Central Europe - Part 3

An eventful last few days. We left Prague on Wednesday and drove through eastern Czechia before arriving in Krakow. We stopped at Kuna Gora an hour outside of Prague to have a look at one of the world's most unique churches. The Sedlec Ossuary contains the skeletons of over 40,000 people with the bones used for artistic decoration. No pictures are allowed these days, due to ridiculous tourists, but I found a sample on the internet.

Our next stop was Oloumoc, with its grand Holy Trinity Column. It was built to celebrate the ending of a plague in the early 1700s.

We were just about 10 minutes away from our Krakow apartment when BANG!!!! A car rear-ended us! It turns out the lady two cars back rear-ended the girl behind me and she hit me as a result of the impact on her car. This was the last thing we needed after a long road trip that was already delayed due to endless construction in Czechia. It seemed like everyone was okay, but it was enough for the ambulance to show up and check out the girl in the middle car and for the police to show up and give us a police report clearing us of any wrongdoing with the rental car. The only problem is the police took over 2 hours to show up and another hour to complete the paperwork. Thankfully, everyone was okay and we carried on eventually.

The next morning, we walked into the old town of Krakow and around its castle before setting off for a tour of Oskar Schindler's factory on the outskirts of Krakow. It was quite a place to be and learning of the people he saved was quite something.

As moving as Schindlers factory was it pales in comparison to what we witnessed at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The enormity of these events is hard to comprehend. When you go there you see samples of shoes, luggage, eyeglasses, etc. I’m sure you’ve all seen the photos, but it's tough to see with your own eyes.

We also had time for a salt mine tour. The Wieliczka salt mine has been in operation since the Middle Ages and only recently closed its mining operation. We were 130 meters underground, and some of the caverns and sculptures down there were remarkable. Tomorrow, we road trip back to Vienna via Slovakia, hopefully without any further excitement.

PS - The perogies and the goulash were fantastic