Hotel Kongresowy - Exbud Kielce

... to a Polish woman, he had never learned the language, stating proudly that he was "part of the resistance movement." For another, he was waiting for his wife to show some friends around Auschwitz, but refused to go in himself. This I could understand, given how terrible the place is. But when we found out that we didn't really know where we were staying that night, he offered to let us join them for dinner and stay at their home. Their town was pretty much NOT on ...

... as the 11th century and it was regarded as a major natural asset of the Kingdom of Poland. According to a legend, the salt in Wieliczka costituted the dowry of St Kinga (from Hungary) when she married Duke Boleslaw (Poland). This salt dowry was transposed to here magically by an angel and asked the locals to start digging and there will be salt. Due to the danger of the mining, locals working in the mine created areas or caves of underground ...

... et autres objet en sel rose vendus dans les boutiques pour touristes) et d'élément en magnifiques blocs de sel pur et blanc, celui-là a été trouvé tel quel dans deux "poches" de la mine. La mine comporte aussi ses lacs et ses rivières, l'eau est saturée de sel et reflète les jeux de lumières. Plus loin encore, puisqu'on est pas claustrophobe, il y a un musée qu'on visite un peu en quatrième vitesse ...

... polonaise tomatée, j'opte pour des nalesniki, de généreuses crêpes farcies aux épinards avec une sauce à l'ail, délicieux. Cernik et nalesniki au fromage blanc et fruit pour le dessert. On reprend notre visite de la ville, la nuit va bientôt tombée (vers 16h!) un petit tout à la basilique Ste Marie, on triche, on entre par l'entrée des fidèles, je suis stupéfaite de leur piété il y a la queue au ...

... ended up getting dropped off at Kalwaria....in the middle of nowhere. Literally. There was nobody around and the bus left. Where was I to go? Again, no phone reception. So I went up some path that led through the woods and by some random houses. Soon enough I ran into some older lady! She was going up the same place as I! She was on a pilgrimmage but got separated from them. She told me she already had three heart surgeries. That made me a tad bit nervous because it was ...

... nests) and each gniazdo made quite an effort to put together a really nice gate. They were quite imaginative and beautiful but significantly different from what we would do, as we do not use any nails in anything we build. Here all the gates and woodwork was made from nails, and really not rope was used. Since our group did not have a set program of what to do on any occasion, below are highlights and thoughts on ...

... It was great to see my brother after 11 months. He had come to Poland to visit for 2 weeks, and during the trip he proposed to his girlfriend Stef! Whoo hoo, a new sister in law!. We stayed at the house for the evening, catching up with Stryjek and Lukasz and having a meeting of 4 Rewkowski's who had probably never sat in the same room together except maybe once when Maciek was an infant. Great reunion for the Rewkowski's!

... and inquired about Rosh Hashana services the following day. Unfortunately, the only service available was not only in Polish, but it was also orthodox. That meant Chad and I would have to split up, so we regrettably declined. Although Chad was more than willing to participate, the Judaism I desire to share with my husband does not include praying/meditating separately. We talked of how we would celebrate the Jewish New Year, and thought of ways we could incorporate the traditions ...

... belongings of those who suffered at the camp, some with explanations of what the buildings were used for, some dedicated to particular countries who suffered during these times. It was a lot to take in. We however found it a bit too much like a tourism circus. Christie found it particularly hard to deal with and felt it was a bit like going to death camp disneyland. People just showed such little disrespect we couldn´t believe it. At the end of our visit we went to the cremation ...

... arranged everything again after listening to our driver talk to the café workers. There was no single word we were able to even guess... The museum opened at 8AM and we met up with our guide. She was very knowledgeable about Auschwitz and told us about her ...