Hotel Glob Oswiecim

... taken there thinking they would be starting a new life. They were encouraged to pack suitcases and their whole family would be transported to the camp. But right when they got off the train there was the infamous "dividing platform." This is where a Nazi doctor would give the signal to the SS officer of whether the next person would go left or right. Left was to the concentration camp grounds and right was to the gas chamber. The elderly, the disabled, and the children ...

... are passing through the blocks steadily and each person has a set of headphones and a receiver set on the channel of their guide. Otherwise it would be a cacophony of incomprehensible sound as guides would try to shout over each other. This part is actually pretty good though as you can lag a tiny bit behind for a photo and not miss any of the information being imparted.
We passed through the infamous gates with the slogan “Albeit Mach Frei” which I had ...

We have been in Poland nearly a week now, when we got here it was jumpers and jeans weather, it didn't stop raining for days and it felt like the summer had come prematurely to an end, so we didn't stay in the mountain region in the south west, you wouldn't have guessed the weather was bad though the Poles packed the resorts out completely, this was probably the busiest we had seen any holiday destination in Europe, come rain or shine the Poles won't let the weather spoil there holiday. But ...

We knew we would be up early but 6 a.m. was too early. We were told someone was coming here at 5 a.m. to work, but we didn't know what it would be or how noisy. A big truck came in to empty the holding tanks and it is just behind us.

We got out of bed at 7 and it was already warm. Breakfast over we packed up and drove to the parking lot to begin our visit to the Auschwitz Birkenau. German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940 ...

... dish of veal mince wrapped in cabbage and covered in mushroom sauce...mmmm) and of course a Zywiec beer. The second day we went to Auschwitz which sobered us up pretty quickly. Everyone knows it was the biggest concentration and mass extermination camp during the Nazi occupation of Europe but it is really weird to be there. The scale of the place was incredible, just so many buildings and gas ...

I have been in Krakow since last Monday, as I took the overnight train from Prague and bus from Karlovy Vary. I had the fortune of booking a sleeper and had it to myself but it was so cramped even for me, and it was for 3 people! Anyway, it is another wonderful city, biggest old market square in Europe which was not damaged during the war. The Jewish quarter is just off the square, pretty much reflecting life in the late 1800s and early 1900s ...

... to be just reaching the peek of its popularly as a tourist destination, so you can find people who speak English (to our great dismay, we have been unable to master Polish in the 4 days we've been here, apart from "please" and "thank you"), and there are nice hostels to stay in etc. But the brilliant thing about this place is that the ...

... way to spend the afternoon except I gave away my sudokus to another traveller who had gone away for the weekend a couple of weeks ago and handed gone home yet. Nice to chill out. Later a guy from America turned up with a Budapest marathon T-shirt on. I asked and yes he was here for the marathon. He is studying medicine in Budapest; his family are from there originally, so he has no problems with the language. He's done a few marathons and 50 milers. He wasn't ...

... is Ivana and it is my pleassure to be your guide..." Helen could have sworn she purred when she said it. The mines are amazing. Dark grey salt, hacked and smoothed out into hundreds of egg-shaped rooms decorated with sculptures of Polish heroes (including, of course, Pope John Paul II who visited as a kid), scenes from the bible and the obligatory dwarves. The highlight was probably the immense underground church where three miners had carved 3-d wall ...

... det i lett regn. Høye gjerder med piggtråd omgav disse nå så frodige og grønne slettene, som under krigen var søleveier. Denne leiren ble bygd i perioden okt. 1941 til mars 1942, og skulle da kunne ta imot 100.00 fanger. På det meste var det opptil 250.000 fanger her, og man lå opptil 12 fanger i en seng. Se kart over området til Auschwitz II - Birkenau her: http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/z/index.php? option=com_content&task=view& ...