Krakow

Krakow is definitely one of my favorite places I've visited. It's so pretty, not completely over run with tourists (like Paris or Amsterdam), and it is CHEAP! It's a great exchange rate between the euro and the Polish zloty and your money definitely goes much further than in western Europe.

I went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine which was first built in the 13th century. Legend says the mine was founded when Hungarian Princess Kinga was to be married to the Prince of Krakow. She asked her father for a salt mine and he gave her one. She threw her engagement ring in the Hungarian salt mine and when she arrived in Poland she instructed miners to start digging. They came upon a lump of salt and in it was her engagement ring. Kinga is now a saint and also patroness of Poland. The most spectacular thing in the mine was the Chapel of St. Kinga which is a huge chapel carved entirely out of salt (including the chandeliers!).

It was a long way down!

Chapel of St. Kinga

Altar in the chapel

Relief carving of "The Last Supper" 

But this was also the most somber trip I've taken. My trip included a visit to Auschwitz which was an emotionally draining day. Having read so many memoirs and historical accounts about Jews in Auschwitz, their stories just kept coming back to me. I also kept thinking about a scene from one of my favorite movies "The History Boys". In the scene the students and teachers are discussing the Holocaust and have the following conversation:

Teacher:"They go on school trips there nowadays don’t they? Auschwitz, Dachau. What’s always concerned me is where do they have their sandwiches, drink their cokes."
Student:"The visitors center. It’s like anywhere else."
Teacher:"Yes, but do they take pictures of each other there? Are they smiling? Do they hold hands? Nothing is appropriate."
Student:"What if you were to write that this was so far beyond ones experience, silence is the only proper response."

That's exactly how I felt: nothing was appropriate. How are you supposed to act when you're in a place where over one million people were murdered? When you're looking at a pond where the ashes of thousands of people were dumped? When you see the gas chambers that killed hundreds of thousands and the crematoriums that turned them into smoke? When you see 2,000 kilograms of human hair taken from murdered women? Is it even appropriate to be there?

I still don't know my answer to that last question. I understand the reasoning behind preserving Auschwitz and other camps but is making them into a museum the best way to remember the victims? I'm not sure. Walking through the various exhibits I noticed so many people taking photos of everything, including the piles of hair. Is photographing hair that belonged to thousands of murdered victims (and then presumably uploading them on facebook or somewhere else) really the way to show your respect? Is it right of the museum to display the objects (shoes, artificial limbs, suitcases, etc...) of the victims. This is an interesting article that deals a bit with how to preserve Auschwitz. Here's an excerpt from it relating the opinions of an expert on the construction of Auschwitz:

He supports the preservation of the Auschwitz main camp, although he acknowledges it is a 'kind of theme park, cleaned up for tourists'...letting Birkenau disintegrate completely would be a more fitting memorial than constantly repairing the scant remains. Birkenau is the 'ultimate nihilistic place. A million people literally disappeared. Shouldn't we confront people with the nothing of the place? Seal it up. Don't give people a sense that they can imitate the experience and walk in the steps of the people who were there.'

I'm inclined to agree with that. I think the exhibits and buildings at Auschwitz I (the smaller site) can tell you so much about the victims and the Holocaust. I'm not sure Auschwitz II-Birkenau needs (or should) be constantly repaired just for people to walk through it and walk where one million people were murdered. I think there are better ways to memorialize the victims and remember the horrors that were inflicted. But on the other hand, walking through Auschwitz II-Birkenau is the only way to get a sense of the sheer size of the camp. It's such a difficult topic and I'm not sure I'll ever have a satisfactory answer.

Munich and Salzburg!

It's been a while since my last post (almost 3 months!) but I have lots to report! I had two weeks off at the end of February and used that time to take two trips The first trip was a solo trip to Munich, Salzburg, and Krakow and the second was a trip to Prague with my good friend Jaelyn.

You're probably going to read this about every city I visited but I loved Munich! First up on the agenda was the Bayern Munich game. It was so much fun to see my favorite team and it was such a great atmosphere in the stadium.

Too bad those aren't the actual players...

I went on a free walking tour of the city and learned a lot about the city. Even though much of the city was destroyed from bombs during WWII the large towers (some of which are seen here) were not. The bomber pilots didn't target them because they were such good landmarks to locate the city.

After the war many buildings had to be rebuilt and great attention was taken to rebuild the buildings back to their pre-war state. This is a church that was rebuilt and they even put an Austrian cannon ball that had been there for hundreds of years back in it's place. It's the black ball at the top right of the window. 

These gold bricks are a memorial to Germans who resisted the Nazis. In the 1930s a memorial commemorating the Beer Hall Putsch  had been erected on the street perpendicular to this alley and whenever you passed it you had to salute. Some people would take the long way around and go down this alley so that they did not have to pass the memorial. Members of the SS would stand in the doorway on the right and as people passed, they would question or beat them. But that didn't stop people from taking the alley to bypass the memorial and some were even sent to concentration camps for their actions. The gold colored bricks stop at the doorway to commemorate the Germans that were stopped by the                                                      Nazis. 

Neuschwanstein

I took a bus trip to see Neuschwanstein and Linderhof castles which were built by King Ludwig II in the 19th century. Ludwig was more interested in the arts and architecture than in carrying out government duties. He used his personal fortune to build several castles. The most famous is, of course, Neuschwanstein. It was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle and was in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It did not disappoint! It was absolutely stunning. It also had some very modern technology for its time: a telephone, flush toilet, central heating, and warm running water.

Linderhof

The snow covered courtyard at Linderhof

The altar

Asam's Church is small church in Munich. It is just on an unassuming street of row houses but when you walk in it is quite stunning. It's a small space but the inside is very ornate and extravagant. It was built in the 18th century by two brothers as their own private church.

A creepy skull

I took a day trip to Salzburg from Munich and it was so much fun! Much of The Sound of Music was filmed there and I had a great time seeing the locations from the film. I also got to have some fun in the snow atop the mountain Untersberg!

Atop the very snowy mountain Untersberg.

At Mirabell Gardens where much of Do Re Mi was filmed. They look much nicer in the summer with the flowers blooming!

 

Nonnberg Abbey is where the real Maria was a novice and scenes from the movie were shot there. Didn't realize when taking this picture that it's the same angle from the movie!

The iconic red top of Nonnberg Abbey

Stay tuned for my next post about Krakow including a visit to Auschwitz and some incredible salt mines.