Collin is finally walking. We're really not surprised that it took him this long. Clara didn't walk until she was almost 15 months. And that is exactly when Collin started. He's still pretty wobbly but cute.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Success!
You'll be happy to know that our shiny ribbon/windmill tactic worked. We have successfully harvested one strawberry. Clara was very excited to eat it as you can see. We are anxiously awaiting more.
In other news, we gave Collin a haircut. His hair was looking a little crazy with it's long wispys flying all over. Plus he has started to yank on his hair whenever he gets angry or tired. He woke up in the middle of the night the other night and was so mad he pulled a huge chunk about the size of a golf ball out. He has a huge bald spot right on the top of his head. I was very sad to cut his hair, still hoping that it would get thicker, but we're hoping by cutting it, he won't pull on it as much.
He has also turned into a picky eater. Here I was bragging how much he ate, and now he doesn't want to eat anything but fruit and hot dogs. He does like to play with it though.
In other news, we gave Collin a haircut. His hair was looking a little crazy with it's long wispys flying all over. Plus he has started to yank on his hair whenever he gets angry or tired. He woke up in the middle of the night the other night and was so mad he pulled a huge chunk about the size of a golf ball out. He has a huge bald spot right on the top of his head. I was very sad to cut his hair, still hoping that it would get thicker, but we're hoping by cutting it, he won't pull on it as much.
He has also turned into a picky eater. Here I was bragging how much he ate, and now he doesn't want to eat anything but fruit and hot dogs. He does like to play with it though.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Random summer things
We have been looking forward to summer for a while now but now that it is finally here, I'm ready for Clara to go back to school. She has barely been out a week and already I'm tired of the repeated questions. Can we go to the pool, can I have a piece of gum, can I have another popsicle, can I ride my bike, can I go to the neighbor's house. I would be fine if she would ask these questions once a day, but no, it's 800 times a day. My patience is waring thin.
Our yard is nice but in the two years we've lived here we have not put in any play equipment. Mark has promised me an Ewok Village for 2 years and I told him this year it would get done or I'm buying a swingset. I'm tired of not having anywhere for the kids to play. We have 2 large telephone poles in our backyard that have a swing in between them. The swing is cool because it goes really high but the poles are in the only usable space in the yard. So Mark wants to build an Ewok village around the telephone poles complete with slide and swings. I gave him a deadline of next Wednesday. We'll see if it gets done. He did finally get the sandbox put in that's also been on the list for 2 years. The kids love it. Collin will actually play in the sand unlike Clara at his age. She wouldn't touch sand until she was about 4.
Clara at the beach in Mexico just after she turned 2. Notice how she is froglegging in order to not touch the sand. She did this the whole week. If she got sand on her she would freak out.
We have been enjoying a lot of popsicles.
We have also enjoyed planting our garden this year. Our strawberries are actually growing this year unlike last year. The first one started to turn red and Clara was so excited to pick and eat it. We woke up one morning and it was gone thanks to the birds. Clara burst into tears and cried all morning. My cousin said that they have had some success scaring the birds with fake snakes. So we looked all over Utah County for fake snakes: toy stores, garden stores, Cal ranch, IFA. No success. So finally the lady at the garden store told us that birds are afraid of shiny things and sold us some shiny ribbon tape stuff. We also bought the windmills which are a nice touch. We'll see if they keep the birds away.
Our yard is nice but in the two years we've lived here we have not put in any play equipment. Mark has promised me an Ewok Village for 2 years and I told him this year it would get done or I'm buying a swingset. I'm tired of not having anywhere for the kids to play. We have 2 large telephone poles in our backyard that have a swing in between them. The swing is cool because it goes really high but the poles are in the only usable space in the yard. So Mark wants to build an Ewok village around the telephone poles complete with slide and swings. I gave him a deadline of next Wednesday. We'll see if it gets done. He did finally get the sandbox put in that's also been on the list for 2 years. The kids love it. Collin will actually play in the sand unlike Clara at his age. She wouldn't touch sand until she was about 4.
Clara at the beach in Mexico just after she turned 2. Notice how she is froglegging in order to not touch the sand. She did this the whole week. If she got sand on her she would freak out. 
We have been enjoying a lot of popsicles. 
We have also enjoyed planting our garden this year. Our strawberries are actually growing this year unlike last year. The first one started to turn red and Clara was so excited to pick and eat it. We woke up one morning and it was gone thanks to the birds. Clara burst into tears and cried all morning. My cousin said that they have had some success scaring the birds with fake snakes. So we looked all over Utah County for fake snakes: toy stores, garden stores, Cal ranch, IFA. No success. So finally the lady at the garden store told us that birds are afraid of shiny things and sold us some shiny ribbon tape stuff. We also bought the windmills which are a nice touch. We'll see if they keep the birds away.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Kiev
So the last city we visited was Kiev, Ukraine. Again, they geared us up for a long day at the border. There are not a lot of restaurants between major cities in Belarus so on both long bus ride days in and out of the country we geared up by going to the grocery store and buying food for 52 people. That was interesting trying to make lunch and dinner on a bus. We ate a lot of sandwiches. The border out of Belarus wasn't too bad. It took us about an hour and a half to get everything on the carnet checked off and passports checked. The Ukraine border proved to be just as bad as the Belarus border. First, they told us that a bus couldn't tow a trailer in the Ukraine. We pulled a trailer behind us with all of the equipment. After about 2 hours of negotiation, (again Mark speaking German and our bus drive translating it into Russian) they still wouldn't let us go. So we decided to take all of the equipment and luggage and put it in the bus. There was luggage everywhere in the aisles. We couldn't move. Then our bus driver hired some random person to tow our empty trailer across the border. That problem somewhat solved, they then collected our passports and started working on the carnet. They were just as confused as the Belarus border and didn't know how to handle all of our equipment. By this point we had been on the bus for about 4 hours or so with no bathroom break. They wouldn't let us get off the bus while they were doing all of this. 52 people can't go to the bathroom in the bus bathroom so people were getting cranky. Finally they let us off and we spent another few hours there waiting for them to finish. Border to border was about 7 hours. We crossed the border and about a mile down the road picked up our trailer, attached it to the bus and continued on our way. Illegal? Probably. We got to our hotel about 3 a.m.
Kiev is like the rest of the cities we have seen. Destroyed during WWII. They have restored a lot of their old buildings though. But some not until just recently. The traffic is insane there. Our helper lady said that they add about 100 cars to the road a day there on roads that were not meant to have traffic. The church is thriving there. They have 10 wards. Small wards, but most of the cities we've been to only have small branches. They have the first stake in Eastern Europe. They are currently constructing the Kiev temple. Too bad we didn't get to see it. Our fireside and show went fine there. I think all of us were just ready to be done so it's kind of a blur. We did get a little sightseeing in. Here are some pictures.
We went to a monistary. Most of it was destroyed including this church which they started restoring in the 90's. They have finished the outside and are currently working on the inside.
Underneath one of the churches, they discovered the bodies of several priests that had been perfectly preserved. They think it is a miracle. The bodies are displayed below one of the churches in what they call the caves. This place is considered very sacred to the people so the women had to cover their heads, hence the lovely purple scarf. The bodies mostly covered by cloth, were displayed in glass cases. They did expose some of the hands which was a little gross.
This is a group of the students in front of the the big lady as we liked to call here. I'm not sure the name of it but it is a hero statue. Several eastern European cities were declared hero cities by the Russian government after WWII. These were cities that had endured much destruction at the hands of the Nazis but prevailed. In these cities they constructed these large statues. This is one of the largest. It's probably almost as big as the statue of liberty. Minsk also had a statue but it wasn't nearly as big.
Mark and I in front of one of the churches.
Mark and I with the bus drivers, Andreas and Rolf. Mark had a good time speaking German with them. I was the third wheel with Rolf and him. Then Andreas showed up to help with the long bus rides and to speak Russian and I became the fourth wheel. They were very nice though and I'm sure Mark will stay in contact with them.
Kiev is like the rest of the cities we have seen. Destroyed during WWII. They have restored a lot of their old buildings though. But some not until just recently. The traffic is insane there. Our helper lady said that they add about 100 cars to the road a day there on roads that were not meant to have traffic. The church is thriving there. They have 10 wards. Small wards, but most of the cities we've been to only have small branches. They have the first stake in Eastern Europe. They are currently constructing the Kiev temple. Too bad we didn't get to see it. Our fireside and show went fine there. I think all of us were just ready to be done so it's kind of a blur. We did get a little sightseeing in. Here are some pictures.
We went to a monistary. Most of it was destroyed including this church which they started restoring in the 90's. They have finished the outside and are currently working on the inside.
Underneath one of the churches, they discovered the bodies of several priests that had been perfectly preserved. They think it is a miracle. The bodies are displayed below one of the churches in what they call the caves. This place is considered very sacred to the people so the women had to cover their heads, hence the lovely purple scarf. The bodies mostly covered by cloth, were displayed in glass cases. They did expose some of the hands which was a little gross. 
This is a group of the students in front of the the big lady as we liked to call here. I'm not sure the name of it but it is a hero statue. Several eastern European cities were declared hero cities by the Russian government after WWII. These were cities that had endured much destruction at the hands of the Nazis but prevailed. In these cities they constructed these large statues. This is one of the largest. It's probably almost as big as the statue of liberty. Minsk also had a statue but it wasn't nearly as big. 
Mark and I in front of one of the churches.
Mark and I with the bus drivers, Andreas and Rolf. Mark had a good time speaking German with them. I was the third wheel with Rolf and him. Then Andreas showed up to help with the long bus rides and to speak Russian and I became the fourth wheel. They were very nice though and I'm sure Mark will stay in contact with them.
Minsk
So we are finally home. By the end of the trip I was really ready. I was tired of eating out 3 meals a day and washing my clothes in the sink and traveling on a bus. Our kids were glad to see us. Collin's reaction was surprising. Everyone had geared us up to have Collin mad or upset with us for a while. But he just looked at us and smiled and then I picked him up and he looked at me with a look like, I know you. And then he was fine. Anyway. We didn't have great internet the last few days so this is an account of our last week in Europe.
A quick note on Warsaw that I thought was funny before we move on to Minsk. The second night we were there we had a fireside and a workshop at the same time. Mark and I got sent to the workshop so he could set up sound. Ed, the director, and a few of the dancers taught a group of people some American dances. A lot of the people were from a local Country western dance group. They were hilarious. The came in their cowboy boots and belts. Some had hats. Then the next night at the show they came in full dress, including their fringe coats. One of them had a Confederate flag that they would wave periodically throughout the show. A huge flag. We were laughing so hard.
So on Friday, May 16th we left for Minsk, Belarus. They had prepped us for a long day because we didn't know what the border would be like. Belarus is one of the only countries still holding on to their Communist links to Russia. They have a very strict government. Most of the borders we have just gone through but this one has a gate complete with barbed wire and guards. When we got to the border they didn't know what to do with our carnet (the list of equipment) so we sat and waited, and waited. We were at the border for 6 hours. Mark was the one who had to deal with them. He was translating through our extra bus driver Andreas who only speaks Russian and German. So Mark had to tell him in German. It was a long day. We got to our hotel about 2 a.m. Minsk is an interesting city. It's very communist looking and the people there don't like Americans. Most of the countries we've been in like Americans, at least the older generation does. They remember when America helped them in WWII. But America has a shaky relationship with Belarus and has issued a no trade sanction with them. The economy there has suffered and they blame the Americans. The American Embassy has basically been forced out and now only has 5 people there. The church had missionaries there starting in 1992 when the iron curtain fell but they were pulled out in 1998. There has been no active missionaries there in 10 years. They do have 2 senior service couples but they are not allowed to do any teaching. The government has this weird rule that anyone from a foreign country cannot preach or speak in a religious gathering. So we were able to go to church but not able to participate. The church got special permission from the religious ministry to allow us to do our fireside for the members. But we were not allowed to speak on anything related to our church, ie. Joseph Smith, Restoration, living prophets. We were allowed to speak on general topics like love and prayer. One of the counselors from the Area presidency was there and he says we were allowed to do more than they have ever been able to. Despite all of these restrictions, the church is fairly strong there. We had a nice time visiting with the members. And our show had the best audience by far than any other city.
I didn't get any pictures of the city because we didn't have much time to sightsee. Honestly there's not much to see there. Like a lot of cities, a lot of it was destroyed in WWII so it has been rebuilt mostly in the blocky communist style. We did get to walk over to a monument that was interesting. During the war, the Nazi's came into the city and started capturing and killing the Jews. They took about 500 of them and marched them down into this pit and shot and killed them and then buried them in the pit. This monument is on the actual site where this happened and it depicts the Jews being marched down into the pit. It's very striking. It feels almost hallowed when you are standing in the pit where such horrible things happened. It was a weird feeling. That's all for Minsk.
A quick note on Warsaw that I thought was funny before we move on to Minsk. The second night we were there we had a fireside and a workshop at the same time. Mark and I got sent to the workshop so he could set up sound. Ed, the director, and a few of the dancers taught a group of people some American dances. A lot of the people were from a local Country western dance group. They were hilarious. The came in their cowboy boots and belts. Some had hats. Then the next night at the show they came in full dress, including their fringe coats. One of them had a Confederate flag that they would wave periodically throughout the show. A huge flag. We were laughing so hard.
So on Friday, May 16th we left for Minsk, Belarus. They had prepped us for a long day because we didn't know what the border would be like. Belarus is one of the only countries still holding on to their Communist links to Russia. They have a very strict government. Most of the borders we have just gone through but this one has a gate complete with barbed wire and guards. When we got to the border they didn't know what to do with our carnet (the list of equipment) so we sat and waited, and waited. We were at the border for 6 hours. Mark was the one who had to deal with them. He was translating through our extra bus driver Andreas who only speaks Russian and German. So Mark had to tell him in German. It was a long day. We got to our hotel about 2 a.m. Minsk is an interesting city. It's very communist looking and the people there don't like Americans. Most of the countries we've been in like Americans, at least the older generation does. They remember when America helped them in WWII. But America has a shaky relationship with Belarus and has issued a no trade sanction with them. The economy there has suffered and they blame the Americans. The American Embassy has basically been forced out and now only has 5 people there. The church had missionaries there starting in 1992 when the iron curtain fell but they were pulled out in 1998. There has been no active missionaries there in 10 years. They do have 2 senior service couples but they are not allowed to do any teaching. The government has this weird rule that anyone from a foreign country cannot preach or speak in a religious gathering. So we were able to go to church but not able to participate. The church got special permission from the religious ministry to allow us to do our fireside for the members. But we were not allowed to speak on anything related to our church, ie. Joseph Smith, Restoration, living prophets. We were allowed to speak on general topics like love and prayer. One of the counselors from the Area presidency was there and he says we were allowed to do more than they have ever been able to. Despite all of these restrictions, the church is fairly strong there. We had a nice time visiting with the members. And our show had the best audience by far than any other city.
I didn't get any pictures of the city because we didn't have much time to sightsee. Honestly there's not much to see there. Like a lot of cities, a lot of it was destroyed in WWII so it has been rebuilt mostly in the blocky communist style. We did get to walk over to a monument that was interesting. During the war, the Nazi's came into the city and started capturing and killing the Jews. They took about 500 of them and marched them down into this pit and shot and killed them and then buried them in the pit. This monument is on the actual site where this happened and it depicts the Jews being marched down into the pit. It's very striking. It feels almost hallowed when you are standing in the pit where such horrible things happened. It was a weird feeling. That's all for Minsk.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
The rest of Poland
Sorry these blogs are so long, but they are also my journal of the trip. I'm trying to update it as much as possible so I don't forget what we've done.
After visiting Auschwitz, we spent 2 days in Krakow. Mark and I did not get much time sightseeing because we had to meet the people at the theatre while the students went downtown. We did got to the main square for lunch and it was very busy. Another holiday. It seems like we have been here for a lot of holidays. 1st we hit May Day and now we are visiting the cities on their celebrated liberation days. We had the one in Plzen and then 2 days later Prague celebrated their liberation day. Then we hit Krakow's liberation day. Our show in Krakow went well on Saturday. Then Sunday we went to church. We weren't able to have church with the members because another group from BYU studying abroad here had to meet with them and there was not enough room in the church so we held our own Sacrament meeting. After church it would have been nice to rest, but instead they took us to another castle. It would have normally been fun, but we were all so tired and they took us on a 2.5 hour tour of the museum there. It was so hard to stay focused. We all just wanted to sit down and there was nowhere to sit. But the castle was pretty and the museum was interesting. They had an armory with weapons from all eras and then paintings and rugs and things from Poland. We are learning a lot about different cultures.
Monday we traveled to Lublin which is about 3 hours from Krakow. We had one night there and just performed on that night. So we didn't see anything in Lublin. We performed with a university group there called Javol. They have performed in festivals together before so they invited us to perform there with them. The director of Javol was so funny. He loves cowboys and thought at the end of the show that both groups should sing Country Roads by John Denver together. He honestly thought that all Americans would know this song. Few of our students have ever heard of John Denver let alone know his songs. So they had to practice and practice Country Roads for the performance. The director of Javol was just singing Country Roads with all of his heart. It was hilarious. I don't have any pictures of Lublin. I really don't have a lot of pictures of the performances or group things. We've had the University photographer with us so none of us have taken any pictures of that kind of stuff. Anyway, here are a few from Krakow.
The church in the square at Krakow.
Mark and I in the castle square. It's more like a palace than a castle.
This is me just on the edge of the old city at the fortification wall. Most of these towns have an old town section surrounded by the old defense walls.
From Lublin we went to Warsaw. Warsaw was an interesting city. It has a lot of history. Poland itself has rarely been independent. It has been fought over between the Russians and Germans forever. Warsaw had a period of brief independence between the 1st world war and the 2nd world war. 20 years. In 1939, Warsaw was the 1st city the Germans invaded on the 1st day of the war. The Poles, whether Jewish or not, were the 1st to be taken to the concentration camps. Over the course of 6 years the Germans infiltrated and destroyed the city. In 1944 the people of Warsaw tried to start an uprising to take back their city and it resulted in a 63 day standoff with the Germans. During that time the Nazi's destroyed as much as they could. At the end of the war 85 percent of the city had been destroyed. The entire city was evacuated during that time. The Nazi's wanted to completely wipe out the city so they destroyed as much as they could. After the war, people returned and started rebuilding the city. It was rebuilt in the Soviet style so there are a lot of square concrete buildings. They rebuilt the old downtown to be like it was before the war. So much history was lost though. It's been sobering to see how much the Nazis destroyed in all of these countries we've been to.
Warsaw has turned into a very modern city. There are a lot of places to eat and movie theatres. A note on food on this trip. I have eaten at more American restaurants than I could have ever imagined. I have eaten at McDonalds in every city (thanks to Mark) and TGI Fridays and Hard Rock Cafe and Pizza Hut. etc. etc. Warsaw had a lot of American restaurants. Most of the time we end up there because we know what there is to eat and we know somebody may speak English. I'm getting really tired of eating out. Here are some pictures of Warsaw. The few that I have.
Me in the rebuilt old town square.
Mark at the fortification wall. Some of it is original but mostly rebuilt.
We went to the Polish army museum to see the tanks and planes and guns. At first we thought it was part of the History museum that was right next door so we spent 20 dollars to go in and after looking at a lot of art and statues, we realized that it wasn't the right museum. We walked next door and found the right (and I must mention free) Polish army museum.
The big huge Stalin building. He built these in a lot of the cities under the iron curtain and they were the tallest buildings in the city. Now it is a museum, office buildings, restaurants, theatre etc.
After visiting Auschwitz, we spent 2 days in Krakow. Mark and I did not get much time sightseeing because we had to meet the people at the theatre while the students went downtown. We did got to the main square for lunch and it was very busy. Another holiday. It seems like we have been here for a lot of holidays. 1st we hit May Day and now we are visiting the cities on their celebrated liberation days. We had the one in Plzen and then 2 days later Prague celebrated their liberation day. Then we hit Krakow's liberation day. Our show in Krakow went well on Saturday. Then Sunday we went to church. We weren't able to have church with the members because another group from BYU studying abroad here had to meet with them and there was not enough room in the church so we held our own Sacrament meeting. After church it would have been nice to rest, but instead they took us to another castle. It would have normally been fun, but we were all so tired and they took us on a 2.5 hour tour of the museum there. It was so hard to stay focused. We all just wanted to sit down and there was nowhere to sit. But the castle was pretty and the museum was interesting. They had an armory with weapons from all eras and then paintings and rugs and things from Poland. We are learning a lot about different cultures.
Monday we traveled to Lublin which is about 3 hours from Krakow. We had one night there and just performed on that night. So we didn't see anything in Lublin. We performed with a university group there called Javol. They have performed in festivals together before so they invited us to perform there with them. The director of Javol was so funny. He loves cowboys and thought at the end of the show that both groups should sing Country Roads by John Denver together. He honestly thought that all Americans would know this song. Few of our students have ever heard of John Denver let alone know his songs. So they had to practice and practice Country Roads for the performance. The director of Javol was just singing Country Roads with all of his heart. It was hilarious. I don't have any pictures of Lublin. I really don't have a lot of pictures of the performances or group things. We've had the University photographer with us so none of us have taken any pictures of that kind of stuff. Anyway, here are a few from Krakow.
The church in the square at Krakow.
Mark and I in the castle square. It's more like a palace than a castle.
This is me just on the edge of the old city at the fortification wall. Most of these towns have an old town section surrounded by the old defense walls.
From Lublin we went to Warsaw. Warsaw was an interesting city. It has a lot of history. Poland itself has rarely been independent. It has been fought over between the Russians and Germans forever. Warsaw had a period of brief independence between the 1st world war and the 2nd world war. 20 years. In 1939, Warsaw was the 1st city the Germans invaded on the 1st day of the war. The Poles, whether Jewish or not, were the 1st to be taken to the concentration camps. Over the course of 6 years the Germans infiltrated and destroyed the city. In 1944 the people of Warsaw tried to start an uprising to take back their city and it resulted in a 63 day standoff with the Germans. During that time the Nazi's destroyed as much as they could. At the end of the war 85 percent of the city had been destroyed. The entire city was evacuated during that time. The Nazi's wanted to completely wipe out the city so they destroyed as much as they could. After the war, people returned and started rebuilding the city. It was rebuilt in the Soviet style so there are a lot of square concrete buildings. They rebuilt the old downtown to be like it was before the war. So much history was lost though. It's been sobering to see how much the Nazis destroyed in all of these countries we've been to.
Warsaw has turned into a very modern city. There are a lot of places to eat and movie theatres. A note on food on this trip. I have eaten at more American restaurants than I could have ever imagined. I have eaten at McDonalds in every city (thanks to Mark) and TGI Fridays and Hard Rock Cafe and Pizza Hut. etc. etc. Warsaw had a lot of American restaurants. Most of the time we end up there because we know what there is to eat and we know somebody may speak English. I'm getting really tired of eating out. Here are some pictures of Warsaw. The few that I have.
Me in the rebuilt old town square.
Mark at the fortification wall. Some of it is original but mostly rebuilt.
We went to the Polish army museum to see the tanks and planes and guns. At first we thought it was part of the History museum that was right next door so we spent 20 dollars to go in and after looking at a lot of art and statues, we realized that it wasn't the right museum. We walked next door and found the right (and I must mention free) Polish army museum.
The big huge Stalin building. He built these in a lot of the cities under the iron curtain and they were the tallest buildings in the city. Now it is a museum, office buildings, restaurants, theatre etc.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Auschwitz
On Friday we left Prague for Krakow, Poland. On the way, we stopped at Auschwitz. There are two parts of Auschwitz, Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau. Auschwitz 1 was an old military camp and there are brick buildings lined up. After the Nazi's started bringing more people in, they expanded to Birkenau which is about 2 miles from Auschwitz. This is where they had rows and rows of wooden buildings that housed about 20,000 people at a time. This is also where the big incinerators were. Really the whole experience was quite sobering. I don't think I would want to go there twice. Most of Auschwitz 1 has been converted into a museum. Some of it has been left in the original state. There was one building that shows rooms and rooms of the peoples belongings recovered on the liberation day. One room held all of the hair that had been cut off the people in just those few days before the liberation and had not been destroyed yet. It was an enormous amount of hair. And shoes, and eyeglasses and suitcases. Baby clothes. This was the most disturbing part. They also had one building that had the experimental gas chambers and torture rooms. Birkenau was mostly destroyed by the Nazi's before liberation so that there would be minimal evidence. They have recreated a few buildings to show what the sleeping situation was and what the bathrooms were like. I think that the museum tells something that is necessary and reminds us not to forget those that died that way. But it was very disturbing.
This is the gate into Auschwitz 1. Work makes us free it says.
These are the buildings in Auschwitz 1 where the museum is. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside the buildings.
One of the execution walls where people were lined up and shot.
This is the famous train track leading into Birkenau where people would get off and were sorted.
The only thing remaining of the buildings are the brick chimneys. You can't see all of them but there were just hundreds and hundreds of these spread out over acres.
This is the gate leading right into Birkenau. Sorry for the depressing nature of this blog.
This is the gate into Auschwitz 1. Work makes us free it says.
These are the buildings in Auschwitz 1 where the museum is. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside the buildings.
One of the execution walls where people were lined up and shot.
This is the famous train track leading into Birkenau where people would get off and were sorted.
The only thing remaining of the buildings are the brick chimneys. You can't see all of them but there were just hundreds and hundreds of these spread out over acres.
This is the gate leading right into Birkenau. Sorry for the depressing nature of this blog.
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