients thought of all these carrying ons.
Poland 2006
A look back at Poland
At the airport we discovered that neither JJ nor I could get money out of our French bank accounts and it wouldn’t be until Tuesday morning that we discovered that the reason was that the limits on our withdrawals was so low as to be practically zero. Thankfully I ply my bank with chocolate and buns at Christmas so the matter was sorted within minutes of the call.
Poland 2005: Auschwitz in summer
It is hard to take in the figures
Visitors take the same walk as one and a half million others once did—towards the gas chambers.
The Visitors of today—leave again.
Poland 2005: Salt Mines
Kraków Town
This enormous square is 200 metres on each side and was one of the largest of the Middle Ages. In the centre stands the Cloth Hall which now houses about all the boutiques that a tourist and searcher of souvenirs could wish to find. Unlike the days of Communism where everything had a fixed price—now it does pay to look from stall to stall for the best deal.
Poland 2005: Wawel Hill
Wawel Castle
The castle was the seat of power until 1596 when Zygmunt III moved the capital to Warsaw. A rather interesting connection for me here is the fact that Zygmunt (Sigmund) was from the Swedish ruling house: the Vasa family; who were responsible for the boat that Johnny and I saw in Stockholm.
Poland 2005: Kraków
Off to Poland
A few minutes walk though takes you out onto the banks of the Vistula River and from there I could see the arched Pilsudski Bridge which was the route taken by the Jews as they left their homes on being moved into the Podgórze Ghetto.