Day Nine: Thoughts from the road, Part two and a little bit of catch up

Today was another long travel day for us.  We didn't arrive at our hotel until about 930pm.  When you participate in these types of trips, you have to get used to flexible schedules and late arrivals.  Our tour director Ele has been working diligently to make sure our kids experience as much as possible...it might mean late nights for us, but who knows when the kids might be back here, so it becomes worth it in the end.  Last night, I returned to the hotel at a late hour again.  We had had an unbelievable day.  Our hotel internet service was not very good and although I was able to type about our visit to Auschwitz, it took nearly 2 hours to post ten pictures.  So, I was finally able to publish the posting from last night.  You can access it by clicking here.  I tried to do our visit justice, but some things cannot be expressed accurately in words.  I am going to provide a quick recap of the past two days below.  Some of the details are going to be lost in all of the thoughts flooding my head, but I hope I can give you a sense of how great this trip has been these past two days.

Day Eight: A recap.

We woke fairly early and headed into downtown Krakow.  Ele served as our local guide for the visit.  She brought us first to Krakow's castle.  She explained to us that the people of Krakow once had an issue with a dragon.  They tried and tried to kill it in a conventional manner, but they couldn't.  Someone finally tricked the Dragon.  The stuffed a farm animal with salt and when the Dragon ate it, he became very thirsty.  He quickly tried gulping up as much water as possible, but it was not enough.  He ended up drinking so much water that he exploded.  The Dragon has been the symbol of Krakow ever since.

We walked down from the castle towards Old Town.  Ele took us into many of her favorite churches and pointed out other potential places of interest.  We finally made it to the Old Town and many of us explored the central market designed in a Venetian motif.  There, the stores sold precious amber and traditional souvenirs.  You could buy hand made bags and massed produced t-shirts.  I found it interesting to see the old world connecting with the new world.  I am sure that some think it a shame, but it looks like the old school shops were selling just as much as the commercialized versions...if not more.  I didn't buy anything.  Some of the kids went off to explore the various shops surrounding the square including a "Chocolate factory." I didn't buy anything there either.  I did, however, make a stop at Coffee Heaven.  It wasn't quite Dunkin Donuts, but the caffeine did me good.

Some of the kids made the visit to Krakow really special by taking a horse and buggy ride.  Others took some time to hang out with their friends and just to relax.  We headed to Auschwitz shortly after lunch.

Day Eight: Post-Auschwitz Visit

As we departed Auschwitz it started to rain.  We had evening reservations in the Old Jewish Neighborhood of Krakow for dinner and traditional Jewish music.  The traffic was not too bad and we made it back to Krakow long before our reservations.  Ele arranged for our driver to drive by the location of Oscar Schindler's Krakow factory.  We, as a bus, has just watched the film and the somber reality of Auschwitz was still within our minds.  The visit to this factory and the reminder that some were good when all looked bleak helped ground our emotions.  We sat upstairs at the restaurant.  I really enjoyed our meal.  After being served the main course, the three piece band began playing some traditional Jewish music.  They sang too.  At one point, I was becoming really annoyed and upset with the kids.  They seemed to be laughing at the musicians.  I had never experienced this type of rude behavior on any of our trips.  At the intermission, I went over to YELL at the kids for the first time in Euro-touring history...little did I know that the accordion player was the cause for the levity.  Apparently, he was engaging in staring contests, making funny faces, and getting really intense with his playing.  (I had a terrible vantage point for the show and wrongly assumed our kids were misbehaving.  They were fine...once again).  I stood for one of the songs of the second act and witnessed a little bit of what they were talking about.  At the conclusion of the show, many of the kids purchased the band's CD.  I encourage you to ask them about it and to listen to some of the music.  It was quite good.  It was also exactly what we needed after Auschwitz.

Day Nine: The Salt Mines

Krakow's Dragon was killed because he ate too much salt.  Salt is one of the city's major exports.  It has been for a very long time.  We experienced that today, first hand.  After a little more free time in Krakow, we headed off to tour the Salt Mines.  What a cool experience.  We began by walking down 374 steps to depth of 90 meters.  Inside we saw, and tasted, walls covered in salt.  Throughout the exhibit we witnessed many statues made of salt.  We saw make-shift chapels carved into the salt walls.  We continued our descent.  Eventually, we made it to the third level of the mines.  (There are nine total levels going down over 1,000 feet) At one point, we stood in a giant cathedral-esque chamber.  The entire thing was carved from salt.  Everyone was encouraged to learn that there was an elevator that would take us back to the top.  From the mines, we began our long drive to Warsaw.

Day Nine: Thoughts from the Road.

Late last night there was a knock at my door.  It was Ele.  She had forgotten to remind the kids to make sure they were completely packed for the next day's departure.  I told her that we had remembered and that our kids would be ready.  What is not known to the general public is that upon hearing her knock on my door, I accidentally dropped my laptop on the ground.  It stills works, but it was at that point that I started to have issues with uploading pictures.  Although the internet was poor last night, I am still having some issues with uploading pictures tonight.  I may have damaged my computer...but I do not think so.  I am working on fixing the issue once I complete this blog.  Hopefully, you will see pictures soon.

Early mornings...late nights...currency conversions completed in one's head...food that is foreign to one's palette.  These are things that are common among travelers.  It is easy to become overly annoyed by these aspects of touring, and now that we've completed day nine, I think it is relatively safe to say that we've been doing okay.  We stopped at a McDonald's while on the road.  It was a little bit of home for some of us...although they sold a burger topped with pepperoni.  Our trip is nearly complete.  We've got one more night, after tonight, until I can buy a Dunkin Donuts coffee.  Day 13 will be here wicked soon.  We've made some really good friends from Canada.  I don't know if any of us will ever be able to visit each other, but I know that we will always be able to connect and share ideas.  The concept of these trips is to get out into the rest of the world and see what it is like.  Sharing these past nine days with the folks from Saskatchewan has been as enlightening as the whole trip.  I am so happy that they have been with us and I hope we've made a similar impression with them.

For those connected to me via Facebook.  I was able to post a bunch of new pictures there.  For those not connected to me via Facebook, You should be able to click the following link to access the pictures:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152777571005760.1073741833.639840759&type=1&l=0b76069d8d

I've never tried this feature before...hopefully it works.

Thanks again for your time...I hope you are getting a good glimpse of Europe and the experiences that these kids, and adults, are having.

Mr. Lavoie currently in Warsaw, sitting in a hotel lobby reading Google help forums troubleshooting picture uploading issues...hopefully you get the picture.