Sept 9, Krakow Sightseeing II

Sept 9, Krakow sightseeing, Salt Mine and Auschwitz-Birkenau

We sleep well, and have decided not to eat breakfast at the hotel. It is convenient, but expensive. We walk a few blocks to the Logos Hotel, our pick-up site for the tour. Other tourists are waiting for the tour and we chat with a man who owns property in Sun City. Small world. The small shuttle bus takes us to the main bus lot. We again have Jane as our tour guide, but just to the mine and back. It is about a 30 minute ride the Wieliczka salt mine. We drive through suburbs of Krakow, small houses, some commercial areas. At the mine, we wait for our designated time of entry, looking at the gift shops, buying snacks and using the toilet. Finally our group is led by the mine guide down the 360 steps to level 53 of the mine. This is no longer a working mine, as over hundreds of years, so much salt has been removed that there is concern for support of the residential areas above. But also over the years, the miners have carved figures out of the salt, and as we walk through huge caverns, we see scenes made of salt showing how the early mining operations were carried out, with carts and horses and an extensive system of pulleys. There are many levels, passageways, tunnels and chambers, and even underground lakes. There is also a huge cavern which has been made into a cathedral, complete with salt crystal chandeliers. It has several Biblical scenes carved out in three dimensions along the sides of the walls. For example, there is the manger scene complete with animals and wise men, the wedding when Christ turned water into wine, the Last Supper, crucifixion, resurrection, many more. There is a huge altar and Sunday services are still conducted every week. The salt in the mine is 95% pure, but has a gray cast from the minor impurities. The mine guide asks us not to touch the carved figures, but says we are welcome to taste anywhere else along the route. There is an extensive history of the mine as salt has been worth more than gold, used not only for seasoning, but also for preserving food and other uses, and  many battles have been fought over possession of the mine. Ownership of the mine has brought great riches. We walked down the stairs into the mine, but there is an elevator to get back out. There are so many visitors that we wait more than 45 minutes for our turn on the elevator, which is too much waiting in line. We are glad to get back into the sunshine and on our way back to Krakow. We do not arrive until nearly 2 pm.

Our morning tour ran so late that we barely have an hour before the afternoon trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau (AB). We have lunch in an outside café of the Sheraton hotel. David jokes with the waiter and tries to speak Polish. The waiter enjoys this exchange and teaches David how to pronounce the brand of beer he is drinking. We finish lunch just in time to meet with the 3:00 tour. The group for this trip is only 8 people plus the guide, Jacok, and driver. The drive takes more than an hour, and during the ride, we are shown a DVD about the liberation of Auschwitz. There is much original footage included and it is graphic. The film tells us that the original names of the towns were modified to German, so even though the site was Polish, it was claimed by Germany and the camp names are German. We drive through small villages and agricultural areas where we can see corn growing, huge round bales of hay and other grain crops. There are many traffic circles. We arrive after 4 and it is already beginning to get dark. We meet the local guide, a woman, who is very good and speaks good English, but she is speaking softly and David asks her to speak louder. We pass through the gate that’s says “Work will make you Free” and enter the actual Auschwitz site. This site was originally selected for the camp because it had existing barracks originally used by Polish soldiers, plus it is very near the railway. Some of the buildings have been turned into museum areas, and the guide shows us many photos and displays as well as actual rooms used, such as the court room, barracks, death wall, gallows, and poles with hooks where victims were suspended with their hands behind them, pulling the arms out of the sockets. There is a huge map of Europe, showing the many countries from which Jews were transported to AB. They came from all directions, as far north as Norway and as far south as Greece. We saw collections of possessions such as eyeglasses, shoes, prosthetics and baby clothes, and a huge area of women’s hair. Every woman’s head was shaved and the hair sold to make felt or for lining for soldiers uniforms. We visited the gas chambers and crematoriums. We saw the double fences of barbed wire and the guard houses. Grim and very sobering. We then drove about 5 miles to Birkenau, a separate and much larger camp. We climbed stairs to the top of the guard house and from there could see the layout of the entire camp. The rail lines came into the camp and stopped at the crematoriums.  People coming off the trains were “selected” with children and anyone not able to work going directly to the crematoriums. We came down to the ground level and visited a latrine building and a barracks with the beds stacked three layers high. Even with all our previous knowledge, seeing the sites in person and hearing the statistics was a vivid reminder of the human atrocities. And of course, on this whole trip, we have seen so much deliberate war damage to property, churches, and other buildings. At the end of the war, the Nazi’s tried to blow up the crematoriums and burn documents to destroy evidence, but much was able to be recovered for the war criminal trials which followed. Sadly, the guide says most were never apprehended.

We ride back to Krakow in the dark and have a long conversation with the guide, Jacok. We begin by asking him for advice on train travel. He also educates us about changing money. A woman on the bus was from South Africa, in town for “a congress”, and she entered the conversation with us. What a great way to share travel experiences and customs.

Given the challenges from our first train trip, we have some anxiety about making connections tomorrow. I pray that God will keep us safe and place friendly folks along our way to help us.