Monday, May 27th was a bit tough. We had a wake up call at 06:00, bags out and breakfast at 06:30 with the coach supposedly rolling at 07:00 hrs. It just did not happen. The baggage staff were slow and the service at breakfast slightly faster than glacial. The Tour Manager, the coach driver and I were the only ones on the coach at 07:00 hrs. Actual roll time was 07:35hrs.
Once again the weather was drab clag. That has happened so often in Switzerland and Poland that I think I should come up with the short form of DC = drab clag.
I had noted that only breakfast was offered for the day’s victuals. I understood why lunch was not on offer because we were to visit Auschwitz in the morning. The evening was a bit of a mystery.
From 07:35 to 09:05 the Tour Manager talked on the PA without taking a breath. During her monologue, she outlined the complete Polish history. Frankly, I think they should change the name from Poland to “Used-to-be-land”. Never have I heard such a tortured past.
We drove past the “homeland” of Pope John Paul the Second. There is no doubt that he is the most famous Pole in living memory. Lech Wałęsa, the former labour labour leader, and former President comes a very distant second. Once the darling of the West, Wałęsa’s image seems to have diminished in Polish eyes.
Chicago is the largest Polish city outside Poland.
No advertising was allowed in the Soviet era. Now the landscape is littered with garish billboards.
There is some affinity between the Czechs, Slovaks and Poles in that they are all Slavs and can understand each other’s language. But, the Czechs are more Protestant and not very religious.
We arrived at Oswiecim, known throughout the world by its German name of Auschwitz. The Tour Manager had spent a lot of time the day before preparing people for Auschwitz. I had not known about the more deadly camp three kilometres away at Birchenau.  An estimated 1.1 million Jews, together with some 200,000 people of other ethnicity, died in Auschwitz and the adjacent Birkenau camp, in gas chambers or from starvation, disease and forced labour.

Then we drove off to the city of Wroclaw on the banks of the River Oder. Wroclaw, better known as Breslau, has belonged to Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia and Germany.

Once into the hotel, we did a walking tour of the Old City’s main square. It was demolished towards the end of WW2 but was faithfully rebuilt to reflect the ancient glory.