After we returned from Auschwitz we did a walking tour to Wawel Castle and church. Of course it was huge, beautiful and uphill. It took only about an hour for this tour. Here are pics of the Castle.
Then back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
Author Archives: Barbara
Birkenau
Below are pics if Birkenau.
there could have been many more pictures but I wasn’t sure so wanted to document all that horror. Our guide told us Auschwitz housed 20,000 and Birkenau 120,000. At the end of the war The Germans blew up the crematoriums and tried to erase the existence of the camps. She also said they are only preserving what remains not doing a restoration. Then back to Krakow for a waking tour. Also the 2 camps are only two of the many that were in existence.
Auschwitz
We got up early so we could get breakfast before we left for Auschwitz. The breakfast buffet was all I had hoped for. It had real yogurt, eggs, cold cuts, great bread and cheeses. Plus pate, an assortment of pickled items and an assortment of great rolls and breads. We left for Auschwitz at 7:15 and it takes an hour to get there. It was about 38 degrees and windy with intermittent rain. Another lovely weather day.
After we got to Auschwitz we met our guide for the tour. She was very knowledgeable and took us through the museums on the grounds. It was a somber tour for the entire 2 hours. 
The sign reads “Work Will Make you Free”Here are some more pics of the concentration camp.
Then we boarded the bus and drove about 15 minutes to Birkenau.
Christmas Market
Last night the group met in the lobby with our tour guide for a meet and greet. We then walked to the main square of Krakow where the Christmas Market us held. We walked in the freezing drizzle but that is how the weather has been since we got here.
We then went to the restaurant which is on the square where we had a nice meal and again socialized with our fellow travelers. We went back to the hotel about 9:30 because we were tired from all the travel and had to get up early to go to Auschwitz.
Lenola, Italy
We traveled for 34 hours to get from Greece to where we are in Italy. Taxi to bus, bus from Athens to Patras, ferry from Patras, Greece to Bari, Italy, train from Bari to Rome and 2nd train from Rome to Lenola which is an hour south of Rome by train – my guess is approx. 60 miles. Franco, Marsha’s friend picked us up at the train station and took us to his apt. Lenola is his boyhood home and he returns every year for a month – he lives and works in the US. After Marsha and I got cleaned up he took us out to dinner. There are pics of the two restaurants where we ate, but it seemed rude to take pics of the food. Lenola is a small town in the mountains – roads are very curvy. The food was delicious – made with local ingredients. We had homemade linguini with porcini mushrooms, squash blossoms, I had mixed grill with sausage, some kinds of meat on a skewer and goat. It was all great. The next day we got up early because Franco took us to the Amalfi coast – very near Naples and Vesuvius. Talk about winding roads with sheer drop offs . These roads were the worst and they are narrow. There is barely room for 1 car in each direction and people park on the side of the road. We thought Franco may have scraped his car on a wall while trying to let a tour bus pass in the other direction. There couldn’t have been more than a 1/2 inch between the car and the bus. We had stopped for a very light lunch because we were going out to dinner again. Franco had bought fresh Buffalo mozzarella for us. We were stuffed, but went for dinner and we each had a pizza. We were so stuffed we couldn’t finish the pizza. Again it is midnight and we are in Rome. We only have 24 hours here in Rome so it is the whirlwind tour. I will attach the pics and send this message, but I need to get some sleep.
