We began the day touring the Jewish section of Krakow. It was interesting to see where Helena Rubinstein was born and to see the old cemetery. The monuments all had stones or little rocks on them which meant that each visitor left a stone. This is an Orthodox Jewish tradition therefore live things are not put there with the dead.
We drove onward to Wadowice, the birthplace of Pope John Paul II. The little pastry shops around the square sold his favorite childhood treat-cream cake.
There were religious shops and all sorts of souvenir stores selling pope items as well. There were papal symbols even on the manhole covers. Folks were also waiting to get into mass where the pope had gone as a child too. The Poles are really proud of the fact their country produced an outgoing and good pope.
Then onward to Auschwitz which was really depressing, yet a person needs to know what happened at the concentration camp so that this type of thing never happens again. The Nazi regime's main goal was extermination of Jews and others they felt were inferior. The method of extermination was either quick or longer and torturous, either way the end result was the same. It is thought that 1 million 100 thousand were exterminated here at Auschwitz.
This photo shows an opening in the ceiling where Cycon-B, a poison was dispensed on the people in that tight enclosed room.
Beet soup
Turkey and potatoes
The Pope's cake
We enjoyed a lovely traditional Polish dinner at a very old famous Krakow restaurant - Restaurant Wierzynek. We had beet soup along with the Pope's cake for dessert. We actually did a good job of using up the Polish Zloty which is 3 to our 1 by buying 2 candy bars at a small supermarket.
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