Day 67 - Weilickzka to Ozwiecim

We woke early to grey skies and drizzle, we had plans to visit the salt mine and wanted to arrive when it opened at 7.30am to avoid the crowds. This all worked well until we bought our tickets and were told the first tour started at 8.30 - so there was no reason to get their so early!

We walked down masses of wooden stairways until we arrived at the entry to the tourist part of the mine. The mine is so big that we covered only 3kms of it which apparently is only 1%. There were carvings made by the miners and a huge cathedral complete with a statue of the Pope in salt along with wall carvings of biblical scenes. We had attended the salt cathedral in Colombia but in this one we received a lot of historical information and at the end thankfully there was a lift, where we were packed like sardines to return to the surface. We had decided not to buy a photo permit so we didn't take any photos, but it did seem that some people were taking them anyway.

We stopped at Krakow for lunch, the city was really interesting and the square was huge, complete with horses and  enclosed carriages for the tourists. 

Krakow was really busy and slightly spoilt by the continual touting of people trying to shove pieces of paper at you every few steps. The place was huge with a lot to see and in retrospect we could easily have spent a day or two here.

 We had gone online a few days earlier to get tickets for Auschwitz and were shocked to find that we were meant to have booked them months before even though the tickets are free. We were too late to join any tour groups unless we wanted to sign up for a tour in an obscure language. Our only choice was to take the individual tickets for 6.40pm, not ideal but we had no choice, apparently Krakow tour companies buy them in bulk so you are forced to use their services.

On our way from Krakow and driving to Auschwitz the rain got steadier and it looked like the dismal grey conditions had set in for the day. By 3pm we decided to go and see if we could get in earlier. There are two sites Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz 2 known as Birkenau. When Auschwitz was not large enough horse stables were ordered and built on the second site to house the prisoners, now there are buses that transport visitors back and forth the 3km between the two.

We arrived at the entrance and couldn't see any system or ticketing set up just groups with leaders walking around. We followed some groups until we found one that was in English and then we tagged along trying to be inconspicuous at the back. We were grateful that both of us look quite ordinary and can blend into a crowd, no neck tattoos on either of us. Ironic that we were trying to slip unnoticed into the very place where so many wanted to escape from.

We were shown the tiny wooden railway carriages the prisoners arrived in and where they were then lined up into groups. 70% were deemed not suitable for work because they were children, too old, or not well enough, we followed their route to the gas chambers where they were told to get undressed as they were going into shower .... and we all know the rest from there.

The groups of tourists were all very quiet and somber and the continual drizzle of rain and grey outlook seemed very fitting. We went via the appalling sheds where they were housed, seven to a bunk which were just elevated wooden slats on dirt floors with no toilet facilities. We were then told that we were to meet back on the bus in 10 minutes, so we wandered off and joined another group to see the other side. This group seemed to be American Jews and one of the tourist's father had been a prisoner here. The guide then mentioned Birkenau and that is when it dawned us that we weren't at Auschwitz but Birkenau! It was now about 5pm and we finished that tour and got back in the car to drive to Auschwitz.

At Auschwitz there was someone on the gate and there were turnstiles and security scanning, very different from the casual visiting at Birkenau but there was no problem being scanned through earlier that the time on our tickets. Here the different buildings were set up with different exhibitions and displays, each one telling another appalling story of the atrocities. 

 There are huge glass cabinets full of human hair, prosthetic limbs, suitcases and cabinets of shoes. This give some perspective to how many people were killed here. The rain became more and more intense as we moved from building to building giving some small insight into how dismal the place was. After about two hours we felt we had seen enough and we joined the few stragglers leaving about 7pm.