KRAKOW, POLAND 5/25/13

The day trips from Krakow were the most special for us.  The Wieliczka Salt Mine is 10 miles from town and has been producing salt since the 11th century!  It seemed so much bigger than the one we enjoyed at Berchtesgaden, but it also was only walking for a couple of miles ...no train, slide or boat trip.  The top picture is the chapel carved out of solid salt with carved figures (Pope John Paul II is from Krakow), The Last Supper carving and even the chandeliers:)     We also went to Auschwitz I and II (Birkenau) which were most impressive... and very sad:(  The red brick buildings of the original Polish army camp of Auschwitz 1 and the green trees/grass were surprisingly nice looking.  The gate with the cruel lie: Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Sets You Free) led to a concentration camp where people only lived for a couple of months, if they were lucky.... The museum showed many horrific details of the camp but the "plunder" that was collected from the victims was very sad: hair, glasses, shoes, suitcases, prosthetic limbs etc.   Auschwitz II was built as an extermination camp. It has the infamous railroad tracks that led to the dividing platform (Schindler's List). Here the people were divided for instant death in the gas chambers or to live a little longer in barracks holding 700 people.  The crematoriums were much more efficient here than Auschwitz 1.     The 4 crematoria could each cremate more than 4400 people per day.....