Wawel Cathedral in the Castle grounds on Wawel Hill in Krakow.
Tour Day 4: Krakow, Wieliczka Salt Mine & Schindler's Factory Museum
Krakow Walking TourIt was a very busy day in Krakow for us today! We first started with a walking tour of Old Krakow with a local guide. Looking at the map we started at the top by the Barbican and our hotel, and ended at the bottom at Wawel Hill and the Castle. We ended up having to cut out a little early from Wawel Hill to get to our private driver on time. She took us first to the Wieliczka Salt Mine and waited for us. She then dropped us off at the Schindler Factory Museum, after which we walked over to Kazamierz and enjoyed dinner outdoors with live Klezmer Music. It was a busy but great day!
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Image of the DayThis was at the end of a very busy day! We were relaxing over an outdoor meal with Klezmer musicians playing in Kazamierz. It was pretty much the first time we had sat down all day, and it was so relaxing!
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Wieliczka Salt MineWieliczka Salt Mine is near Krakow and a good venture out of the city. Hundreds of feet beneath the ground, and hundreds of steps down (don't worry you take an elevator back up), are sculptures and chapels and chandeliers all made of salt. A very precious commodity for its preservation qualities. I had been once before and going back with my family was wonderful! I still loved it! What they managed to carve, all out of salt and in their spare time, was amazing! The floor tiles in this picture? Salt!
Our guide in front of the statue of Copernicus.
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Pro-Tip: I recommend booking ahead to this popular sight. I went online picking a specific tour time in English and printing off our tickets at home to bring with. When we got there it was very easy to just hop into the English line that was gathering for our tour time. If you, like us, are pressed for time I recommend hiring a private driver over public transport. We hired Marta Chmielowska from Rick's Snapshot Krakow book, whose daughter drove us. She was wonderful, and got us around during our day without us having to try to navigate anything ourselves.
Fabryka Emalia Oskara Schindlera - Schindler's Factory MuseumThe museum is housed in the factory where Oskar Schindler and his Jewish employees worked, and is a good museum about the Nazi occupation. It not only tells the story of Schindler and his workers, but also the experience of all Krakow during the painful time of Nazi rule. It gives a good sense of chronology throughout, but you won't see any of the factory equipment. With the advancement of the Red Army he was forced to move everything to Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1944. He could have just abandoned his employees, but instead he moved them with him.
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After the war Schindler and his wife Emilie hopped around Germany and Argentina, but his attempts to break back into business came to nothing. As he had spent pretty much everything he had protecting his Jewish workers, he survived his later years off donations from Jewish donors. He died in poverty in 1974 and was buried in Jerusalem in accordance with his final wishes. Yad Vashem named Oskar and Emilie as 'Righteous Among the Nations' for their effort to save Jews from the Holocaust, and they have a tree planted in their honor along the Avenue of the Righteous. Today you can visit his grave in Jerusalem where it is piled with small stones left by appreciative Jewish visitors.
Pro-Tip: If you plan on visiting Schindler's Factory Museum you should watch Schindler's List. Also, this site is popular and crowded. Booking ahead really is a must if you want to get in when you want to get in.
Plaszow
When Schindler first took over the factory it was staffed by about 1,000 Jews from the Plaszow Camp. The camp was managed by sadistic Nazi Amon Goth who really did shoot at camp inmates for sport from his balcony (the house in the top right photo circled in red). After an SS raid in 1943 in which Schindler saw his friends and employees murdered, he ramped up efforts to save them. He wrote up bogus paperwork and built barracks for his employees to live at the factory in far better conditions than those at Plaszow. Those lucky enough to work for Schindler became known as Schindlerjuden or 'Schindler's Jews.' The green spaces in these photos are all that is left of what was the Plaszow camp, with a Soviet era memorial of concrete in the bottom left one. The other 2 photos are the factory when it was not yet a museum, and my graduate group in front of the gates as it was all we could access in 2007. |
Kazamierz
After the dose of heavy at the museum we headed out of Podgorze, across the Vistula River, and into Kazimierz for dinner. We were hoping for a meal outdoors with some Klezmer music as it was such a nice evening. We got what we wanted at the Klezmer-Hois Restaurant right on the main square of Kazimierz. We were hungry and ready to relax with some wine and beautiful music (I bought some from the group playing) and talk about our amazing day. We were also fortunate to sit next to 2 guys from the Netherlands who were in Poland on business, and as they were saying goodnight over facetime to one of their littles at home with mom we got to introduce ourselves and say goodnight too!
After the dose of heavy at the museum we headed out of Podgorze, across the Vistula River, and into Kazimierz for dinner. We were hoping for a meal outdoors with some Klezmer music as it was such a nice evening. We got what we wanted at the Klezmer-Hois Restaurant right on the main square of Kazimierz. We were hungry and ready to relax with some wine and beautiful music (I bought some from the group playing) and talk about our amazing day. We were also fortunate to sit next to 2 guys from the Netherlands who were in Poland on business, and as they were saying goodnight over facetime to one of their littles at home with mom we got to introduce ourselves and say goodnight too!
RS map and walking tour of Kazamierz, the main square of Kazamierz where our restaurant was located (I took this picture back in 2007), dinner is served, the Klezmer music group playing at our restaurant for our outdoor dinner, Brrett and I toasting our great day with some wine, monkey tiles in our restaurant's bathroom - so unique!
Krakow EveningsIt had been an action packed day, but we weren't quite ready to stay in our room after getting back to Krakow from dinner in Kazamierz. So Brett and I headed back out after dropping our stuff off in our room to walk around the square and town again. After a lap we noticed a group of our tour mates having a grand old time on the beautiful square and decided to join them. It was a wonderful evening of laughter and getting to know our fellow travelers from all over the US. Our waiter was wonderful and pretty good with his English! It's nights like these that you talk about after you get home.
Me, Brett, Pat, Cindy, Serena, Pat, Kim, and Lynn. Photographer: Tom |