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.

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.

The blog has returned. My son and I found a tour of Krakow, Prague, Dresden and Berlin for the Christmas markets. We left yesterday December 4, 2017 in the morning and got to our hotel in Krakow around noon on the 5th. The blog has missed some major trips, but sometimes it is not practical with the WiFi connections. This is a land tour so there should be enough connectivity.

Krakow has snow on the ground and it’s freezing here. Not just for me but even the Polish people are hurrying along the street. In fact there might be a light snow or freezing rain happening now. We are supposed to take a short tour of the city tonight after a meet and greet dinner. Brrrr! No picture yet, but we are just beginning.

We got up and had breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast is included with the room price and it is a great deal. I had Polish sausage and pickles – hey we’re in POLAND. They both are great! We booked a tour to go to the salt mine in Wieliczka. The tour picked us up at the hotel and took us to the mine. The salt mine is huge. The tour lasted 3 hours and even though we descended initially on wooden steps a lot is the stair cases in the mine are made of salt. I took pictures with my camera, but am not sure of the quality because of the lighting. I urge you to go to the website: www.kopalnia.pl to see some of the rooms in the mines. I went to that address and finally just googled polish salt mine. The Wikipedia page opens with a picture of the large chapel made entirely of salt, even the chandeliers. I only have one pic so far.

We were dropped back at the hotel and are busy charging phones etc. in preparation for our overnight train trip tonight. We are also going to spend all of our Polish money since we will not be able to use it anywhere else. We don’t have much Polish money left, which is good. We decided to walk to the train station which is not that far. All was OK until we ran into construction so we crossed the street. Unfortunately the sidewalk was cobblestone – very picturesque but a nightmare when you are pulling a suitcase. Then the sidewalk ended at stairs (also dreaded). So we climbed
the stairs and to our joy it was the plaza with the train station. We checked our luggage in a locker (9 zlotsky – Polish money) and walked around looking for a place to get a decent meal for 73 zlotsky (approx 23 US dollars), we checked the menus at several restaurants and we finally decided on a Georgian one. No it was not collards and corn bread, but the Russian Georgia. We ordered – I remembered to take a pic of the bread and dipping sauces but forgot to take a pic of our meals until we had eaten most of them. See pics. I took a pic of the menu so you could get an idea of what we had. It was delicious! We had our dinners plus a pitcher of wine for 63 zlotsky. We left a 5 zlotsky tip which left us only 5 zlotsky. We headed to the grocery store to buy some iced teas and still have .02. Zlotsky left. This was worth less than one penny. We are now killing time until we board the overnight train to Prague.
I finally got WIFI at the train station so I can send this.

We arrived in Krakow at 6:30am. We needed to find our hotel and get some Czech money. We went to the tourist info booth and they gave us bus directions, but we needed local money to get a ticket. We found an exchange place and got some money then we headed to the bus stop to buy a ticket from an automated ticket booth. A man from Canada helped us and with tickets in hand we boarded the bus. While on the bus a woman told us we were going in the wrong direction so we got off and crossed the street to get the bus in the other direction. In Krakow you need to run thru traffic to catch a bus which makes this really interesting. We decided we had initially been going in the right direction so back across the street we went and got back on a bus going in the original direction. Finally we found our hotel and since it was early asked them to keep our luggage until we could get into our room and we headed on foot to the old city of Krakow. Krakow is a very pretty city and we headed across town to see the castle – see pics of and from castle-

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We toured the castle – no pics allowed of course- and then we walked the entire old city. We stopped at a chocolate shop and decided to take a break – see pics – a delicious break it was. Then we continued walking some more – as I said Krakow is very pretty and has nice city parks. We decided to have dinner before we returned to the hotel. We just walk along and read menus until we find a place we like. We saw a restaurant down an alley and liked the menu so we stayed for dinner. No one spoke English or any other language except Polish (there are many German tourists here). It seemed very much for locals. Marsha had pierogis and I had potato pancakes with au shroom sauce. It is late again and we have to be up early.