This document provides details from a trip to several cities in Poland, including Krakow, Wieliczka, Oswiecim, and Warsaw. In Krakow, highlights included visiting Wawel Castle overlooking the Vistula River and St. Mary's Basilica. In Wieliczka, the tour went underground to see salt sculptures in the 600-year-old salt mine. At Auschwitz and Birkenau, the concentration camps provided somber insights into the Holocaust. Warsaw attractions included the Palace of Culture, the Black Madonna icon, and the Royal Łazienki Museum's gardens and palace.

1. Poland

2. KRAKOW
Welcome to Krakow’s Wawel
Dragon

3. KRAKOW
Sheraton Hotel Our Accommodation
Situated At The Foot Of Wawel Castle On
The Vistula River.

4. KRAKOW
The first fortress was built on Wawel Hill
in the 11th. Century. The present castle
dates largely from the 16th. Century.

5. KRAKOW
Early morning walk to check out Krakow

6. KRAKOW
Wawel Castle near our Hotel

7. KRAKOW
St. Mary’s Basilica was built in 1364

8. KRAKOW
Wawel Castle is perched high atop a hill overlooking the Vistula
River. As the residence of kings and queens for five centuries,
the castle is a great tourist attraction and a museum of art and
history. The towers of the castle and the spires of the cathedral
evoke the magic and mystery of medieval Krakow

9. KRAKOW
The large Main Square is
surrounded by historical
townhouses, Palaces
and churches.
The centre of the square is
dominated by the Cloth Hall
or Drapers' Hall, rebuilt in 1555
in the Renaissance style.
At the side of the Cloth Hall is
the Town Hall Tower.

10. Wieliczka
The salt mines in Wieliczka were part of the marriage settlement of
the Hungarian princess Kinga. Amazing figures and monuments were
sculptured out of its salt walls which earned the Mine a place on the
UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list in 1978.
Our tour included a visit to the 600 year old Salt Mine. You descend
380 wooden steps to the first level 64m underground from there you
you continue another two levels in tunnels and more steps until you
are 135m underground. The distance covered is 5 km and takes 2
hours. At the end of the tour you ascend in a small miners lift
carrying 6 to 8 people .Now that was an experience too.
The tour visits many ancient chambers and chapels in which almost
everything is made or carved from salt. Kinga’s Chapel is a huge
22,000 cubic metre space and is a popular wedding place we were
advised.

11. Wieliczka

12. Wieliczka
Main altar in St. Kinga’s Chapel.

13. Wieliczka
St. Kinga’s Chapel
Salt Sculpture

14. Oswiecim
AUSCHWITZ AND BIRKENAU VISITS.
The visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau allows you to gain insights into the
atrocities created under Hitler's regime and the millions who fell victim to
the Holocaust. This was a very personal thought-provoking experience .
The largest of all the Nazi
concentration and extermination
camps, Auschwitz, was
transformed into a museum by
the Polish government a few
years after it was liberated by
Russian Troops in 1945.

15. Oswiecim
AUSCHWITZ AND BIRKENAU VISITS.

16. Oswiecim
BIRKENAU EXTERMINATION CAMP
An estimated 6,000,000 Polish civilians died during the war, of
which 2,900,000 were Jewish.

17. Oswiecim
AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMP FACTS
"Gypsies and people who were crippled
especially were sent to be killed, but
Slavonic peoples and Hungarians who
disagreed with the fascist government
were also sent to the chimneys.
Many millions of Polish people
died in the camps. Anyone
who was not German could be
used as hands to work until
they could work no longer, and
then to be burned.

18. Warsaw
The Palace of Culture and Science.
A gift from the Soviet Union to the people of Poland in 1952.

19. Warsaw
The famous icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa also known as
the Black Madonna. It has been associated with Poland for
the past six hundred years.

20. Warsaw
Travelling across the Polish Plains to Warsaw

21. Warsaw
• The Royal Łazienki Museum
in Warsaw consists of a
palace and garden complex
comprising magnificent
gardens, canals and ponds
within its 80 hectares.
• It was built during the
second half of the
eighteenth century.

22. Warsaw
The Chopin Statue is a large bronze statue of Frédéric Chopin in
Warsaw's Royal Łazienki Park. At the statue's base, since 1959, on
summer Sunday afternoons are performed free piano recitals of
Chopin's compositions.

23. Warsaw
Vilanov Palace
• Palace Entrance • Flag Throwing Practice

24. Warsaw
Vilanov Palace
Ceiling Painting In Queen’s Bedroom Vilanov Palace Bascilia