Well, our Europe trip has officially begun. We have just finished four days in Krakow Poland and I have to say it has been the perfect start! Full of interesting history, wondrous sights and sounds and good food. Hopefully our good times will continue to roll. Frankly, the main reason we came here was to go to Auschwitz. I know, it seems macabre, especially since it was on Lennie’s birthday, but we knew it held a lot of historical significance. When you go through Auschwitz, you have to have a guide, which we did. We ended up having to sign up for a tour, since all the individual tickets were gone for that day. The tour was a blessing in many ways. We didn’t have to worry about bus transport, getting lost, etc. And we met interesting people on the tour (always a plus) and we also got to go to the salt mine, which was quite impressive. Also, we didn’t have to wait in the super long line to buy tickets. We arrived in the morning and it was appropriately rainy, so quite gloomy. It’s interesting that when you tour in the summer, it is packed, so you have lines of people going through the buildings and it kind of reminds you of the jews being corralled when they first arrived. The tour is a well oiled machine and you have to stay with your group. I think we managed to experience this without falling apart by keeping some emotional distance. Plus you are insulated just by the fact that there are so many people there! Here are some pictures from the Auschwitz Museum:

Wieliczka Salt MIne

This place was massive! Imagine taking a tour that lasts more than two hours! We walked down many, many levels and saw several huge chambers. This dates back to the 1300s! There are many statues and sculptures in the chambers, all carved of salt. The most impressive part was at the end, where there is a huge chapel where everything is carved of salt. Talk about impressive! There were also some salt lakes down there. Luckily, we took an elevator back up, but had to walk forever just to get to the elevator. Once again, the tours were very well organized and timed just so the next group could enter that spot. After all, they have 10,000 visitors a day during the summer! So here are some highlights from the salt mine.

Old Town- other Krakow Sights

We had three days to really explore Old Town. This is a delightful, well preserved city. We spent almost the entire first day at the Wawel Castle! It was only a 10 minute walk from our Air B-n-B to the Old Town and everything was in a relatively small area. Sometimes I felt like we were in Disneyland! It didn’t seem like it could be real- it was that fun! We also enjoyed the music we heard- from amazing accordion music to the organ of St. Mary’s Cathedral! We also visited the Jewish Quarter- which used to house more Jews than any other place in the world! And now! Not many! We also went to a museum that showed what it was like during the communist years after WWII. Man, they had it rough then! Hardly any food, not many freedoms, and a lot of propaganda. So of course, it led to revolutions. Now it seems the Polish people are doing well. People here seem down to earth, approachable and many people here speak English. And of course, we had to try the local food. Not the healthiest options, but I have to say, it was tasty. There was a pierogi festival going on, but our Uber driver told us we would get better pierogi at a certain restaurant in the Jewish Quarter, so we went there. They were very good, but we still went to the peirogi festival and sampled more! It’s a good thing we have to walk a lot!