Day 3 - Oswiecim

Trip Progress

Day Summary

Monday Morning - Krakow

Wake up

It was a VERY early wake up Monday morning. No time for breakfast except some bars and juice we picked up the day before.

We left the hotel via taxi to the Krakow Train Station. We were about an hour early for our train and shops were closed at that time. So, it was a bit of just sitting around and wandering a relatively small station.

Oświęcim

We arrived in Oświęcim after a 50 min ride, and the family was starting to get hungry.

Breakfast

Breakfast - Sender’s Bakery and Confectionery (Piekarnia i Cukiernia Senderów)

We found an awesome bakery on the street in Oświęcim. The owner was a wonderfully polite woman, who claimed to speak no English. No worries!

We ordered some bread and pastries - and they were amazing!

Auschwitz

We walked for about 30 minutes and arrived at Auschwitz main camp and museum about 2 hours before our scheduled tour.

The sun was shining, but it was cold and windy - so we found a little bus stop cubby type area to wait (and stay warm).

About the Camp

I had been to Auschwitz before (about 20 years ago). As expected, it looked exactly the same. I have to give a lot of compliments to the people who work or volunteer to keep it preserved like that.

I took a lot of pictures during my first visit to the camp…and have those in an album tucked away at home. I didn’t take many pictures during this visit - mainly wanted to take things in (again) and support the family as they went through.

The kids took a few photos though…

I don’t want to write too much about WWII and the events that led up to concentration camps here. I have studied A LOT of WWII history, and there are so many better resources than I will do justice to the topics. I encourage everyone to spend a little time, even if you think you already know, reading some more about the war and the camp. Auschwitz Museum

You can also do a virtual tour of the camp here: Auschwitz Virtual Tour

Tour / Interesting Facts

The first half of the tour was miserable: cold and rain. But how can one complain. The second half of the tour, involved some intermittent sunshine and mild wind. We were so chilled to the core by this point.

There were a few things I learned on the tour that I didn’t know before.

Our tour guide mentioned some interesting things about the camp after liberation. With nowhere to go, many people decided to stay and live at the camp for a period (even as long as 1-2 years) after. They burned wood and other materials from the camp to keep warm - and that’s why parts of Auschwitz/Birkenau are missing.

Rather than destroy the camp and the horrible memories associated with it, survivors agreed, they wanted to preserve the camp and make it a place where people could visit and be reminded of the horrible things that happened - to prevent history from ever repeating itself.

Lastly, the size the camp is hard to describe or imagine without being there. Miles and miles. And Auschwitz/Birkenau, was only partially built out. There was something like 2-3x more land planned for development, until the war came to a rather abrupt end.

Luggage

In several rooms of buildings on the tour, belongings of those brought to the camp were on display. These displays spanned full lengths of buildings, and this only represented a fraction of the items that were taken. Over a million people were brought to Auschwitz alone.

In one of the rooms, there were piles and piles of luggage. One of our kids noticed “Kraus” written on a suitcase. I’ve done a decent amount of research, but there were many people with the last name “Kraus” that came to the camp. Based on our family history, it’s unlikely there’s a close (or any) connection.

Late Lunch

Lunch - Auschwitz Museum Cafeteria

After the tour, we were pretty hungry - so we grabbed lunch at the museum’s cafeteria.

Back to Krakow

We had about an hour and a half wait for the train back to Krakow.

I stood for most of that, just enjoying the sun.

I’m actually shocked we didn’t all sleep on the train ride back to Krakow!

Do we look exhausted?

Krakow

We made our way back to Krakow and our hotel.

Hotel - Metropolitan Boutique Hotel

Our hotel was great - NO complaints. But I had to take a picture of the stairs. Each step was a different height!

Photos of Krakow

It’s incredible, we haven’t even been in Krakow for 24 hours at this point…and we’re already packing to leave tomorrow.

I managed to grab a couple photos.

Dinner

Dinner - KraCowska Burger

The kids and I were quite hungry by this point, but Lori wanted to stay back and pack.

The three of us wandered around the city for awhile, but all the places we found that looked cool, were more geared towards an older crowd and it was getting pretty late.

We finally found this 50’s diner like place that was rated pretty good for burgers. As we got closer, we could hear they had hip-hop playing. The kids thought that was pretty cool - so we committed.

Burgers were pretty good and the decor made us feel right at home! - License plates from the Midwest, including Wisconsin (no Minnesota), on the wall.

Quote of the Day

I think we missed voting on a quote for this day. But it would have likely been:

I’m so cold