Lets start this blog entry with this lovely picture taken in a taxi while on our way to Schindler's Factory this after noon!
See the temperature outside?
That's right! 41 degrees Celsius today! It was crazy hot. Thanks to the dry heat, it wasn't completely unbearable, but we didn't stay in the sun for too long.
Last blog posting I did, we were on route to Krakow from Warsaw via train and we hadn't see the city quite yet. However, we have now been to many parts of this lovely city and my first impression, either than it being 41 degrees outside, is that it is very pretty. Did I just call something pretty? Interesting enough, this city was not damaged to the same extent by the WW2. There are parts that were affected of course. Like Warsaw, Krakow also had a Jewish ghetto imposed. Christians were deported out of this part of the city and Jews from other parts were forced into the specific area.
I do apologize that these maybe hard to read. These excerpts were taken from Oskar Schindler's Factory, which is now a museum. We went to it today. Extraordinary I must say! But, I will talk more about Schindler in a bit.
Krakow is a beautiful city. It's market square is a 4 hectare rectangle with over 100 shops, restaurants, and bars. There is a giant "hall" in the middle with more shops. During the day it was hot because their is little to no shade. To stay cool you can run through a water sprinkler or have a piwo (beer) or a lody (ice cream) at a restaurant and sit under the umbrella. Here are some beautiful pictures.
Just before that I should say that at the pace mom is clicking her camera we are going to be well over 2,000 photos. I think we have some deleting to do or else I won't have anymore room on both our SD cards and on my computer we are using. Ok I won't blame her completely. I've taken a few too!
HEY! I just noticed that she was taking pictures behind me.
Dad: Mom wanted me to tell you that she found someone new.
Beautiful isn't it? Especially at night there is a beautiful breeze. These pictures may not do justice to the vast amount of the space and, of course, the beautiful architecture. Plus there are a number of side streets where there are more shops and restaurants.
However, the highlight of our trip so far, and there will be many more to come, has been from today (Thursday). Today we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Its about 10-15 minute drive from our hotel.
If you ever plan on going to Poland, this is what you NEED to see! Just make sure you come early, and spend a bit extra like we did to be with a small group tour. It gets crazy busy there. The queue was up to an hour long when we got out. We got their just after 9 and basically walked right in. Most tours at this place consisted of 30 people. We managed to have our own guide with 4 other people. So much easier. Also be ready for going down stairs. Don't have to go up as there is an elevator. Its also air conditioned to help preserve the salt and its sculptures. This was very nice, because I don't think I could have walked that much in 40 degree heat!
Here are the facts about this, followed by pictures. Again pictures may not do justice. It was quite difficult to take pictures actually.
Here we go:
- The mysterious underground city located 9 levels at 64 to 327 metres below the ground surface.
- A labyrinth containing almost 2,400 chambers connected by corridors measuring a total length of 245 kilometres.
- Our trip was 3 levels, which was 135 meters below
- About 800 steps, including 135 at the very beginning.
- Everything is made of salt. Including the walls and the floors! Also, religious sculptures including the Pope and other political dignitaries are shown. All hand carved by local miners, not artists.
The craftsmanship was as amazing as the mine itself
"cauliflower" Salt
Chandelier's made from salt!
Floors made of salt
Holy stairs!
Lick a wall?
Miner #1
Miner #2
That was pretty amazing. And the elevator ride up, in a dungy looking thing, cramped with 9 people in total, was pretty cool. Takes 50 seconds to reach the top. Thats 4 meters per second. Quite scary actually.
On our way back, our guide gave us a bit of a tour of the square. It was short due to the extreme heat. Afterwards, we got some lody and a drink. We decided to make a spontaneous trip to Oskar Schindler's factory. It is now a converted museum. Its more than what he did during the war. In fact, it is basically the entire Polish experience during the war, and the Nazi occupation. Lots of reading on the walls, and videos of people who experienced different aspects of the Nazi occupation, including people who knew and worked for Schindler, as well as, Jews and others who witnessed and went through some of the Nazi atrocities. Very interesting for sure!
Oskar Schindler was a German industrialist, a German spy, and member of the Nazi party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in Krakow. The 1993 film Schindler's List portrayed his life and story, you may remember. Great film. I need to watch it again. Along with The Pianist, another story about the wartime experience in Poland.
In 1939 Schindler obtained an enamelware factory in Krakow, Poland, which employed around 1,750 workers, of whom a thousand were Jews at the factory's peak in 1944. Some of his connections helped him protect his Jewish workers from deportation and death in the Nazi concentration camps. Initially he was interested in the moneymaking potential of the business. Later he began shielding his workers without regard for the cost. This included food during their lunch breaks.
As Germany began to lose the war in July 1944, the Schutzstaffel (SS) began closing down the easternmost concentration camps and evacuating the remaining prisoners westward. Many were killed at Auschwitz.
Schindler moved to Germany after the war, where he was supported by assistance payments from Jewish relief organizations. When he went bankrupt in 1958, Schindler left his wife and returned to Germany, where he failed at several business ventures and relied for financial support on his Schindlerjuden ("Schindler Jews") – the people whose lives he had saved during the war. It was said that he enjoyed his drinks very much! Here are a few pictures of this massive museum.
Some of this information has been taken from Wikipedia, but all of it was covered in the information from the walk through the museum. Very interesting, but also disturbing in some respects. We were somewhat shaken from the readings we did. But then again, we are going to Auschwitz tomorrow!
How about these tiles for your kitchen floor?
Well, that was a lot of writing, but I hope you find this interesting. We certainly did. It was a great day. Now we are going for some traditional Ukrainian food I believe. Tomorrow is another day, and it will be a hard one. We look forward to it, but it might be hard to see. It will make for another interesting blog post! Definitely more history!
Na żywo z Hotel Copernicus, to Reid sprawozdawczość!
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