Sunday, April 17, 2011

Traversing Poland

Yesterday we began our day in Warsaw with a walk around some of the cities prettiest areas. We toured some of the palaces including the summer palace of Poland’s formerly elected king. Along this journey, we passed by the Chopin monument and spoke about the cultural significance of the composer in Poland. Additionally, we walked through some of the city’s most beautiful parks.

Along our way, we stopped at monuments to various Polish leaders—particularly those that participated in Warsaw’s Uprising during WWII and those that were part of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. We made sure to spend some time in the museum dedicated to the Uprising during WWII (which includes several exhibits on the ghetto uprising) and the museum did not disappoint. We watched a computer generated 3-D film that shows the destruction of at the end of WWII, we climbed through replica sewer tunnels complete with sound effects, and we examined tons of other features of the museum. Thankfully the text around the museum is in English

After Warsaw Rising, we had a nice lunch downtown. Then we headed back to the area where the Warsaw Ghetto was located and took some time to discuss the leaders of the ghetto uprising. Then it was to board the bus for our 3+ hour drive to Lublin.

This morning a big day awaits us—we will have breakfast and then travel to another extermination camp: Majdanek. This camp is commonly referred to as the best preserved camp and we will walk around the grounds for well over 2 hours. After touring the camp, we will load the bus and journey to Krakow, which will take almost 5 hours. Thankfully, we stop partway and have lunch. We found out yesterday that Polish rest areas do not really exist, but thankfully our guide knows key spots for WC stops.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing!! Auggie and I went through thtem and he smiled, cried, informed me..etc. It is very hard to come back to "reality" after a trip like that...Auggie expressed how much he learned in 1 day..versus text books. He can't stop talking about the entire trip, the host students and the country!! Thanks for everything Lindsay..Mrs. P. (obvs #1 blogfan!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. ..went thru the photos..that is!!! :)

    ReplyDelete