2015 May 4 Salt Mines and Nowa Huta

If it's Monday, it must be the Wieliczka Salt Mines. 3.3 km from Krakow. We again returned to the station and on this occasion we boarded a modern train for the 20 minute trip to the Mines. 

It is a 5 minute walk from the station to the mines. 

The tours (you must join a tour) are organised by language. The queue was small as it was not a holiday in Poland. Within half an hour we commenced our visit. A word of warning - it is a steep descent by c 450 steps down to level 1 and more to level 2. From there, there is a lot of walking between tunnels. I would estimate that we walked c 5km in all at a reasonably fast pace stopping briefly to admire the various salt sculptures created by the miners over the century. 

Chandelier made totally of salt

St Kinga's Chamber - the most spectacular chamber in the mine

Copernicus visited here in in the 15th century while a student at the University in the city. 

Our guide was informative but the information on salt mining was superficial 

and with the exception of the chamber, and a couple of sculptures, it appeared as if the exhibition was struggling to hold its audience. 

There was a blatant commercial aspect to the tour. After an hour, we had a compulsory stop for refreshments at a souvenir shop at 250 metres below sea level. The tour ended after 11/2 hrs  in another larger restaurant and souvenir area. 

Here one sees the exit sign but the exit necessitates a 11/2 - 2 km walk to the elevator (queue), which returns one to the surface, where one has to pass through another larger souvenir shop before finally exiting the complex!

I was underwhelmed. I had never been in a salt mine before but had it been a repeat experience, I would have regretted favouring it over a visit to Schlinder's factory. 

It was our final day, our flight wasn't until

21.10 hrs so we had a full day to explore.

We quitted the Salt Mine and took the return train to the city. Unfortunately, Schlinder's factory closes at 1400hrs on the first Monday of the month and last entry is at 12.30.!! 

We decided to visit Nowa Huta; a town  conceived by the Polish Communists in the 1940s, construction commencing in 1945 and ending in 1949, without the project being completed. It's a town in a time warp.  It's a mixture of Neoclassical, Neo Renaissance and Utilitarian architecture. The fourth side of the square was never built, originally it was  called Centralny but was renamed Im Ronald Regan (Square) after independence!!!  In 1979, Someone(s) had unsuccessfully tried to blow up the statue of Lenin, which dominated the Square's centre.  It was removed in 1989 and the square renamed - the power of the proletariat!!

Five wide tree-lined avenues radiate out from the Square. The town was built to accommodate a proletariat, whom the authorities asserted was absent in Krakow's population structure.! A steelworks nearby provided employment. 

For all their proletarian aspirations, the avenues namely  Al. Rosa, the finest avenue, accommodated the senior management of the Steelworks!! Does anything change??

Though architecturally impressive, it continues to remain a city reminiscent of the Soviet era. We saw two restaurants - one was what's termed a Milk bar - these are places where cheap food is provided for the proletariat.! 

The ambience would not entice one to eat - worse than, dear reader, your image of a poor canteen with the food served through a hatch. 

On the same street, was the city's 'finest' restaurant named Stylowa, a restaurant caught in a time warp!! 

The restaurant windows appeared to display old photos of the utopia that was to be Nowa Huta

The rest of the street was  dour - one modern coffee shop,  no bars,  such shops as there were, were hidden with no signage outside. It reminded me of our trip to the Soviet Union in 1988, when it was impossible to locate a shop or restaurant and the shopping centre Gum was devoid of products. I haven't made a return visit since but I'm advised I'd find to-day, a Gum teeming with international designer goods. 

There were two elderly men sitting in the street and seeing me photographing the avenue, asked me to take their photo. I duly obliged. 

We returned to Krakov via tram 

collected our cases at the hotel and taxied to the airport.  

I had wished to visit Krakow for sometime and I was  not disappointed. 

It is a beautiful city that survived Soviet 'vision' 

The ordinary people one met in the street were helpful together with, for the most part,  those in the hospitality industry. Officialdom, however,  portrayed a bored, unhelpful and dour image. It will probably take a few generations for the soviet attitudes to change and understand the term service. 

2015 May 3 Auschwitz and Birkenau

Last night we visited the Podgorze, the Jewish ghetto in the city. Kazimierz had 70,000 Jews when the Soviets invaded in September 1939. Most quickly relocated and the remaining 20,000 settled in the Nazi established Podgorze. It is beautifully situated down by the Vistula river. 

Until liberation in 1989, it was a very dangerous area but in subsequent years, the Jews have  returned and reclaimed their properties. Cheap property (do we Irish ever again envisage that ??) caused Jews  and young Polish entrepreneurs to invest in the area and students located because of cheap rents! The area  appears in the film Schlinder's  List. We ate an excellent dinner at a local bistro. 

This morning, we set out for Birkenau by train.

 

 We arrived at Krakow train station. The old station is of spectacular architectural specimen  

and the new is also quite impressive architecturally, akin to the new Landsdowne Road stadium in Dublin. 

We travelled from Krakov to Oswiecim in an old, soviet type train with hard seats. It was very dilapidated. 

On arrival at Oswiecim at 1400 hrs, the town adjacent to both camps, Birkenau was c 3 km away, so it necessitated a taxi or a walk. 

We decided to have lunch before embarking for Birkenau. 

Later a young lady , on hearing that we were trying to get to Birkenau offered us a lift, which we gratefully received. She told us that her husband was from the town but that they were no longer living there. Understanding the frustration of the independent traveller, she said that if she lived here, she would organise the  attractions more  efficiently.!! She had studied  and worked in Western Europe. Her mother- in -law is the librarian at Auschwitz. 

Birkenau is much easier to negotiate than    Auschwitz. No queueing - unlike Auschwitz, one can walk in at any time during opening hours, without being part of a group. It is more authentic than Auschwitz. it is a much larger site and not 'restored'.  The Nazis blew it up it before the Allies arrived in order to cover up their heinous crimes. 

Above is the entrance gate in the distance and the track used by trains bringing the prisoners to the camp, where they were divided into those who were fit for work and those who were not  were sent to the gas chambers. Looking at contemporary photographs there was no fear to be seen in the prisoners' faces but rather stoicism. 

The Gas Chamber is a large mound, as is the crematorium 

Only  the chimney brests remain of the inmates wooden houses, all blown up by the Germans. 

 

One or two have been rebuilt to show visitors - the latrine, the wash room and the sleeping quarters. However, walking down the railway tracks from the main gate, one felt a chill as one surveyed the vastness of the site. 

A shuttle bus  links the two sites so we took it to Auschwitz, where, because we were what they call  'individual  tourists', we could not enter before 1500hrs. The other option is to enter before 1000hrs; however that would necessitate an early train or bus from Krakow. The journey takes 1hr 40 to reach Oswiecim or Auschwitz. 1000 hrs - 1500 hrs is reserved for group tours - many complained that on tour they were rushed around - better to enjoy it at your own pace.

If you intend visiting, try booking online before you visit. There is no entrance fee.  To avoid queueing at 1500hrs,  I tried to book online the day before but I didn't receive an acceptance email. However, it may be  necessary to email a number of days prior to your visit. 

We had to wait an hour. Queues are the order of the day here !! 

On entering the site, above is the entry point with the words ' Work makes you Free', one is struck by how small the site is in comparison to Birkenau - very confined with rows of numbered blocks now exhibiting facets of the war- children's shoes and toys, details of prisoners living conditions. and blocks dedicated to countries whose citizens were imprisoned or were murdered here. 

There was a daily roll call area,  where a band plays while prisoners are accounted for 

There was a wall of death where prisoners were shot and most chilling of all was the gas chamber; 

the experience made all the more poignant by a group of Orthodox Jewish visitors chanting therein. 

       Man's inhumanity to man. 

We returned to Krakow by public bus located just inside the exit. 

A brief respite and we went to Market Square. It was alive with people, sitting outside cafes, enjoying the pleasant, if a little chilly evening - but blankets were provided. As I sat outside,  I found a new companion.  

He appears to have been there for sometime but was pleased to pose for a photograph!!

We then adjourned to Restaurant Szara; one of Krakow's top restaurants.  Most of the restaurants in the Square are located in Renaissance houses, still resplendent in all their opulence. Szara's cuisine is Michelin recommended. 

Aperitifs were a martini mixed with chocolate and chilli and a beer. It was the best cocktail I have ever tasted and there was a real kick from the chilli! 

The starter  of red caviar on rosti with a creme fresh type sauce, was followed by Tournedo  Rossini and Duck, followed by a wicked chocolate cake for dessert and good coffee. A fine Uruguayan wine completed an excellent meal. 

We walked the 5 minute route back to the hotel.