Tuesday morning June 23rd, we left early from Zakopane taking the train to Krakow.  The train journey was quite pleasant and empty.  We had a slight delay which I thought was longer than it actually was so I told the boys to go down to the dining car and order some food for lunch, they did and said they were going to receive a text when their food was ready, but then all of a sudden we arrived in Krakow-they had to get off without ever retrieving their food.  Oops!  We took an Uber to our Airbnb and luckily were allowed to check in early, which was really nice.  We quickly unloaded our stuff and unpacked briefly.  This Airbnb has really tall ceilings and big bedrooms-the boys were quite happy to each have a queen size bed to themselves.  We also have enough room to spread out with 1.5 bathrooms.  The main bathroom has it's own sauna in it!  I'm sure that is really nice to have in the wintertime, but at the moment, Europe is experiencing a heat wave, so we just need to step outside to be in a sauna. Continuing with our day...we took an Uber to the Wieliczka Salt Mines where we had a tour time scheduled. We had to walk down over 200 steps at the start of the tour, it was nice and cool underground. This particular salt mine is the biggest in Poland, maybe Europe.  It is no longer in use, as our guide told us, they make much more money with tourists than with mining the mine; she told us we were white gold. ;) She also told us were free to lick the walls, floor or anywhere we could reach because everything was made of salt!  They had massive caverns in this mine, but also plenty of long narrow corridors covering the 9 floors and over 150 miles in length.  We only saw a tiny portion of this. The mine is also home to 22 chapels, including one where they still hold services and weddings and private parties.  It would be cool to have a private party in the salt mine.  Although we all enjoyed this tour, we overall, all still liked our salt mine tour in Berchtesgaden better. Tuesday night I had made reservations at a Polish restaurant that specializes in gluten free food, Pod Baranem.  I enjoyed pierogies and weinerschnitzel. The boys both also got weinerschnitzel.  Paul got dumplings and soup.  We had a fun waiter and afterwards, he mistakenly threw out my leftovers which I had wanted to bring home, so he brought Paul and I special after dinner drinks of their homemade liquor.  They were good so I forgave him. 

Wednesday we took a segway tour that ended up being close to 4 hours long, which was a bit too long for us.  We toured the old town of Krakow and the Jewish Quarter, we got to see Krakow University's oldest buildings, the charming main square, hidden secrets in the Jewish Quarter, the castle and the sections on the Vistula River.  All in all we really like Krakow, it's full of life and such old architecture and green spaces.  Back in the day when the wall around the city came down, they decided to make it a pedestrian friendly green space that encircles the old town.  What a nice way to make it welcoming. We are staying outside of the old town on the edge of the Jewish Quarter, called Kazimierz.  This area has a lot of history, and currently is home to a more artistic clientele, it isn't cared for/looked after as well as Old Town, so there's graffiti on a lot of buildings, and wear and tear that is neglected.  But the charm and heart is felt over all of that. It's definitely the quieter area, which we always like better than being in the center of the tourist area. Back to our day. Wednesday night I had reservations at Mr. Jerry's Steakhouse, which I had read about on FB.  The boys and I all got yummy steaks, while Paul opted for shrimp.  We all enjoyed the meal, then walked around the old town where there was pop up music in the square and people dancing.  It was full of life and energy.  I loved it.

Thursday I had nothing planned, so we walked up to the castle and around the walls, then grabbed some Lime scooters and just rode around. We headed toward the Jewish Ghetto Memorial where 70 empty chairs sit symbolizing the household furniture left behind by all the Jewish families who were deported to extermination camps. Each chair represent 1,000 Jewish victims of the Krakow Ghetto. It is obviously very somber to think about.  Continuing with our day.  We had lunch in the Jewish Quarter at a cute cafe, but we were all tired from the heat, so came back to rest for a while.  I ran to the grocery store to get more breakfast supplies before we headed out to dinner. We went to an Indian restaurant that I had read about, Tandoori Flame.  Our waiter, Mimo, was so much fun, immediately drawing us in with his enthusiasm.  our meals were delicious and it was fun laughing with Mimo.

Friday June 26th, the day we toured Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.  Definitely a moving experience but well worth learning about histories mistakes so we never do this again.  Seeing the concentration camp in person and listening to our guide tell us about it and the personal stories of some of the inmates there was extremely sad, but necessary. Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp in Europe and they killed hundreds of thousands of people, especially the Jewish population and then tried to cover it all up-luckily some survivors didn't allow this happen and eventually encouraged the Polish government to turn Auschwitz into a museum to memorialize all the people who died there.  

There's not much more I can say about it.  Afterwards, we ended up taking an Uber to what I thought was going to be the local train station, but he convinced us to let him drive us all the way to Krakow.  He was an excellent tour guide and kept speaking into a translator "his friend" and telling us the history of buildings we were driving by.  The ride certainly added to our historical and educational day. Once arriving back in Krakow, we plopped down at the nearest restaurant with outdoor seating in the shade (we were all soaked with sweat from the 90+ degree weather we were in all day), got some drinks and Italian food this time.  I don't think any of us cared what kind of food, we just sat down exhausted mentally and physically.   A nice relaxing evening was had.

Saturday-we are off to another country.