From Auschwitz to Czestochowa

Here's a map of Europe so you can see where I've been and where I'm going! Warsaw is North of Krakow. Just cut off the top of the map. I'll see if I can get a better one later.


Today we travelled from Krakow to Warsaw, and what a day of contrasts.

We started the day with a visit to Auschwitz. What a sombre and thought provoking visit that was.

Our guide was a young-ish Pole who's great-grandfather was a prisoner in Auschwitz. Thw whole magnitude of the extermination of Jewish people was just mind-blowing. You hear these things on TV and you read about it, but when you actually see the rooms full of old glasses and human hair of the people who were murdered here, it's just staggering. And as they kept telling us that what we were seeing represents only 5% of the people who died here.

Over 1 million Jewish people were gassed or tortured in an extraordinary variety of ways. They showed us the room where Maximilian Kobe died. (In case you don't know he was a Franciscan Friar who volunteered to take the place of another prisoner sentenced to death, because some other prisoners had escaped. He's now a saint) Maximilian was just about starved to death but they eventually killed him with an injection into his heart.

They also showed the cell where they suffocated people to death, by allowing only a minute amount of air into the cell. And other cell where they made 4 people squeeeze into a 3x3 area, so they had to stand all the time. It really makes you wonder about the inhumanity of mankind.

Airholes for the suffocation cell

They also took us into the only remaining gas-chamber. The Germans actually destroyed the ones at Birkenau before they retreated,but one survived at Auschwitz 1 (there were 2 camps at Auschwitz). It was so eerie and spooky being in the place where they killed 700 people at each time. Then they showed us the ovens where the bodies were cremated. The Germans took everything from the people before they were killed, including their hair (which was on-sold) and the gold from their teeth, and even things like prosthetic limbs, which were passed on to soldiers coming back from the wear with injuries.

Birkenau Railway

It really was a very sobering experience, and one I don't think I will ever forget.

The next stop on our journey was Czestochowa (pronounced chest-o-hov-a) where the painting of the Black Madonna is housed in the monastery of Jasna Gora.

Black Madonna Icon

But as they say in Little Britain "What a schemozzle"!!!There were at least 100 or more coaches filled with both tourists, but especially school children! Eeeeekkkkk !!! I was trying to get away from this! Everywhere I go there are kids on excursions! I thank God every day that I'm not the teacher who is with them!



But this place was absolutely crazy. You literally could not move. Talk about the "buyers and the sellers in the temple". It was frightening! Our guide took one look and quickly rushed us to see the picture of the Black Madonna that we could photograph, and then we moved on. We were supposed to have our toilet break there, but queues stretched for miles, and there was no hope of lining up for food, even though it was 1 o'clock and time for lunch.


Toilet queues at Czestochowa!


So he decided to go the local McDonalds, which are everywhere here. And we couldn't even get in the door there because of the hordes of school kids. We ended up having lunch at some roadhouse on the highway about 3.30pm. And even then there were buses of kids pulling in. Luckily we got to the food before them, but we left it too late to go to the toilet. The queue was out the door again! This blog should be subtitled "Tales of the Toilet"!!!

Eventual Food Stop

We didn't arrive in Warsaw until 6.30pm, so it was a big day on the bus. Tomorrow at last I get a sleep-in. I'm passing on the optional excursion to the local Castle with antique furniture, and I'm also passing on the Chopin concert. I think we're about half way through this tour, so it's good to have a rest day. Touring can be a little tiring. But I wouldn't swap any of these experiences, especially today's.