Oswiecim;
Poland.Tuesday 31/08/09
Today it has been cold, windy and very wet.We have decided to stay put and spend the day at Camp. We have found a very nice place to stay for a couple of nights, it was recommended to us by an English couple from the last campsite. Located within walking distance to Auchwitz and called Centre for dialogue and Prayer in Oswiecim and it is used to educate, inform and to build bridges between the people who have been affected by the tragedy that happened here and elsewhere during WW2.
They have facilities for camping in their grounds and very good amenities as well as a very nice foyer/lounge area where you can buy coffee, tea etc as well as having free wifi. It looks more like a plush hotel and we have found the staff to be very friendly and helpful.
On Friday we went to visit the Salt mines, and on Saturday it was raining most of the day so we had a quiet day in the camper.
Sunday we caught the bus into Krakow to visit the old part of the city. We arrived quite early and decided to do a walking tour of the former Jewish quarter, synagogues, old meat market, the former main ghetto square, finishing at Oscar Schindler’s factory. We had a very good guide who gave us interesting information, explaining the history of the area, legends and customs of the people who used to live in the area.
As the tour finished outside Schindler’s factory, but did not include the museum we decided to pay our fees and go inside. It is a very new exhibition, taking you through what feels like time travel back to before World War 2 and then guiding you through the various stages of the war and how it affected the inhabitants of Krakow. It was informative, educational and moving and took far longer than we had expected.
When we finally finished it was about 2.30 and we needed to get a drink and something to eat so we found a small café in the old Jewish quarter and sat outside watching the market stalls being packed away.
We had planned to visit Wawel castle, but it was getting late and our feet were starting to hurt so we walked back into the main square and to find our bus.
Monday we decided to head to Oswiecim (Auschwitz) and although we got an early start we ended up on a motorway going in the wrong direction because (1.) it wasn’t on the map. & (2.) It wasn’t on the Tom Tom and I misread the direction of the road that it was taking us on. (It’s probably why we don’t like motorways, because once you get on them they aren’t always easy to get off. This one the first off ramp was closed so we had to go a fair way to get off and turn around.) Oh well we did eventually get to where we had planned and found ourselves in a very nice place to camp.
After booking in, checking emails and having lunch we headed off to visit the Auschwitz museum complex. We joined an English speaking tour and after the short orientation film we followed our guide through the various buildings where they have displayed some of the artifacts from the concentration camp, barracks that are how they would have been at the time, the “prison” and a small gas chamber and crematorium. Our guide was really good and it was a very informative and disturbing tour, it would be a very hard not to be moved by the mounds of shoes, glasses, baby clothes, suitcases and human hair that was on display.
After a short break, we then caught a bus over to Auschwitz 2; Birkenau where we visited some of the restored wooden barracks, the train platform and then the site of one of the gas chambers and ovens.
It was a long afternoon and we didn’t get back to camp until 7.00 pm, it had been a day of drizzle and gloom which suited the mood of the visit.
