Auschwitz

The barracks at Auschwitz

One of the main reasons I wanted to visit Krakow was to go to Auschwitz. I had been to Dachau before and that was overwhelming. Dachau was never a mass extermination camp the way Auschwitz was. I wanted to get a sense of how bad it really was.

Dachau seemed to be set up as a memorial to the people who died as well as making sure no-one forgot what had happened. I never got that same feeling in Auschwitz.

Barbed wire fences at Auschwitz

When you visit Auschwitz you have to go with a guide, they had 2 million people visit in 2016 and it seems they feel this is the only way to manage that many people coming through. It ended up feeling very different from Dachau. There I remembered a very solemn atmosphere with time to look around and feel what had happened. In Auschwitz you are forced into a group of 50 people, given earphones to hear the guide, and then follow on the heels of another 50 person tour group. With yet another massive group right behind you.

There was never any time to contemplate things, you were forced on the move the whole time. And even though Auschwitz is quite large, all the tour groups go to the same buildings. So you are constantly squeezing past people or waiting for other people to clear the rooms ahead of you. It feels like they have made the decision that everyone who wants to see Auschwitz should be allowed the opportunity, which is an admirable decision. I worry that in making sure everyone can visit that they are destroying what they should be preserving.

Chimneys at Birkenau

The end of the tracks at Birkenau

I would not go with an organised tour if you can help it. We went because it seemed the easiest and I thought a guide would help understand what is around you. Auschwitz is 60km outside Krakow and is not super simple to get there independently. If you arrive before 10am you don't have to join a tour, I would definitely do that if you can. That way you can take as long as you want, I think there are audio guides and there are also information boards all around the place. It wasn't as if the guide added anything in terms of information or emotion, so don't feel like you are missing anything. That way you can avoid the crowds of people and actually remember what should be preserved.

Inside the barracks at Birkenau

Even though the atmosphere wasn't what I was expecting you still leave blown away at what happened. Another of those overwhelming moments.

Auschwitz ended up being too small for the Nazis and they progressively built more and more camps around the town. That was another thing I didn't realise, Auschwitz used to be an army barracks and it's in a town, Oswiecim. I always imagined these places being in the middle of nowhere.

We visited Birkenau at the same time, it's about a kilometre from Auschwitz, and it's an almost empty field, it's massive, but most of the sheds where people used to be kept have been destroyed. Because the original barracks at Auschwitz were too small for the Nazi's extermination plans, they built Birkenau. Birkenau was really something else, just this train line ending in the middle of this field. When the prisoners arrived, after being locked in train carriages with no food or water whilst they travelled from wherever they lived, they would then be sorted, the old, infirm and children immediately murdered. The inside of the barracks here were horrible, the bare minimum to be considered a shelter. I can't imagine this place during winter, it must have been freezing.

The Nazis destroyed the gas chambers before they abandoned Birkenau

I think it definitely needs visiting, but don't use it as a learning experience, do your learning before you come. And go early in the day, by yourself, if you can.

Tring Circular - Day Walk

Cool forest at the start of the walk

I think this is one of the better walks around London. It's a circular walk from Tring, north west of London. We did this walk back over Christmas, there was still some frost on the ground in the morning. But otherwise it was a glorious day, beautiful blue skies the whole day, though still pretty chilly.

From the train station you follow the ridgeway to Ivinghoe Beacon, the ridgeway is one of Britain's oldest roads. It links Avebury (near Stonehenge) with Ivinghoe Beacon and people have been using it for 5000 years. I was thinking Ivinghoe Beacon might be some ancient Roman ruin on a hill, but it's not, you do have to kind of climb up to it at least, at a mighty 233m high. It did have a good view, and there was some memorial on it.

Once you are at Ivinghoe Beacon you then start the Icknield Way, a great name for a walking trail. This is a modern route that tries to follow, as closely as possible, another ancient road. Along this whole first section you are walking along this chalk ridge, which is kind of cool. You are getting great views for this whole morning.

View from the Beacon

The Bridgewater Monument

Along this section there is also meant to be one of the best bluebells woods in the country, that's a big claim in Britain. But since it was December we thought we may as well give it a miss. A reason to come back in spring!

For most of the day we were in lovely sunshine, but there was one weird point, where we entered this dense pine forest, the trees were so close together that it was really dark in there. Quite spooky!

After the spooky forest it was on to Bridgewater monument, this is in the Ashridge Estate. The most famous owner of this estate was the "Canal Duke", Francis the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater. He was apparently the builder of the first "true" canal in Britain. He built it to transport his coal from his mines to Manchester. Apparently this canal was such a success it kicked off a mania for canal building. In remembrance of this first canal this monument was built in 1832, it was a pretty massive monument for just the first canal.

How haunted does this forest look?

Krakow

The market square with huge church on right

We have just got back from an 18 day adventure through central Europe. I would have said Eastern Europe, but when we were there all the locals were very clear we were in central, not eastern, Europe. I don't know if it's an Australian thing, but I never really knew there was a centre in Europe, it was either east or west. I think they don't like to say they are eastern, because that was the countries behind the iron curtain. And I guess those countries now bare little resemblance to what they were like back then. Perhaps it's also because those countries want to be closer to western Europe, and central is closer than eastern.

Anyway it's things like this that made the whole 18 days a massive learning experience. Everyday it was another new thing. I thought I had kind of a handle on history, but then I visited central Europe. There have been a loooot of wars through this region, it feels like almost constantly, so that has really added to the history.

Awesome old street - with great facades

We were in Krakow over Easter, which turned out to be super cold. And also everyone seemed surprisingly religious. I don't think many places would be shut in London just because it was Easter. We are a much less religious society I think. On good Friday, which I would have thought was the more holy day, everything seemed to still be open. But then Saturday, Sunday and Monday most things were closed. On Saturday everyone was walking around with little baskets full of food. It seemed they went to church to get their food blessed and then they ate the food on Sunday. I'd never heard of that Easter tradition. There didn't seem to be as many chocolate easter eggs around either. I don't think you could avoid them in London, but I hardly saw any in Krakow.

I'm not sure if people are actually more religious in Krakow, or if it was because it was Easter, but all the churches were full. No matter what time we visited. Not only that, if Polish people entered they would always kneel down and cross themselves. I never knew what genuflecting was before I saw it in action. I've never seen that in any English church, granted they are always completely empty when I visit, so maybe some people here still genuflect. And it's not as if it was only old people in the churches, it was young people too. English priests would kill to get those demographics.

Another church in Krakow

There were also a lot of churches, it's as if every tourist site was a church. I've never seen so many. It was like if you replaced all the pubs in London with churches that would be Krakow. And there were very few pubs in Krakow. It's almost as if the English worship a different type of God. There would be churches right next door to each other, and they all seemed to be the same faith. It wasn't as if there was a Catholic church next to an Orthodox church, they are pretty much all Catholic. It's hard to describe just how many churches they have.

As a tourist Krakow is a pretty cool city to visit. It has a really big old town, with wonderful facades and cobblestoned streets (and a lot of churches), there is also a castle on a hill. They have done a great job with maintaining the town, and I guess joining the EU has really helped them. Outside the old town is a bit different again, more gritty, but they still have an old Jewish quarter as well as the Jewish ghetto. Polish Jews didn't do so well during the war. It feels a bit like Berlin, if Berlin ever gets too expensive for the artists I feel like Krakow would be a good fit. I'm not too sure about the current government though, maybe they would have to be a bit less right-wing.

Last gate remaining from old walls

Circling the old town is a strip of park, called the Planty, great name! And it does a good job of separating the old town from traffic, you do feel isolated from the modern world once you are passed the Planty.

The market square is really something to see, it is massive, with 3 churches, of course. It dates back to the 1200's and there is this super old church kind of in the middle. This church is 1000 years old, and you actually have to go down steps to get inside, since the ground around it has risen from when it was built. It's a tiny little church inside, though from the outside it looks much bigger. The churches here all seem to have massively thick walls.

The main church is St Mary's, every hour a trumpeter plays from all four corners of the main tower. Each time they play the tune is cut off mid note. This is to commemorate a 13th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat whilst warning of the Mongol invasion. I never knew Mongols made it this far East, crazy!

Monument to the battle against Teutonic knights

There also used to be a commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania, again I never knew this. And the combined army took on and defeated the Teutonic knights in one of the largest battles in medieval Europe. Again I knew nothing about this.  The history you get living in London is so skewed to western Europe (meaning England and France) that you wouldn't think there were any other nations of note, and certainly nothing important happening anywhere else in Europe. This trip really opened my eyes to how western Europe centred my focus has been. The Teutonic knights had the largest castle in the world, which still exists in Malbork in Poland. This sort of stuff was why the trip was kind of overwhelming. Every day you are learning this mind-blowing stuff, you can never "do" Europe, the depth of history and stuff here is just crazy.