Pophotel Krakow

... 1.1 million were killed at Auschwitz)

It was an incredibly sobering experiencde. Sure I knew some facts before I got there, but to be at the actual site... The systematic, efficient and seemingly robotic system of mass killing is incomprehensible. I know it still happens today, perhaps in a different form e.g. Rwanda, Sudan, Balkans... but to see the documented and physical evidence of cold blooded brutality was really shocking.

Birkehau (or ...

... there is nowhere in Krakow that has a vantage point from which to view it, so it becomes less imposing than it could have been. Our walk took us along the river, out of town to the Kosciuszko Mound, and you can have a nicer, broader perspective of the castle from the riverbank. For more information about the DVD "FOOTLOOSE IN BUDAPEST PRAGUE & KRAKOW" you can visit our website www.grindelwald.co.uk or even buy one from Amazon UK!

... a lucky city because it is the only Polish city that has not had any of its city destroyed in war. We saw the old university, the same university Pope John Paul II attended during WWII secretly when the Nazis shut it down. We headed up to the castle and it was just beautiful up there. The city is so cute and the castle was great! Afterward, we were free to roam the city on our own and check out all of the shops and fun things sold in Krakow. We ...

... statement is quite accurate as there are many nice places to hike near Zakopane and the place is over run with tourists. By the time we got there, we did not have a lot of time to track down a good hike, so we settled for having some lunch (mmm ... trout perogies), walking around the town and then stopping in a park to relax and through the disc around. After awhile we decided to hop the bus back to Krakow to make it an early night before a long travel day tomorrow.

... tower we had a nice view of the city. After the Cathedral, we headed down to the riverside to find the statue of the Wawell Dragon, said dragon having once terrorized Wawell Hill. It was only stopped when a local youth tricked it into eating a bag of sulfur; it then proceeded to drown at it tried to drink river water to remove the sulfer. We found the dragon, some vendors selling stuffed dragon toys, and watched kids feed swans in the river. Back to ...

... a different type of dome and spire on them. We walked around a little bit and then went back to the square for some lovely outdoor eating. Buy pure luck we found an AMAZING Italian restaurant and ate until our stomachs couldn't fit any more. We planned a tour to Auschwitz later that afternoon, so we went to the meeting point after lunch. It took about an hour to get there, even in the pouring rain (which I don't think our bus driver noticed because we ...

... in nowheresville, Poland does NOT speak English. So basically alot of pointing to food products, flashing of credit cards, and shrugging of shoulders went on before I ended up with a salami and gouda sandwich (which actually turned out to be DELICIOUS!) However, once we arrived in Krakow, Poland really came alive. For those of you who don't know, Krakow is this medieval town that has a huge town square with little ...

... skipped the long line up and got in for a tour straight away. We headed down about a million stairs underground and, with wobbly knees, we started the tour. The tour guides were everything they had been cracked up to be. A brief synopsis follows (best read with heavy Polish accent): " Everything here is saaalt. The floors are saaalt. The ceilings are saaalt. The walls are saaalt. The statues are saaalt. You may lick the walls, but please ...

... the photos that we had seen of him in Libya, many were of him with a bushy beard, no shirt, small shorts, boots and puffy socks doing handstands over points that he had marked. He seemed spry as ever as he bound through the thick, bright green, sponge like moss that covered the forest floor. Trying to avoid marshy patches always left us many paces behind him and we would only catch up when he stopped to pick wild berries for the dogs. "Good veetamins," he would say, then bound ...

... the evening with Fil's friend. Anyways, I am off to book hostel nights and a bus ride for when I get to London again and then off to Scotland. I am leaving Krakow next Thursday at 6:40am ICK!!!!! Talk to you all soon..... Em P.S. I probably will not have new entries until after the weekend as we are planning a trip to a town near the Polish mountains.....