Day 14, Sunday, September 8, 2019
We were both tired last night so we left our packing and cleaning until this morning. By noon we are on our way to Berlin. We stop at truck stop just before the Polish border to get lunch at a KFC and spend what Polish money we have left. I have never seen so many trucks in one place! There are nine rows of trucks like this parked here. There are lots and lots of trucks on Polish highways!
We pass by lots of trees that appear to be grown for timber. Their lower branches have been trimmed so that the trunks grow straight.
Not far into Germany we stop at Slawenburg Raddusch, which is a reconstruction of a fort built by Slavic people in the 9th and 10th Centuries. It is surrounded by a moat for added protection.
We find this huge fellow on our walk to the fort.
A 10 m wide wall was built in a circle. Long oak beams were alternately stacked in a criss-crossed direction and the spaces between the logs were filled with earth and stones. The almost circular inner surface with a diameter of 36 m. originally contained a few small houses and four wells.
This well is 40 feet deep. In the wells were found: ceramic fragments, knives, lance tips, whetstones, sledgehammers, bone skates, wooden mallets, spades and a rare, valuable brass bowl. The walls of this reconstructed fort use concrete, so the interior of the walls is a museum where the artifacts found in this area are on display.
We climb to the top of the wall which offers a great view of the surrounding landscape. In the 1980s, this area was strip mined for coal. Before the giant excavators ate their way through the landscape, archeologists found that the Slavs were not the first settlers in this place. Under the wall, Germanic remains from the 5th / 6th century were found. The earliest findings, however, date back to 2200 -800 B.C. Unfortunately the strip mining destroyed most of the archaeological remains in the area along with 50 villages that were here before the mining started. Imagine displacing all those people to mine coal!
This model shows what the original fort would have looked like…
and how it was constructed. The dirt used to fill the walls came from around the base of the fort and created the moat.
The “Götze von Raddusch”, an idol from 926 A.D.,made from an oak split-beam with a head-like finish and a perforation in the chest area was found in the excavation of the youngest well. This was a rare find.
I thought these straight pins for sewing were pretty amazing, considering they are so ancient.
Here is a view of part of the museum with its large display of pottery,,,
and burial pits, where cremated remains were placed along burial gifts for the deceased.
I was intrigued by the shapes of some of the pottery. All the pottery was made by hand without the aid of a potter’s wheel.
I wonder what these pots were used for?
The tour was great. We rented an audio guide for €1.5 and it was very well done. We got so much more out of the display because it. We managed to finish our visit through the museum just as it was closing at 6:00 pm. We see lots of wind-farms on our way to Berlin. We arrive in Berlin as it is getting dark and check into our home for the next two weeks.
We walked into this church and we were amazed at the size and ornateness of the interior. This photo is looking towards the altar. The walls and ceilings are decorated with painted panels added after the construction of the church was completed in 1657.
The back wall with the organ.
A view of one of the sides of the church with it’s two tiers of balconies. The spaces between the wall timbers were filled with clay and wattle.
The pulpit is extremely ornate.
A view of part of the painted ceiling.
I loved the old pews with their carved backs and worn seats.
There is a cemetery surrounding the church.
As we walked back to our car we passed this interesting door. Makes me curious about who lives here.
Next stop on our day trip is the Książ Castle, the third largest castle in Poland which dates from the 13th century. 
One of the the views from inside the castle. 
The entrance buildings and front grounds of the castle.
An old photo showing the castle atop an impressive rock cliff. It has been destroyed and rebuilt and expanded various times and in different styles (from Gothic to Baroque and neo-Classical). The latest family to reside there, was the Hochberg family, one of the richest and most influential families in Prussia. In the 14th century they transformed the original defensive castle into one of the most beautiful residences in this part of Europe. The Hochbergs lived there for many generations, until 1941, when it was confiscated by the Nazis.
Bob caught my reflection in this old mirror.
The Black Courtyard is decorated with the coats of arms of the castles many owners.
We walked through many halls, some simple…
and some very ornate. I suppose a castle with over 400 rooms needs lots of hallways and stairs, and we did climb lots of stairs.
Another view out one of the castle windows of the Chestnut Terrace with four large chestnut trees.
As always, we must remember to look up. So many of the ceilings are ornately decorated.
There was an exhibit of blown glass in some of the rooms and another view down one of the many hallways.
We weren’t able to see the Last Supper when we were in Italy two years ago (we didn’t know you had to buy tickets far in advance) but there is a Da Vinci exhibit here in the castle with a replica. Not as good as the real thing but interesting none the less.
There were replicas of many of Da Vinci’s paintings, including the Mona Lisa, and models of some of his inventions.
Looking out one of the windows we get an idea of some of the renovations and reconstruction that has taken place over the centuries. It is quite a convoluted building.
One of the restored and decorated rooms. The Nazis stripped the castle of its furnishings and paintings and it is just now being restored.
A photo showing a much more elaborately decorated room than we see today.
The Maximilian Room has been restored to its former glory. There is a balcony on either side, one for the prince’s apartments and one for the princess’s apartments, that overlook this elegant room.
And what castle would be complete without a Japanese influenced room. They were very popular.
“The castle became an important part of the 
As we finish the tour of the castle, we are led out to the gardens and terraces surrounding the castle.
The grounds are beautifully maintained.
An interesting view of the castle.
We have no idea what all these small arched nooks with their iron grates are.
As we walk back to our car we pass a pond with blooming water lilies. 
Here’s how big items get delivered!
Wroclaw has an ever growing populations of gnomes. In fact, our guidebook states “the little buggers are currently rumoured to be running rampant to the score of over 300 making it literally impossible for us to try to keep track of them!” I think they are delightful and I am happy to make their acquaintance .
and more tenement houses in the town square.
The interior of St. Mary Magdalene’s Church which dates from 1330.
We climb 147 steps up to the walkway between the two towers. In times past women suspected of being witches were forced to cross this walkway (there were no railings then) and if they made it across safely they were branded as a witch. If they fell to their death, then they were innocent of the crime of being a witch! You certainly didn’t want to be accused of witchcraft! I am very glad there are railings now and I meet another couple of gnomes.
We have great views of the city from up here.
Here is a view of the walkway, way up there between the two towers.There were steeples on these at one time, not sure if they were destroyed during the war?
More ornate colourful buildings.
I wish I knew the recipe for the bubble mixture this guy was using! He made hundreds of bubbles at a time with his string between two sticks. Kids had such fun chasing all the bubbles.
We found quite a few more of these little fellows, on doorsteps, or tucked into corners.
The two little houses in the corner called Hansel and Gretel are the only two houses left of streets that used to surround a cemetery. The cemetery closed in 1773. I wonder where the graves went?
and more busy gnomes.
and an interesting collection of artifacts. This is a chart for determining eye colour.
The Music Hall is under restoration but we are allowed a peak inside.
We. climb another 203 steps up the Math tower, which has displays along the way. 
and the views. Notice the very modern looking tower among the old.
I just love all the reflections of the old buildings in the glass walls of the modern new buildings!
Churches here are either very ornate…
or look like this. The late afternoon sun was shining through the windows casting everything in a lovely olden glow.
Then we visit the market and buy some fruit. Food prices are very reasonable here.
More reflections.
We catch a trolley bus home. We haven’t seem many paved streets or sidewalks here. Most of the streets and sidewalks here are cobbled in one fashion or another. All the uneven footing is hard on the feet and ankles. We walked 16,700 steps today and climbed the equivalent of 31 floors!
The interior of the church shines with gilded statues and ornamentation. Notice the pulpit is in the shape of a boat. 
We stop for dessert at a little outdoor cafe on the abbey grounds, some homemade pie, sherbet and Benedictine Brandy for Bob.
This was our view. We enjoyed relaxing in this peaceful spot for a while, and the dessert was yummy.
I think the structure on the right is a well but Bob thinks it is a wine press. We never did find out who was right.
Back on the highway on our way to Wroclaw. We passed these domes before on our way to Krakow. They are connected by glass tunnels. No idea what it is, but it certainly looks interesting.
Fields here are often bordered by a row of trees. I love their silhouettes against the sky. I snapped this as we drove by. We finally arrive at our apartment just as it gets dark and we are happy that it has a designated parking spot as there is absolutely no parking anywhere on the street.
We walk towards the entry gate down this aisle of photos and quotes from people who survived these camps. I was soon in tears, and we haven’t even entered the gates.
A double row of electrified barbed wire surrounded the camp.
The sign above the gate which translates to 
The gas canisters used to administer the poisonous gas in the showers.
Sorting the belongings of those who were sent to their deaths.
The Germans kept the belongings and valuables of all who arrived in the camps. They were stored in warehouses and shipped out for the use of the German population. When the camps were going to be liberated, the Germans destroyed as much of the stored belongings as they could. This were just a bit of what they collected as most of it was destroyed.
Prosthetic devices. All people with disabilities were sent to their death immediately.
Pots and dishes, piled 8 feet deep.
A whole wall of suitcases.
Both sides of this long room were filled with shoes.
Shoes of all sizes… men’s women’s, and children’s shoes.
We were not allowed to take photos in hall #5. This was the most difficult collection to view. A long room with two tonnes of women’s hair piled high all along one wall. It was so completely overwhelming and horrific. I was not the only one in tears with the horror of what this represented. It is so impossible to believe that people could do this to each other. The Germans sold bales of women’s hair to manufacturers of cloth and felt. This is only a small part of what was collected.The enormity of this is staggering
The halls of one of the barracks were lined with photos of the prisoners, none of whom survived. After a while the Germans stopped taking photos of the prisoners. I think they just couldn’t keep up with it, there were so many.
Some photos of prisoners when the camp was liberated by the Russians.
There were three people to a bed in these barracks.
The Death Wall between barrack 10 and 11. Thousands of prisoners were executed against this wall. The windows on either side were covered so the other prisoners could not see what was happening.
These panels are covered with names of the people from the Netherlands who died in this camp. 
Here is a close up.
The barracks.
The doctors and their medical experiments, which were often done on twins.
The crematorium.
The gas chamber.
And the furnaces where they burned 340 bodies every day. They couldn’t keep up so built bigger crematoriums at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
We leave Auschwitz I and after a lunch break catch a shuttle to Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
The entrance to this camp with the railroad that carried so many thousands to their deaths.
The railcars used to transport people to the concentration camps had no windows and no ventilation. Many died before they even reached the camp.
Each of the chimneys you can see in the distance was part of a barrack. I counted close to two hundred barracks on one of the Birkenau signs. The Germans tried to destroy the camp once they knew they had lost the war. 
The view from the end of the rail line, looking back back towards the entrance gives an idea of how huge this camp was.
The memorial to the victims of the Holocaust at the end of the rail line.
These were the warehouses where the belongings of the prisoners were sorted and kept before being shipped out for use by the Germans. All that is left are the footings.
A display of photos taken from the prisoners fills a large room.
I didn’t understand this quote until I walked into the next room and read that the ashes of the people who were murdered in this camp were dumped in ponds and spread on the fields as fertilizer. Human ashes can still be found in these fields and ponds today.
One of the four bigger crematoriums that was built to handle 4,400 corpses a day.
The Germans blew up the crematoriums when they retreated to try to hide what they had been doing.
There are only a few barracks remaining in Auschwitz II- Birkenau.
Here is a plan of Birkenau. the area within the yellow square of the plan houses the remaining barracks.
These three tiered bunks held 6 to 8 prisoners each. There were 500 prisoners in each barrack, with no insulation or sanitary facilities.
The interior of the Death Barrack.
Jewish people were hung along the train tracks for all to see.
Walking through this dark exhibit about the wall around the ghetto.
It was thought that starving the Jewish people was an effective way to weaken and destroy the morale of the Jewish population, especially the young people.
The corridors are covered in articles and photographs. There is so much to see and read.
More exhibits, this one of everyday life in Nazi occupied Krakow. …notice the armband that Jewish people had to wear so they could be identified as Jews.
One of the camps.
A hiding place in the cellar of a house in Krakow. Even though it meant death for anyone found helping a Jew, by hiding them or even offering food or assistance of any kind. many of the Polish people did exactly that. 
Oskar Schindler was one of these people. He really wasn’t a man of great character, he lied, cheated and stole what he could, but he was instrumental in saving the lives of 1200 Jews. He also treated the Jews working at his factory better than in any other factory or work camp. There are videos of survivors talking about their experiences during this time. 
Some of the people that were saved by Oskar Schindler. Two of the survivors became doctors and one became a Supreme Court judge. Everything in this museum is difficult to watch and listen to, but we need to know and remember what happened. I have heard it said that we need to do this so history will never be repeated, but I wonder. There is so much hatred and racism in the world today that I can no longer believe that something like this will never happen again. It is frightening wondering what the future will bring.
We stop for tea at the Modern Art Museum cafe. It gives us a chance to recover form the heavy content of the Schindler Museum. On the way out I notice this vending machine. Notice the name of the drink it dispenses. 
I try out the cement bicycles…
and Bob checks out an installation in a town square. 
Interesting artwork in one of the shops we pass.
We cross this pedestrian bridge over the river and we cannot decide how these sculpture stay right upright. They appear to be balancing on cables with no support wires yet somehow manage to stay right side up. We just can’t figure it out.
Here is an interesting way to keep an old building while erecting a new modern one! 
We stop in at a basilica near the old town which has a very impressive altar. I wonder if it is real gold on all these altars? OK, just did a bit of research and it appears that real gold foil is used.
I always peak into open doorways. They are often not very attractive doors but they sometimes open on beautiful interior courtyards and gardens.
A typical street side restaurant on our walk back to our apartment.
More street art on the way home.
This church has one of the most impressive altars in all of Poland but there is a service happening so we are not allowed in.
There are lots of horse drawn carriages for hire. I was tempted but it really felt like the rain was coming.
These are enormous, about a foot high and cost between $14 and $20 each!
This guy tried to challenge Bob to a fight, but no luck, so…
He tried to win me over! 
An interesting sculpture of Jan Matejko who was a 19th-century painter native to Kraków. He is renowned for his large oil-on-canvas paintings of historical events in Poland. 
This street leads towards the train station with its huge attached shopping mall.
One more church on the street just before the train station. It was dark inside except for the light shining on the altar.
A typical building in Krakow old town…
Juxtaposed with the interior of the train station shopping areas. It is huge, three floors with hundreds of very modern shops.
There are dioramas showing some of the old mining techniques and machinery. These men are lifting ‘salt logs’ which weighed between 200 kg and 2 tonnes. The first shaft was sunk in 1280 and salt is still mined here today. The salt was formed 13 million years ago by an inland sea.
The salt preserves the logs that are used for reinforcement. These are newer ones but we see others that are hundreds of years old.
These sculptures are carved out of salt by the miners in the 20th century. These figures illustrate the legend of how the salt mines were discovered in Poland.
Horses were used in the mines from the 16th century until 2002. Up to 350 horses worked and spent their whole lives underground. Interestingly, they did not go blind being in the darkness most of their lives.
These horses operated a machine that moved the salt logs from one level to another. There are nine levels and 2 km of shafts and tunnels but we only visit about 1% of the mine.
There are white seams of almost pure salt in some places. Most of the salt mined was between 80-90% pure. 
There are some strange creatures living in this mine.
Stairs go down and down and down…there are 800 steps that we descend in all!
Apparently gnomes make good miners!
Looking down one of the long tunnels that we are not allowed to enter.
Wow! This is St. Kinga’s Chapel. It is entirely constructed from the salt in the mine. Most of the stairs on our route are made of wood, but these two staircases we walk down are made of salt.
The miners built over
all the sculptures…
the main altar. Even the chandeliers are made of salt crystals!
This chamber connects the two levels of the mine and is 35 m. high. Because the roof is so high it needed to be strongly reinforced with all these high timbers.
Another underground brine lake. The water in these lakes is 33% salt. Ocean water is only 3% salt. Luckily we do not climb this set of stairs! They disappear in to the darkness at the top of this chamber.
One of the many long tunnels we walk through.
At one time visitors rode boats through this part of the mine and were treated to a fireworks display 90 meters underground! Today the mine has over 1.5 million visitors a year so it is impossible to still offer this experience.
There is an underground banquet hall and restaurant.
Another of the chapels we visited.
A close up of the mine walls. We were invited to lick the walls, and taste the salt. We only licked our fingers and then touched the wall so we could taste the salt. I didn’t relish the thought of actually licking the walls!
This enormous chamber is 135 meters below ground on the third of nine levels. The entire mine occupies about a 5 km x 5 km area. The ceiling here is 36 meters high and a Guinness World record was set here for an underground hot air balloon flight!
Doesn’t everyone want to ride on a turtle? I almost went right over backwards when I climbed on!
The Holy Trinity Column dominates the town square. “The column is dominated by 
We wonder what this shop sells? These figures were made out of straw. It was closed so we couldn’t go in to find out.
We climb another bell tower in the Church of St. Michael just off the square. There wasn’t any place to see outside and get a view over the city, which was too bad.
The same church had steps to a crypt so we went to explore,..
and we found this little shrine and a small pool of water.
These ladies caught my eye. 
St. Wenceslas Cathedral was originally built in 1131 and was rebuilt in the second half of the 13th century. The facade was renovated in 1999-2008. It is very impressive.
Of course the interior is just as impressive.
We visit 
More fountains in the town square as we make our way back to our car.
This bar catches my eye. I am sure I know this name and look it up. Sure enough, it is the name of a show on Netflix about a gang in England in the early 1900’s.
When we cross the border into Poland we are surprised that there is no indication that we were leaving one country and entering another. One of the interesting things about travelling is how different things are from home. Sometimes the differences are challenging and sometimes the differences make me smile. This is what I saw in the first bathroom I entered in Poland.
We were frustrated when our SIM card stops working once we cross the border. We were told it would work in all the countries we were visiting. We finally find a MacDonalds so we can contact our bnb host, who is waiting to hear from us. It is late when we finally make it to our new apartment, which wasn’t very easy to find in the dark, but we are here, and tomorrow will be a rest day for us.
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