Warsaw to Krakow

The little musical interlude from Mark last night was very pleasant. Unfortunately fir the rest of the group, the only ABBA piece he played was Waterloo and I don't like that one, so they missed out on my dulcet tones pervading the air space. Time for dinner and our gang agree to try Mexican which according to directions given to them last night (I wasn't there) was across the road, down the street a bit. So out we head in light rain, across a major set of traffic lights and still walking with no Mexican restaurant in sight on either side of the road. Turned back towards the hotel eventually and at the lights decide to take a left towards some red fluoro lights on a building. At this time, M says that daughter K had told him to make sure he didn't walk at night in Poland, especially along dark paths as it wasn't safe. I'm past caring so confuse to trudge towards the lights with a reluctant M in tow! However, happy ending. We weren't pilfered or plundered and arrived safely at the Blue Cactus Mexican restaurant. Drinks ordered and I'm happily sipping away on my margarita when D in attempting to compare the colour of her beer against M's ( have no idea why. IT must be a beer drinkers thing...) manages to knock her full glass over, directly onto M! I've never seen the two of them jump out of their seats so quickly. Give them both a pole and they could pole vault of Australia! After mopping up a gallon of beer off the table, M, the chair and anywhere else within spraying distance, peace is restored and we all enjoy our dinner when it finally arrived. Time to head back to the hotel but not before major headache trying yo pay the bill. G hasn't any zyloty at all but I owe him 36. He owes M zyloty but hadn't had a chance to get any more money exchanged. Roomie has a 50 zyloty note and I have 100. M's trying to pay for it all, telling us we can pay him back. I'm not having that as I'll be left with a 100 note next time I want to use a bathroom where I'm likely to have to pay 1 or 1.5 zyloty and I've no change. Anyway somehow the bill got paid, money was being exchanged and then taken back. Roomie just held out her money and accepted whatever she got back and we all made our way back to the hotel as it was time for bed. Early start in the morning. So... Suitcases out by 6.30 and on the road at 7.30. Grey skies and rain threatening. Max of about 10 expected. Out first stop was at a service station cafe for a quick cuppa and to buy something for lunch. Back on the coach and on to Czestochowa to the Jasna Gora Pauline Monastery which is the spiritual capital of Poland for the 93% of the population who identify as Catholic. Long queues to see the painting of the Black Madonna and large crowds. I get bored with that really quickly so roomie and I head back out of the church where Matej directs us to a gallery that has a copy of the Black Madonna. Didn't float my boat but happy to see what it looks like without all the crowds. It is considered Poland's holiest relic as well as one of the country's national symbols.We have a bit of a wander around the grounds and other buildings. It is huge place but as it is cold, we head back to the warmth of the coach and eat our lunch while we wait for the others. Our next stop is at Auschwitz 2 Birkenau State Museum. This is where the largest of the Nazi concentration and extermination camps was established in Nazi German occupied Poland. Light rain falling and with the constant grey skies this just added to the somber and depressing scene. We then went to Auschwitz and had a 2 hour guided tour through many of the buildings. Don't know how our guide can work there. It was just horrible to know that you were on ground that tens of thousands of people, predominantly Jews had been murdered on. Bloody stupidity and horror of war! Some of our group preferred not to do the tour, roomie included. It was a quieter group on the coach as we then headed to Kraków. By now the rain started to fall heavily and we were so lucky that even though it was cold, I don't think it got over 9 degrees, we never got rained on while we were walking around, other than a light drizzle at one stage. Arrived into Kraków about 6.15 and roomie and I decide to head to the shopping mall next door to fins something fir dinner rather than do a 15 minute walk with Matej into the old town, I figure I'm going to see that tomorrow in daylight and I've had enough of the cold and wet for one day. KFC for dinner and then back to our room for an Irish coffee, feet up and then bed.