Krakow

Krakow is a surprise packet in many ways. The historic Old Town and Market Square is a delightful place to visit with its array of well preserved baroque buildings surrounding one of the largest squares in Europe. Each day friendly and very knowledgeable students offer tourists free tours of the Old Town as well as the nearby Wawel Castle. Tours last a couple of hours and all that is expected is a tip.
The central point of the square is the Renaissance Cloth Hall and an open market offers a range of local arts and crafts.
The square has many restaurants serving a wide variety of local Polish dishes as well as international dishes at prices better than anywhere else in Europe.
A recent attraction in Krakow, opened in 2010, is the Oskar Schindler Museum made famous by the Steven Spielberg movie Schindler's list. The museum is a good precursor to a tour of  nearby Auschwitz-Birkenau an hour and a half away.

Magnificent horse drawn carriages take you on tours of the old town.



Restaurants fringe market square.

Renaissance cloth hall market



An interesting tea room on Market Square

AUSCHWITZ- BIRKENAU HORROR

The point of no return

Selection

Acres and acres of camp. Most buildings destroyed

Sleeping quarters

 Gallows for Rudolf Hoss first commandant

Remains of Gas chamber.

Words cannot describe the numbing emotion you feel when you visit these death camps. 
 As a mark of respect I have chosen not to post many of the intimate images I captured at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Thousands of shoes, spectacles, suitcases and mounds of human hair is all that is left of the millions who faced severe cruelty and horror and who all perished here.
Some say this is all a myth and never happenned on the scale recorded in history. To them I say visit this place and witness the massive scale of the methodical planning and organisation that obviously took place in order to anihilate millions of Jews and other ethnic minorities. The written records and evidence are here for all to see. 
Whilst it is positive to note that this is a major tourist drawcard attracting many thousands of visitors a year and judging by the reactions I witnessed all were as repulsed as we were of what they saw and learned from our guide.
If only we could harness all that revulsion and collectively rid our world of all the despotic governments who continue their own form of genocide against their fellow country men, women and children.
Sadly we do not learn from history!