March 26

 Day 16:  Final Day

Warsaw

Today was our last day of our amazing Cities of Lights itinerary.  For the first time on this six day extension we were able to sleep in.  Our excursion this morning didn't begin until 9:15am.  We were on the bus for the first half with a couple of 15-20 minute get off & short walk stops.  It was overcast and in the upper 40's.  A bit brisk, but if the wind was blowing it was nice.  Then our bus driver who's been with us since we left Prague dropped us off at the Old Town - we were all SO appreciative of his efforts.  Then we had about a 45 minute walking tour.  A highlight was seeing a fragment of wall left where after the war and people returned, they wrote messages of friends/family they were looking for.  When the Nazi's left Warsaw near the end of the war they literally destroyed nearly the entire city and more than 90% of the population was "liquidated" in one form or another.  Right outside the "living wall" we saw the death wall where thousands were lined up and shot.  We finished in the Old Town where some of the city had survived including the old city gate and medieval walls.

Tomorrow we head home.  Bags out at 3:45am and our transportation to the airport leaves at 4am.  We should touch down in Miami about 6:30 pm.  But.....no rest for the weary as Saturday is Florida Derby Day and we will be part of a group of ten sitting on the finish line beginning before 11am!  We will take Sunday to rest before planning our next set of adventures!  Thanks for following along :)

The Royal Road

Monument to first democratic president of Poland (between World Wars) - their version of George Washington :)

Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising where 90% of all Jewish peoples were killed

The modern Supreme Court building sits where the city of Warsaw was separated into the Warsaw Jewish ghetto in the 1940's

The fragment of one of the "living walls" - because there were no phones or other forms of communication, survivors wrote their name and who they were looking for on pieces of the demolished buildings upon their return after the war

The "death wall" - see bullet holes - where thousands were executed

The Old Town medieval city gate and wall

The medieval market square just inside the city gates

The cathedral square - note cathedral to left was completely demolished and had to be rebuilt from scratch

Saturday March 28th:  Florida Derby Day!

March 25

 Day 15: 

Jasna Gora Monastery & Travel To Warsaw

Today was another long day of travel.  But it's funny....we talked about this this afternoon and at dinner.  Unlike most Viking adventures, even with a pre and/or post extension we've had about half a dozen days where we've spent four to seven hours on the bus during the day.  But what we agreed on was that despite that we'd strongly recommend this itinerary - the whole thing has been great.  And today, like the other long days of travel, was very well planned out by Viking.  Had a break after the first 90 minutes.  Then we had an excursion stop that was about two hours of touring the Jasna Gora Monastery - a very significant and important place in Poland and Polish history; then a lunch stop; and finally the last leg to Warsaw today, arriving about 4:30pm.  The most interesting thing about the monastery tour was getting to see and learn about the Our Lady of Jasna Gora, created in the late 1300's.  For over a century pilgrims would come to pray to the image and then would attach items to the painting.  Eventually this became too much and for the last several centuries it is a tradition that once a year they change her attire.  This is done by suspending the outfit over the Virgin Mary & Baby Jesus just millimeters from the painting in it's protective case.  We got to see the icon and several of the "outfits."  The day of the unveiling is Easter Sunday and it's quite the event - our guide was quite enthusiastic about it and mentioned he would be at the monastery at 6am that morning for this year's unveiling.  

Tomorrow we get to sleep in, the tour not starting until 9:15am - our last excursion of the trip.  We'll be finished by 12:30pm and have the afternoon to ourselves.  Nearly all of the fourteen of us on this extension have departure times from the hotel between 3:15am and 3:45am on Friday as we all begin our long journey back home. 

Arrival at the monastery 

Entering the basilica

A reproduction of the original "Our Lady of Jasna Gora"

The original 'Lady in this year's garb

The crutches, etc. are mementos left by people who've experienced miracles after coming her and praying to the 'Lady

The secondary chapel

Two of the other "outfits" - you can see how they are suspended over/in front of the painting

Today's photo op on the balcony in the basilica

March 24

 Day 14:  Auschwitz & Birkenau

Today was a somber day in many ways, but in other ways it was just really hard to wrap your head around what we were seeing.  Especially for me, because I taught World History for several years and part of the curriculum was World War II, the Nazi movement and the concentration camps.  So I am very familiar with a lot of the details of what happened here in Auschwitz nd Birkenau.  But seeing it in person, the actual places and items it was just really hard to imagine how this all really happened.  We were in the lobby by 6am for a "6:10am sharp" departure as our Viking host asked us.  And we were told we needed to have a photo ID with us.  She told us this multiple times.  We were all there ready to go at 6:10 and she asked, does everyone have their ID and one lady - who's been "interesting" let's say - throughout the extension said, "I didn't know we were doing that today."  WOW.  Our rooms are on the second floor and the elevators are right in the lobby but we all sat on the bus for more than ten minutes waiting on her.  WOW squared :O  The drive was about 90 minutes long and about a 45 minute video was shown about the liberation of the camps - hard to watch.  We met our guide and spent more than two hours going through the various buildings and having the whole thing explained.  The two things that I didn't know that I learned about Auschwitz were:  (1) the Auschwitz complex consisted of multiple camps and was all in about a 15 square mile area; and (2) the main camp where we visited was originally an army camp so they have brick buildings, not the commonly seen wooden ones you see in films (though that WAS what we saw at the Birkenau camp).  The rooms and areas would have been small for the 15 of us in our group, but when we were told that 100 or more would be forced into these spaces it was just so difficult to imagine.  After the extended time in this camp we drove the five minutes to the Birkenau death camp.  We were only here about 40 minutes but here the conditions were just so much worse and hard to believe what happened here.  We returned to Krakow, arriving about 1pm and had lunch.  Then in the evening we had a dinner at a traditional Jewish restaurant - that was fun.

Tomorrow we leave the hotel a little after 8am and will tour a local monastery and then we will hit the road for a several hour trip to Warsaw, our final stop of the trip. 

Walking up to Auschwitz

The gate where prisoners were "welcomed" - with an orchestra playing just to the right in the photo

The barracks/buildings of Auschwitz

The statistics about the camp are staggering

A guard tower

Actual (not recreations) uniforms / hundreds of photos lined the walls (close up - each prisoner had three shots taken)

The Jewish people truly thought they were being relocated so they brought everything they could carry/thought they'd need.  Only to have it confiscated.

Crutches-walkers, etc. (top photo) / Pots-pans-dishes (bottom right)

Cannisters for storing the Zyclon B gas pellets (bottom left)

Thousands of shoes (left) - suitcases (right)

The "Killing Wall" where executions by gunfire took place 

The double-fenced area between the camp and the gas chambers

Entrance into gas chambers - note smokestack for incinerators at right

The commandant's home where he & his family is just yards behind where I'm standing taking the photo.  And also his garden where his children played!

Inside the gas chamber

The next room to the gas chambers, the incinerators for cremating the bodies

Birkenau

The "Death Gate" - over 1 million Jews entered here, never to come out

The view on the railroad tracks entering the gate into the camp

The barracks

Inside the barracks....two sides, three-tiered "beds"

Close-up of the "beds" - our group of 14 Viking guests would have been placed into two beds....seven in each one

The communal bathroom building

Jewish Dinner/Performance

A traditional Jewish dinner followed by a musical performance to end the day

March 23

 Day 13:  Krakow

We woke up this morning in our Krakow hotel and after breakfast met our guide for our "Panoramic Tour" of Krakow.  We spent the first part on the bus to travel to the Jewish Ghetto section of the city and saw several buildings and synagogues that were once behind the walled-in ghetto area under the Nazi control.  The most significant stop was at the Ghetto Hero's Square where there were 68 chairs, each representing 1,000 Polish Jews that were sent to the concentration/death camps by the Nazi's.  We returned to the hotel for a brief break then walked up to the Krakow Castle and toured around that massive facility.  Then back down and walked to the old market square, which is the largest medieval square in Europe!  We concluded the morning's activities by going inside the enormous basilica.  The most amazing part of this stop was the alter which was originally built in the mid-1300's.  Then....our guide had timed it....we were there shortly before noon when a nun came in and using only a long metal rod was able to open the massive, 500 kilo - 46 foot high doors to reveal the inner alter.  Just stunning.  Afterwards we stood outside when precisely at noon a local firefighter had climbed the 272 steps to the top of the tower and played the trumpet alert at the top of the hour.  A great morning.  We asked for a restaurant recommendation and went to the "No. 7" restaurant for some traditional Polish food for lunch.  By the time we returned to the hotel we welcomed the afternoon off!

That's especially so because tomorrow we LEAVE the hotel at 6:10am for our appointment at Auschwitz & Birkenau Nazi concentration/death camps.  And tomorrow evening we have a traditional folk music and dinner to attend, so tomorrow will be a long day. 

Ghetto Hero's Square
Note - chairs were used because the square was used to pile up furniture from the Jews shipped off to the camps

The building with the "1941-1943" on it was the Gestapo headquarters

The Krakow Castle

The walk up to the castle / Passage way in the castle / The cathedral in castle

1,000 year-old church in the old town

"More recent" church - only 400 years old!

The large medieval square

Interior of the basilica

Alter doors closed - look at the detail!

The Opening Of The Alter

The alter doors opened

Lunch at "No. 7" - traditional Polish dumplings and both a white & red mulled wine

Another great day!