Auschwitz - Wednesday 6 December

Up early again in time to find some breakfast before our 9am check-in for the bus. It's been odd that a number of times we have been in search of breakfast around 8am and nothing is open, even the 'breakfast' cafes that advertise they will be open then. With no luck finding an omelette for a few euros we had to make do with a pastry and coffee, though John's hot chocolate was a real winner - thick and syrupy like in Spain. The cafe was supposedly Sicilian so perhaps that explained it.

We'd been lucky to be booked in with just a small party (of 20-odd) to go to Auschwitz. The 10am group was to include over 100 people. We only needed a mini-van and got away pretty promptly at 9:15am. The trip out from Krakow took 1.5 hrs. When we were arrived the large carpark was filled with buses and mini-vans but the site is so large that it coped with the big numbers very easily, as it used to in the past.

Our guide started by taking us around the earliest part of Auschwitz camp, which was originally a Polish soldiers camp before being taken over by the Nazis and turned into a concentration camp. We toured through the original bunk barracks, prison and punishment block, buildings where the prisoners were stripped, then through the original gas chamber and past the ovens where the corpses were cremated next door. It was grim going, especially seeing the piles of shoes (80,000), great bales of hair (shaven from the women's heads to be used for in the textile industry), huge stacks of suitcases, hairbrushes, reading glasses and so on, all removed prior to all the women, men and children going into the chambers. The Nazis stated to the inmates that they were going to be showered and then go on to new places for resettlement. For the vast majority, they had no idea what was in store for them. It was typically only 20 minutes between getting out of the railway cattle truck and entering the gas chamber.

The old Polish soldiers barracks - reused for the original part of Auschwitz

Artificial limbs removed before entering the gas chambers

Piles and piles of suitcases - the owners expected to reclaim them before being resettled

One of the many piles of shoes, these all belonged to children

A quick hop back on the bus took us to Auschwitz-Birkenau, a much bigger camp built as part of the Auschwitz complex and which housed four huge ovens, compared to the original camp which had only one smaller one. The Nazis were gassing Jews from all over Europe, from as far afield as the Greek Islands, plus gypsies, Polish intellectuals, Russian soldiers and all the rest. They tried to blow up as many of the ovens and other evidence of their activities as they could prior to hurriedly leaving the camp before the Russians liberated it. Over 1,300,000 were murdered there, 1.1m being Jews.

The train line went straight into Birkenau camp and up to the gas chambers

A memorial plaque, replicated in 20 languages
to represent the nationalities who passed through the camp gates

It was a fairly sombre day, exacerbated by a  bitingly cold wind. Worth doing, but of course unpleasant. Our local guide gave us an extremely good commentary as we toured around both parts of the complex. It was with some relief that we climbed back into the van (and warmth) and headed back into town. Arriving just after 4pm we thought we should get our last look at the market, but it was very cold and raining lightly. We really needed a hot drink. Our local money (not Euros here) was running low so it would have to be by card. Looking around for a lively looking pub we ended up at a little place in the same street as our apartment. John opted for a hot spicy gluhwein and I tried a hot apple juice, cinnamon,vodka and orange peel. Yum. That did the trick!

Just what we needed to warm ourselves up. Mine is the big one!

It was only 5.15pm but we needed to eat so had dinner there as well. It was delicious, cheap and the best meal yet - typical that we found this place on our last evening here. Sour (zurek) soup with an egg was just 1 Euro and so tasty. We are keen to try some of these recipes when we get back home, especially the apple juice/cinnamon/vodka (probably served chilled though since we hear the weather in NZ is seriously hot even for so early in summer). 

However, John has just read out the recipe for sour soup - wholemeal rye flour, rye bread, water and garlic. Leave all this to sit in the sun for 4-5 days and then throw away any green bits on the top. What is left provides the soup base. Maybe we won't try this at home...

Back to the apartment by 6pm, where we spent a while packing up in preparation for another early start tomorrow. We're off to Prague in the morning. 

By the way, here's what we wore today, and it wasn't enough to stop us getting cold at some points...

• long sleeve merino underlayer
• long sleeved shirt
• polar fleece jacket
• light down jacket
• thick down jacket
• trousers, socks, shoes
• scarf
• polarfleece hat
• merino gloves