4 October 2014:
To start this post off, I'd like to say a big Happy Birthday to my dear sister Mary Nell! 2 years older and probably wiser too! Love ya sis!
This is the 2nd in the series of our 30 days around the world...the last post left off with leaving Paris, and going to Poland. Now, you may wonder why Poland? Well, it's simple. I arranged to take my Chinese colleagues to one of our Michelin plants there to benchmark a plant there. (that plant is about 8 years ahead of my plant in terms of startup-rampup, and they are regarded as a benchmark within the Michelin manufacturing world in many areas, so I wanted my team to see first hand what the future should look like at our plant). Prior to my team arriving, Rodney and I wanted to explore the country. I have been there before, but only to the plant and airport..so we wanted to take some time to look around. After having been there, I can say that I'm really glad we went and if you're in Europe, do try to go...it's worth a detour from the 'normal' tourists places in Europe.
First of all we went to Krakow. I gotta admit the only thing I thought about when a friend of ours recommended this city was the WWII history. Boy was I wrong! Krakow is a beautiful old European small city filled with cathedrals, old town square and small narrow streets lined with quaint shops..and clean!
We explored around the city and just had a wonderful time
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| The obligatory horse and carriage ride around the old town of Krakow |
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| Buying some unique wooden boxes from the craftsman at the market |
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| The town square and market hall in Krakow |
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| One of the restaurants in Krakow |
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| The old Church on the main square in Krakow |
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| Inside the market building at Krakow |
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| the sleepy lion in krakow |
After Krakow old center, we went out to the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenao. These were not easy, fun visits...they were very depressing. I can understand in a war there are prisoner of war camps...and when these places served this purpose, I can accept it. But when they turned into killing camps, I just don't get it. I wanted to go, but didn't want to linger...been there saw it, no need to go back. For more info, here's the link:
http://en.auschwitz.org/m/
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| At the Entrance to Auschwitz, "Work makes you free'... |
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| Inside Birkenau with the main gate behind me |
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| Fences at Auschwitz |
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| Prisoner clothes at Auschwitz |
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| More fences at Auschwitz |
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| The fences at Auschwitz |
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| The main entrance gate at Birkenau |
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| Toilets at Birkenau |
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| The landscape at Birkenau...too huge to imagine catch anywhere near all of it from the ground. So ironic..the puffy clouds and the blue skies with wild flowers blooming...juxtaposed against the barbed wire fences and remains to chimneys... |
After this depressing visit, we lightened it up a little bit and went to a Salt mine. Even though it sounds strange, it is actually one of the top tourists attractions in Poland and is a Unesco World heritage site. If you want to know more, here's the link;
http://www.wieliczka-saltmine.com/
Salt was a very valuable trading commodity in Europe and Poland had (has) alot of it. Some of the miners started making an homage to one of the patron saints and the Wielickzka saltmine started to become quite a work of art! All the carvings are from salt and are quite unique!
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| Salt oozing out of the 'wall' in the mine |
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| Rod just had to taste it! Yes, it was really salty according to him...I didn't need to know that bad! |
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| One of the large cathedrals in the salt mine taken from the 'balcony' |
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| Brings a whole new meaning to 'another day at the salt mine'! |
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| One of the chandeliers...all of the crystals are made of Salt |
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| Beneath one of the salt saints |
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| The salt pool...300 times more salty than the dead sea |
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| The lowest level for tourists...far enough for me...and glad we had an elevator to get out...took the steps down! |
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| The superstructure supporting the mine was beautiful to me in it's own right |
After Krakow, we headed to Warsaw and met up with our friends from Poland and they showed us around Warsaw briefly, then we made the drive up to Olstyn.
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| Inside a church in Warsaw |
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| With our friends the Gut's at the main square in Warsaw |
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| The main square in Warsaw on a rainy afternoon |
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| Another Cathedral in Warsaw |
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| The main square in Warsaw old town |
Once in Olstyn, I met up with my team and Rod flew back to the US...so from this point on, I was starting to 'work'...so not too many photos!
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| Capernicus was from this region in Poland and he studied and lived in Olstyn for while. |
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| Sight-seeing with my Chinese team in Olstyn |
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| Out for a morning Run in Olstyn..a small city with many lakes..beautiful and clean! |
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| Me and my Chinese Team in Olstyn, Poland |
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| The gate to the old city at Olstyn, Poland |
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| The fortress in Olstyn. |
In order to get back to China/US, me and my Chinese colleages went back to Paris. We spent the night and we took a nice river boat cruise on the Seine together and then saw the Eifel tower at 11:00pm at night...it really puts on a show and it's worth waiting up for! It was a good way to end up an intense benchmarking trip!
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| Me and some of my colleagues on the 'Bateaux Parisian' in Paris..nice meal and great way to see the city at night. If you're in Paris, go to the Eifel tower area by the river and there are several companies who do cruises on the river. Get a reservation though because seats fill up quickly on the outside of the boat! |
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| our Chinese team in Paris before heading back to China |
So, that about wraps it up for this 2nd stop on the 'around the world in 30 days'! Next stop, Lexington, South Carolina, USA.
