Doug and I received a HUGE gift when our friends in Bratislava allowed us to take a road trip without KIDS! One family offered to babysit Justin and Anya for the weekend (that makes five kids with their three). The other family offered to drive their car and found a babysitter for their daughter as well! This put us in good shape for a weekend ROAD TRIP! I knew we were going to have a great time when our friends' first stop was the gas station C-store for snacks. Chips and Diet Coke and a little chocolate - not grapes and yogurt! Knowing we could eat junk food without guilt was a great start.
The drive was beautiful. We passed through the borders into Czech Republic and Poland with no passport checks due to the new treaty that went into effect in December. Our destination was Krakow - a historic city that would require an approximately 5 hour drive from Bratislava.
Krakow was great. The infrastructure is being rebuilt and updated all around the city, but the historic areas are preserved and restored. Krakow has the largest pedestrian square in all of Europe. It is huge! Sidewalk cafes, a flower market, horse and carriage rides and a huge "Cloth Hall" souvenir market is in the center. We happened to arrive in Krakow on May 3, which is Polish Independence Day. The streets were strung with banners and it was a festive atmosphere, complete with a parade.
We took a walking tour through the old Jewish area and were amazed at the number of synagogues in a small area. From there we walked to the factory of Oskar Schindler. Oskar Schindler saved many Jewish people during the Holocaust, the story of which is told in the film "Schindler's List".
Our trip back to Bratislava began with a McDonald's breakfast. A very American start to a day that I will never forget. We began our planned visit to Auschwitz/Birkenau concentration camps. The rainy, gray sky with a chill in the air seemed appropriate weather for this day. There is not much to say about visiting these terrible places. The museums at Auschwitz are well done and chronicle the Nazi extermination of Jews from all over Europe and other ethnic groups and people. Auschwitz and Birkenau are close in proximity but there is a bus to take to get to Birkenau. Birkenau has been left as it was found after the war ended with the exception of a few restorations of things that had deteriorated with age. While Auschwitz was in a relatively small area, Birkenau stretches farther than I would have imagined. I was unprepared for the sight of a railway that ends at the death camp. There were hundreds of messages written on small wooden posts tucked on the tracks as memorials from visitors.
I will post a few photos of what I have mentioned here.
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