Poland: Krakow & Auschwitz

This morning I was up and met my guide in the lobby, and we were off by foot to explore Krakow! We walked around the "Green Belt" of the city, which is the area where the former city walls stood, but have been turned into a large park that surrounds the entire old city. We walked up to Wawel Royal Castle, which is perched high on the hill above the river.

Krakow has a history dating back over one thousand years. It always impresses me in these old European cities the amount of history they contain... Four times older than most of our cities, and changed hands more times than we can imagine. The castle was great, although huge portions of it were destroyed when the Austrian-Hungarian Empire took over. Thankfully due tons lot of restoration work, they have restored good portions of it; however, at least two medieval churches were completely razed, and nothing is left of them but stone foundations.

Krakow was the capital of Poland for four hundred years, until Poland and Lithuania united to form the largest country in Europe, when the capital was moved to Warsaw. The castle was impressive, but unfortunately I couldn't take pictures of the inside. Interestingly enough, Polish art and architecture is
(was?) highly influenced by the Ottoman Empire, so there is a notable Turkish flare to adornments. Two of the neatest things in the castle (in my opinion) was a ceiling that had carvings of heads on it, and several rooms that were lined with decorated leather panels. Unique, gorgeous, and not quite like anything I'd ever seen before. A definite sign you're in the "center" based on the blend of East and West...

After my tour of the castle, we walked to the cathedral which house a number of kings and heroes of Poland. After the cathedral we walked into town where I had a private tour of the University's collection of donated artifacts, which date back to instruments used by Copernicus, and to things as recent as gold medals from the 2004 Olympics (the speed walking guy donated it) and the Polish winner of the Nobel prize's medal was there as well. An interesting and eclectic mix of artifacts.

We then had lunch and drove to Auschwitz. The drive itself took almost an hour and a half. Once we arrived, I met my local guide and we set off to explore the first of three Auschwitz's compounds (I was not aware until today that there were three different areas of Auschwitz). It was a harrowing experience. I don't know how many times I teared up from pictures and artifacts and remains. I thought I was doing pretty good keeping my emotions together until we reached the children's exhibit that showed pictures of kids on their way to the gas chambers, their shoes, their clothes, pictures of starved children, pictures of the experiments (read: torture) inflected on these innocent young ones. The depths to which human cruelty and deprivation can sink is unfathomable. Although I am not Jewish, other members of my minority group were massacred here, and eventually, I wasn't able to contain my emotions any more. I saw the place where homosexuals were forced to strip naked, only to be shot in the back of the head like an animal, and it sickens me that these types of crimes still are committed, not only in distant lands, but within the borders of my own country, and it saddens me that atrocities like this still occur to this day, albeit on a less systematic and large scale.

Hate makes people do horrible things, and if anything can be learned from the atrocities of Auschwitz and other concentration camps during WWII, it is that more love, tolerance and acceptance needs to be extant in the world.

We continued on to the second Auschwitz compound, built later, but was built for the sole purpose to be a killing machine, and this is where most of the murders took place. The conditions people were transferred here were nearly as bad as the conditions they were kept in. It is just such a low point in the evolution of humans... I hope nothing like this is ever allowed to be repeated.

At any rate, after a most emotional afternoon, we drove back to Krakow and I was dropped off at my hotel. After doing a little research to find a restaurant for dinner, I set out the short distance to the place I had chosen. I don't know of it was from heightened emotions or if I had just chosen well, but I had a very good meal. After learning what someone at Auschwitz would have had for dinner, I felt a bit guilty. And emotionally drained, so I returned to the hotel. Emotionally spent, I called it an early night...

Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland: Oh My!

So yesterday we were in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It was a nice town with lots of old buildings, a castle at the top of the hill, and some great green areas. This was the first city on the trip where the economic situation was evident: there were lots of beggars all over the place. Other than that it was lovely.

That evening was the captain's dinner where we all said our goodbyes, while enjoying a nice meal.

We then floated our way to Budapest and had to be up early the next morning to disembark the ship. I flew from Budapest to Warsaw, Poland (89) and then on to Krakow. The flights were on time, my luggage made it, but there was no place to sit in the business class lounge in Warsaw. It was that crowded (and the lounge was that small...)!

My guide was there in Krakow to meet me. She seems very enthusiastic, so we will see how that works out tomorrow morning when I am tired and not so...enthusiastic... The driver took us to the hotel where my guide helped me get checked in, and told me she'd see me in the morning. The sun was going down, so I got cleaned up and changed, then was off to explore the town, find an ATM (another country, another currency!), and then grab some dinner.

I walked around a bit more, and decided to make it an early night since I hadn't slept well the last few nights, have to be up early tomorrow, and will have an eleven-hour day of touring tomorrow!!! Busy, busy!!!

(Day time pictures = Bratislava; night time pictures (2) = Krakow)

Austria: Vienna

So yesterday and today we have been in Vienna. I went to the Opera House yesterday and enjoyed a magnificent concert of Mozart music. The orchestra dressed in period costumes. I had a lovely time. The rest of the time I have spent wandering around and exploring on my own. I've been here before so I knew it was an easy town to get around in, so decided to save some money exploring on my own than take one of the large group tours. It turned out to be a good call. Enjoy some of the pictures from my time in Vienna!

Austria: Dürnstein

So today was a nice, relaxing day! We floated down the river, going through a few locks along the way, and I had such a nice time sitting and watching the scenery go by. There were castles set on hills, terraced vineyards, and quaint small towns. One quaint small town, we stopped! It was Dürnstein and it was adorable. We had a nice guide walk us through the town stopping at a vineyard along the way. We also had a chance to try three local wines, which were nice! We then had time to explore the town on our own. Richard the Lionhearted had a castle here, which was perched high up on the hill. After exploring and shopping, it was time to get back on board for the rest of the day to cruise to Vienna. We arrived after dinner during cabaret hour. I was too tired to leave the ship (it was after 11pm at this point and I figured on Sunday night most things would be closed anyway), so I decided to wait to explore in the morning!

Enjoy the pictures of Dürnstein!

Austria: Salzburg

Today we were up early to board our bus that took us for a day trip to Salzburg. The drive took about two hours, and we were lectured the entire way by our tour guide, who decided it was her duty to inform us of everything that has ever happened in this part of Austria, since the beginning of time. When we finally arrived in town, we had a couple of sprinkles here and there, but for the most part, the rain only threatened to spoil our day!

We walked all through the center of town, visiting churches, Mozart's birthplace (it's the yellow building in the picture below), an amazing cemetery, all the while musicians on the street were playing all sorts of classical music. Along the way, we were treated to bits of trivia about Maria van Trapp and The Sound of Music, which was filmed here. We saw the convent that Maria lived in, a fountain were she splashed a horse while singing "I Have Confidence" and other such landmarks.

After the tour, we had a couple of hours to walk around and have lunch. I did a bit of shopping (I have started collecting Christmas ornaments wherever I go, and there was a HUGE Christmas store in town!) and then grabbed a bite to eat. After lunch, I walked around and shopped a bit more, then met the group at the allotted time, where we walked back to the bus.

Salzburg is a charming town. What I love most about it, is that a lot of locals wear traditional dress, dresses with frilly, lacy tops for women, and lederhosen on the men. It really is quaint!

Well, we left Salzburg on our way to Mondsee, which is where the church that Maria married the captain in the movie Sound of Music. We drove back to the ship, had dinner and then classical music on board the ship! A lovely evening. I tried publishing yesterday's blog about Regensburg, but it vanished into cyberspace somewhere...

All Aboard!

So this morning, we were up early to take the bus to the ship. We drove through the outskirts of Prague and made our was to Karlovy Vary (Charles' Springs). This little quaint town has twelve hot mineral springs that people drink due to its alleged curative properties. Queen Latifa's "Last Holiday" was filmed here, and apparent as soon as we drove into town was the hotel she stayed at in the film. The biggest hotel is the Grand Hotel Pupp (pronounced "poop") which garnered giggles from the group. One of the best and documented properties of the spring water is its laxative effect, which further added to the humor of the name.

We walked around with a guide for about thirty minutes and then were given about an hour and a half of free time in the charming town before we had to pack back up into the bus to make our way to the ship. During our free time, I walked around, grabbed a bite to eat, and did a little shopping.

We made the rest of our way to Regensburg. We were supposed to embark in Nuremberg, but due to drought conditions, we weren't able to make it that far up the river, so we instead embarked in Regensburg. I was a little disappointed, because even though we weren't spending much time in Nuremberg, I wanted to see the place where the Nuremberg Tribunals were held, and in fact that was one of the reasons I chose this particular cruise. But that just means I'll have all the more reason to visit here again!

The ship far surpassed my expectations, and is comfortable and gorgeous! The food was very good as well! After dinner we went to the lounge to hear some live music, and after a few drinks, it was time for bed!