Learning Polish

It certainly is. It's been super useful

 

I'm in Warsaw now. After another 7 hours behind the wheel and over 600km I'm happy to leave the car in the car park


This is the Glory to Sappers monument erected in 1975 to commemorate sappers defusing mines after WW2. The columns represent explosions

 

Don’t you guys get me in trouble

 

Some photos from todays walk around the old town. The stall holder was selling toilet paper with the head of Putin printed on each piece. There appears to be a lot of support here for Ukraine. The last photo was Polish soup in bread. It consisted of the broth, Polish white sausage and an egg. See how well behaved I was drinking mineral water.

 

Sorry, for delay in posting.
My last day in Warsaw saw me taking a walk to a park with a grand mansion at the edge of a lake, then I went off the explore an amazing building I’d seen the day earlier, which was the palace of culture and science. This amazing building, built during the communist times, was designed by a Russian architect. I made it back to the hotel completely knackered for a well deserved rest.

After a 90 minute drive, me and the little car made it safely to Krakow. Finding the hotel proved difficult as the city discourages as much as possible the use of cars in the old town which is where my hotel was situated. After driving around several times the Waze app was ditched in favour of Google maps which got me to the hotel straight away.

Krakow is a very beautiful city, very touristy with lots of bars and restaurants especially round the squares.
I’ve done so much walking whilst I’ve been in Poland that I think I’m going to need physio on my back and knees when I get home. Thank god for paracetamol.

Yesterday I drove to the famous Salt Mines an amazing experience, a couple of hundred metres underground. Several chambers had carved statues made from blocks of salt, including Pope John Paul the second. If you are ever in Krakow do not miss doing a tour. I finished the day at an Indian restaurant just around the corner from the hotel, which was excellent.

Today I’m driving an hour and a half away to the Auschwitz site. The guided tour in English is going to be over 3 hours long.

I’ll post up photos as soon as I can. The majority of my photos were taken on my “real” camera and it’s only the quick ones taken on my cell phone I can load here relatively quickly.

I’m starting to badly miss my cats

 

What a thoroughly awful place. I have to admit getting upset during the visit. 1.5 million people were slaughtered there and that number is hard to get your head around. Some parts of the place you were not allowed to take photos in respect for the dead. When you see the hundreds of opened cans of Zyklon B it brings it home what was done there. Also the thousands upon thousands of adult and childrens shoes and suitcases which people had written their names on.
The worst part was when we were taken to Auschwitz Birkenau which was where the real slaughtering took place.
Tomorrow is my last full day in Poland before the long drive back to Germany.

 

Last day today. I’m going to see the Oskar Schindler Factory which is now a museum and then fairly close by is the location of the Plaszow concentration camp, where the commandant Amon Goeth took great pleasure in taking pot shots at people from the balcony of his villa overlooking the camp. The villa, I believe, is still there but there’s very little left of the camp itself. Plaszow is a district south of the center of Krakow.
Because it’s such a pain driving around this town and because my feet are completely destroyed I’m going to use trams today.

 

My first night in Krakow, I joined in an anti war/Putin demonstration in the main square. There were loads of people participating and thankfully the young guy was speaking in both Polish and English.

There is huge support for Ukraine here and rightly so.

 

Right that’s my sightseeing in Poland finished. This morning I went to see the remains of the Plaszow camp. There’s nothing really left to see, except the so called Grey House at what was the camp entrance. Scattered around are info boards showing photographs and small descriptions of what life was like there by survivors.
After that I walked several kilometers to Oskar Schindler’s factory the offices of which is a museum of life under Nazi rule in Krakow. The factory itself is being used by several businesses so obviously you can’t enter.
Tomorrow after breakfast I start the long drive back home.

I’ve enjoyed my time in Poland, the food has been great (although having said that I’m going to that Indian restaurant again). Everyone has been friendly and there’s still loads to see and experience. The only negative things are the taxi drivers who can be thieving sods trying to rip people off. I’ve had this in Warsaw and here in Krakow, so always ask them how much it’s going to be before climbing in to avoid a nasty shock.