Summer Travel 2017: Day 10 - Schindler's Factory and Krakow

I woke up on Monday morning feeling quite ill - I was congested through my head and chest.  I'd been having some allergies, but this felt more like a cold.  I didn't feel up to going out, so Yulia and the girls went to the Schindler Factory and Ghetto without me while I slept and tried to recuperate some.  It sounds like they had a really good time at the factory - which is a museum about the Ghetto and Polish resistance and is very interactive and child-friendly.  It was also free on Monday, and they got there in time to get some of the few tickets remaining for early in the day, so everything worked out okay in the end.

[Yulia will tell more about the museum in the captions to the photos from that experience]

Portrait of Oscar Schindler

Portraits of people saved by Schindler, on both sides of the wall.

Equipment from Schindler's factory to make cookware.

Beginning of museum: pictures and video of Krakow in 1939.

Looking at slides from 1939

Stations where you could stamp documents

Apartment from the era.

Scenes taking place behind the window.

Polish Resistance

Nazi invasion and occupation.

Replica of Ghetto wall, which resembled tombstones, with actual accounts from Ghetto survivors on the wall.

Schindler's Office 

Big cube with cookware from the factory

The names of all the workers saved by Schindler

Exhibit about Aman Goth, camp director played by Ralph Feinnes in the film.

Closing the Ghetto and putting Jews into camps.

Working camp.

At the end of the tour.

Plaza of empty chairs in commemoration of the victims of the Ghetto

After everyone came home, we went out at about 5:00 p.m. and looked around the old part of the city.  Part of the day was buying Poland souvenirs.  The girls each got a wooden jewelry box, and Yulia got an Amber necklace to put in her own jewelry box at home.  After we were shopped out, I went and showed them Jagiellonian University, where I'd been to a conference two years ago.  After we saw the university, we went and found a Ukrainian restaurant that we had seen the first night when we got turned around.  We found the restaurant and had a nice meal - the portions were much smaller than the night before, but the food was delicious.  You can't go wrong with Eastern European cooking.

Stopping for pastries after the museum.

Part of original defenses of Krakow

Peacock sculpture in a random building.

Scenes from Old Krakow

On the square.

Central square

Souvenir shopping.

A flute-playing goat.  Our flute-playing girls.

University courtyard

University courtyard

                   

Looking down the well.

Part of the original walls.

Ukrainian food!

After we ate, we had room for ice cream, so we got some and sat outside and watched people for awhile while we finished our cones.  We walked home, calling it an evening.  Our time in Krakow had come to an end.  Yulia hadn't been to center Krakow before, and she fell in love.  Krakow is less touristy than Prague, and quite a bit cheaper.  We loved Prague, too, but in Krakow we felt very much at home as well.