Auschwitz-Birkenau Monday 19 May 25

 

A sombre, but essential visit today. 1,100,000 people entered these gates and never left, 90% were Jewish. Hard to say anything more 😢

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Warsaw - Day 1, 22 May 25

Image
 Hi all Yesterday we left Krakow and took the train to Poland’s capital city, Warsaw. We had a pleasant journey and found our apartment easily. After the usual stocking up, we found a nice restaurant for dinner, Butchery and Wine, it was great and surprised us with the news it was a Michelin Star restaurant. Pretty reasonable prices nonetheless and as you can see we were surrounded by beef! Today we explored the Warsaw old town, which unfortunately was almost completely destroyed in WWII, firstly in bombings when the Nazis invaded, then in 1944 in retaliation for the unsuccessful uprising by the Polish people. This was the St John’s Cathedral at the end of the war, most of the old town looked the same. In one of the few good things to come out of the Soviet era occupation of the Country, amazingly the Cathedral, Castle and Old town were faithfully rebuilt on the original plans - remarkable. These photos of the Castle and the old market square, with its row of 17th century houses sh...
Read more

Tallinn, Estonia 10th June

Image
 Hi all, Today we got up early for the 7:30am ferry to Tallinn, we were there by 9:30am, a smooth sailing across the Baltic. Nice Finnish ship and great infrastructure, just saying! There isn’t much to say about this small city of 500,000 people, except it is a stunning 12 to 14 Century gem. A double walled city, with much of the lower and upper walls still very visible in places - I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. One immaculate, one fixer upper! Both over 600 years old. Walled in. Stunning squares and streetscapes, with the best town hall. The views from the upper town to the lower town below it. Some beautiful churches, including a Russian Orthodox - they were “in charge” here a for a few centuries, then from 1945 to 1991. Plus another quaint house, we could have taken100’s and the Parliament building. Then even more ancient walls and city gates to finish. We caught the 4:30pm ferry back to Helsinki, had a great day, including an Estonian lunch, Roast Elk for carnivore ...
Read more

Potsdam, 3rd June 25

Image
 Hi all, We took the excellent S Bahn a short 40 minutes to the former East German town of Potsdam. This town has around 180,000 residents, however the public transport is streets ahead of Hobart - not many cars in the city centre as PT is the preferred mode due to the interconnected train, bus and tram network. Whilst the town got a fair pasting by Allied bombers in the war, it has been restored beautifully. The town was a favourite of the 18th Century Prussian King Frederick III, and he managed to leave his mark. Firstly with his summer palace, Schloss Sanssouci, just out of town by bus. Not quite Versailles, but a good attempt, although the outside could do with a bit of reno. The gardens are expansive and beautiful, and the inside with its many decorative rooms is well worth the visit. We bused back to town and explored the town. Frederick left his mark again when the ordered the construction of houses to encourage Dutch artisans to work on his projects - the result a very Amst...
Read more