The moving dunes of Poland

The next blog for the next country: Poland! We are trying to see as much as possible of this country, starting with a place where you can both relax and be active. Zakrzówek is an old quarry with a body of water. The first thing we noticed is that there are not a lot of tourists here, I guess it is unknown for the most visitors. We enjoyed the beautiful panorama of Krakow on the high rocks. We also explored the underwater treasures by diving and we had a barbeque. It was definitely an unforgettable memory.

Poland is probably most famous for its concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was another kind of experience during this journey. Auschwitz-Birkenau is really immense of size. It was devoted to the memory of all the murders in the concentration camps during World War II. We visited the memorial and the museum in Oswiecim. At least 1.1 million prisoners were killed at Auschwitz, 90% of them were Jewish. A lot of people were not killed in the gas chambers but they died of starvation, medical experiments and diseases. The camp is now a dominant symbol of the Holocaust. After our visit, we were still a little bit shocked because it takes a lot of time to process.

To take our mind off this camp, we went to the ‘moving dunes’. The Slowinski Sand Dunes are part of the Slowinski National Park. The Slovincians once lived here and now there is an open-air museum in Kluki, a little town. The dunes are formed as waves and their forms change with the season.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine is also a big tourist attraction in Poland. It is one of the oldest companies in the world and there has been continuously salt mined since the 13th century. There are dozens of statues and four chapels that have been carved out of the rock salt. The site has an underground city which is really impressive.

To end our trip here in Poland, we visited the Main Market Square in Kraków because it is the largest medieval square in Europe. It is surrounded by historical townhouses, palaces and churches. I really enjoyed our visit to Poland. I did not know what to expect from this country and it turned out to be very varied. We visited a lot of different places which made our trip very interesting. Hope to see you again Poland but now we have to go, we have to continue our journey by going to Denmark!

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieliczka_Salt_Mine

http://www.foreignersinpoland.com/places-to-visit-in-poland/travelling/krakow.html

http://www.touropia.com/tourist-attractions-in-poland/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp