Krakow, page 2

The whole Krakow region is loaded with history - an hour's ride away, on a rickety, local train is the town of Oswiecim. A whole day is needed to explore the town's very interesting, if sombre, attraction. The town of Oswiecim is surely better known to the world by the way the German's spelled it during their occupation here - AUSCHWITZ.

On the site of the Auschwitz camp, the Poles have a museum which has permanent exhibits dedicated to the memory of those who perished here. The museum is free, you only pay a small fee to see a short film taken by the Russians, of the camp, on liberation day in 1945. The Auschwitz camp is now a museum .

When the Germans outgrew Auschwitz they moved 1.5 miles down the road to the village of Brzezinka, or Birkenau. It's not really advertised at Auschwitz about the possibility of visiting Birkenau, but it is the place to see.

Walk down the lonely road to Birkenau (Auschwitz Camp Two). This is where you feel the real scale of the events that took place here. The camp is enormous. And it's been left virtually as it was in 1945; there's no ticket counter, no museum and no locks on the gates. Just follow the single train track to the front gate and walk in. 

It's possible to walk for hours amidst the ruins of the camp, watch towers, the wooden barracks, and just the sheer space, without seeing another soul.  A very eerie place indeed... 

A shorter journey from Krakow (half an hour), by another rickety old train brings you to the famous salt mines at Wieliczka. Descending into the mine, wooden step by wooden step, for nearly 100 feet, you finally reach the starting point. 

At first it looks just like a normal mine, lots of tunnels lit with electric lamps and tracks for the salt carts to run on. Then, all of a sudden, you see them. Various displays of life-size figures, representing local legends, pop out of nowhere, all individually lit, and carved out of the very salt mined here. This rather old (900 years) mine has tunnels and chambers on nine levels, going as deep as 1000 feet. 

It is still a working mine and tourists only go to a depth of around 300 feet. Only in recent years has electricity and lifts been installed. Some of the more interesting displays show how the salt was mined by candlelight and with horsepower. Horses and men were lowered down into the pitch black chambers in previous centuries, from which they didn't come up too often, or sometimes not at all. The highlight of the tourist trail comes when they bring you into the immense St. Kinga's chapel over 150 feet long and 300 feet below the surface. 

That alone may seem amazing until you realise that everything- chandeliers, alter, a wall mural depicting Da Vinci's "Last Supper" and the floor are carved out of salt! After a visit to yet a museum and cafe that far under, you're finally whisked to surface in a real miners lift - 3 levels high, unlit and lightning fast. If you're not careful, and savour all the sights of Krakow slowly, you're whole trip could go by with lightning speed.