Krakow

Krakow wound up being a delightful surprise to us. Charming, yet uncrowded and a bit undiscovered! The people were amazingly warm and welcoming... and even the food was surprisingly good! We took a very long walking tour of Krakow and saw everything from the ancient Medieval walls to Oscar Schindler's factory. We were able to learn about the very tragic history involving the Jewish population of this city - but the heroic stories of resilience as well.

We stopped for Zapikanka and Peirogi every chance we got- how did we ever get through life without these delicious snacks??!

We took a couple of day trips. One was to Wieliczka which is home to the famous salt mines. It seems there are some incredibly talented sculptors amongst those miners because they managed to carve some of the most amazing figures hundreds of metres underground. We saw a giant salt Copernicus, amazing salt cathedrals, salt chandeliers, and even a salt Last Supper!

There were also some somewhat-creepy gnomes, and I'm hoping the kids liked those and weren't haunted by them in their nightmares. No? Just me?

The most powerful part of our trip was our visit to Aushwitz. We happened to be visiting the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day (when the site is reserved for survivors and other special guests) and it was simply compelling, emotional and moving to go through the site. There are images I'll never forget- pairs of glasses and suitcases left by victims who until the very last moment were deceived about their fate. The methodical dehumanization of so many innocent individuals. There was one particular story that our guide told us at Birkenau that finally put me over the edge and in tears- I'll let you discover it, if you're interested (A film called A Love in Aushwitz.)

Although we found Warsaw to be fairly sterile after Krakow, we definitely enjoyed our trip to Poland- a bit of a hidden gem still!