Sydney, Armidale, Temora and Sydney 27 November to 1 December

The early morning flight to Armidale out of Sydney is very early so I opted for the 0900 flight and arrived in Armidale an hour later. Michael was there to meet me and we had breakfast in the Mall before I checked into the motel and he went off to work for a while. After lunch we did a tour around all the sites Michael had looked at for his proposed new house before we ended up at THE block..............

This is where M will have his house built.

The evening was spent in a very enjoyable dinner with Michael, his girlfriend Billy and  his boss Brad along with his wife and son. But it had to be an early night as Saturday was  due for an early start  and a return to Temora.

The weather was clear as we met up at Armidale airport for an early departure in a borrowed Cessna 310. The owner had lent M the plane before but asked on this occasion that we dropped off his parents in law  at Mudgee on our way south to Temora. So off we went with a fairly full load for the one hour flight to Mudgee where they were met by their daughter. We saw little smoke on the route but there was quite a bit of dust up to 3000 feet at times. Anyway from Mudgee it was an hour more to Temora and we arrived just on time, 10 minutes before the show began. So we parked up the plane, collected our chairs, paid the entry fee and found a shady spot to sit and watch the display. It was rather hot day but with enough cloud in the sky to give a good backgrounds for pictures of the displays.  The flying was great and  we saw a Tiger Moth, a Ryan, both the Spitfires, a Kittyhawk, a Mustang,  and a pair of Avengers flown in specially from Queensland.  Then the jets flew, a Meteor, a Vampire and the Dragonfly was flown very enthusiastically by the museum's founder David Lowy. Sadly the Canberra bomber was not scheduled to fly until Sunday. But the star for us was the Avon Sabre jet which only got back into the air a few months ago. M and I had sen it fly before years ago in Darwin so to see it again was great.  It is such a splendid plane and flies so much faster than the other jets at the display. The closing display was  a very dashing one in a Spitfire  and  was a fine end to the day's flying. We headed off to Sydney Bankstown and again headed into a lot of dust and  in Sydeny the air temperature when we landed was 38 degrees. Really hot and muggy.

After a day of shopping Michael and Billie flew back to Armidale  on Sunday afternoon with the sky starting to get very orange and dusty. I had dinner with some old friends in a fun greek tapas  place and talked about the old days in UK and modern problems in energy and environment. A greta evening out.

Monday was for final shopping and  packing and then back to the airport on Tuesday for the flight back to Vienna.

Again it was the QANTAS flight from Sydney over Singapore to Frankfurt. The journey starts  with the luxury of the First Class lounge at Sydney International Airport - my access is due to Frequent Flyer status NOT a First Class ticket I hasten to say. It is a haven of peace and tranquility, like  aprivate club with a super restautrant and a superb view of the airport. I could see two QANTAS A380s and a third one from Singapore Airlines at one point - my flightwas on a B747-400  - but as I had lunch I was upgraded to a first class seat (with business class service)   following a change to a three class plane from the usual 2 class one for the Frankfurt run. Best of all it meant a fully flat bed   which is the most important part of the long flight!

Frankfurt was the usual fun place for a transfer from a One World alliance flight to a Star Alliace flight negotiating the driverless train system right across the vast airport and the indifferent signposting but the Miles-and-More lounge was OK and the Austrian flight to Vienna was fine as usual.

Sydney Airport 1 December 2009:  Two QANTAS A380 aircraft; one loading and one taxying (and a third A380 form SIngapore Airlines was out of shot to the right!

So back to work but only one more journey in the 2009 calendar = the Christmas trip to London.

23 November South Alligator and Darwin

After a day resting in Darwin and a good sunset supper at the Trailer Boat Club with Shrley my hostess

I was up bright and early on the Monday morning to meet up with my old friend Mike and head off to the South Alligator Valley at the southern end of Kakadu National Park. Ther had been 13 uranium mine sin the valley back in the 60s before the park was ceated and in 1996 I was part of ateam that began the task of planning and organising the remdiation of the mine sites and the various otehr contaminated areas  associted with the workings. We have been working on the task for a long time and Mike came into the team when we got to the serious and practical part. There was a lot of talking with the Aboriginal Traditional Owners and many surveys etc to get the data  togtehr so we could ahve agood plan. Also we ahd to wait for the Government to allocate the money to pay for the work. But it all came together just as I was leaving for Vienna in 2004. Mike ran the implementation over the next few years and at the end of September this year he was able to declare the job finished. So this trip was a bit of a memory lane job for us to see the sites done earlier and the most recent final works. It was great to be back in the area with Mike and whilst it was along day we saw heaps and had a good time. He has done a superb job and the revegetation at sites finished last year is going well as you can see in the pictures...

This year's work has been to finish the containment for all the contaminated waste and landscape the sites after clearing.....................

All looking pretty good and seeded ready for the wet season to bring on the new growth.

While we were driving around we  small herd of wild horses "brumbies" and, for the first time in many years, an emu - but sadly no picture of the emu.

The end of the day saw us high up on the valley side looking downstream to the north over the  valley wher the containment is located. You can just make out the old airstrip which is the construction site in the mid-background of the picture.

So a grand day out and then some.

The next few days were spent in Darwin checking up on my house and seeing my income tax accountant and meeting up with friends and colleagues from work. There may be heap of new uranium projects coming up in Australia over the short term  and I might have a chance to be  involved. Anyway in the end the time was over all too soon and I was on the QANTAS flight down to Sydney for an overnight stop on my way to see son Michael up in Armidale.

20-21 November - Brisbane to Darwin

After a good sleep and a great breakfast it was time to do a bit more shopping before heading off to the Indoroopilly Golf course. For the first time in over a year I was on a golf course and hitting the ball  acceptably, not well but acceptable. We did 9 holes using a buggy and I survived without losing a ball or my temper so that was good.
The evening was spent at the posh CBD restaurant "URBANE" where we celebrated the end of university for my godson with his parents, his girlfriend, his elder brother and me. Super meal and very good wines.
Saturday morning was back to the airport as my host was off to London and I was off to Darwin. The flight was with the awful Jetstar with no legroom, no free service and  a long delay due to an engineer leaving "something" on the plane. I assumed a tool  or a part (or another engineer!) but it was probably a piece of paper but it took 3 of them to find it  and then as a delayed flight we had the lowest priority to get back into the take-off queue. Still we eventually got away and survived the trip to Darwin where the weather was warm and humid and I was met by my hostess. Sadly her husband had been called away on business to help out at a conservation reserve and so I will not be seeing him this trip. especially sad as we always played golf together in the past and I thought I might be back in the swing after all this time and Chris would be my partner of choice for the "come-back" at Gardens Links, Darwin. Sad also that another pair of friends called to say they were not in town as they were staying on in Chile to extend their holiday so we would not cross after all.
Still  ..........next time.
So back in Darwin and the wet season is almost here too - still really the "build-up" with the humidity and the storms but not yet the cooling rain. However one morning it did rain and that was great; light rain that was very steday for hours.

17 November - Australia here I come -again!

So, fresh back from Malawi and Sussex I find myself on the way back to Vienna Airport and the  Senator lounge yet again. This time it is for a bit of a holiday to see Australia and catch up on a few items of personal business.
The route this time was Vienna-Frankfurt with Austrian Airlines and  then to collect a QANTAS flight to  Singapore and change to another QF flight to Brisbane. The Austrian flight was rather odd as we were delayed but nobody explained what was going on. The weather was misty and so a few minutes extra between take-offs was not unexpected - but 40 minutes!!!? And no explantion from the pilots at all- very poor form. I was concerend as the transfer at Frankfurt is never good and if you are heading to a One World flight it involves a train journey and a new check in etc etc. at the terminal on the far side of the airport. Still I made it on time in the end and there was still time for a small G&T at the Cathay Pacfic lounge before boarding the flight (B747) to Singapore. A front row seat upstairs in Business made life bearable  as we headed off into the night.
The flight to Singapore passed well and we arrived  on schedule and  in a twilight Singapore. Off to the lounge for a break and then catch the Airbus 330 to Brisbane. A good fllight but like the Boeing the seats are not fully flat as they are in BA and the Airbus 380 so sleep is not as easy to achieve as it ought to be at these prices.
An 0700 arrival in Brisbane was on time and in hot dry weather with little delay for the luggage and a very fast route through customs and quarantine. Finding the cab rank took a little longer than expected as the signposting is far from optimum but soon I was on the road to stay with friends in Chapel Hill.
These are friends from the Brunei days and I am godfather to their youngest. It transpired that Friday would be the big family dinner to mark the end of his university exams and so by chnace my timing was perfect. I spent the day with  a former colleague who lives just around the corner, also in Chapel Hill, and we discussed her report on a recent fellowship tour around the world (whihc had included Vienna and the Agency as a stopover for  discussions) and mining legacy issues in general and the need for the Government of Australia to start doing something about clearing up the mess in a structured way. Later that day, after a bit of shopping etc, I also had dinner and discussions with a former colleague who had recently relocated to Brisbane in the course of his work with a major mining house. It was good to see him and the family again as well as having time to chat about some very serious issues.
Finally I was back at my friends' house and catching upon sleep.

7-8 November: London again

This time it was saturday morning and I was back at Vienna Aiport en route to London, less than 24 hours after my return from Africa. This was a trip to see my sister Ali for her 60th birthday and to visit my father who lives with her and her husband Tim.
Once I had arrived Tim and Ali went away for their weekend together and I  sat with Dadwag  and was joined by my other sister Soo and then her husband Mike also arrived in time for dinner on saturday.
It was quiet weekend but very enjoyable before I  had to head off back to Vienna on sunday afternoon. The BA flights were  OK  although the sunday evening flight was delayed as seems to be the case most times. This just makes it difficult to get the last train from the airport into town in Vienna.

2 November - A new mine

When I was in Malawi previously it had been on a fact finding mission  in relation to a new mine proposal. Ths time it was to visit the project and see how thngs were now that the mine had officially opened.
The town of Karonga has grown and is busier since 2007, one impact of the new project which has been a major economic boost for the region.  The road from Karonga to the mine is still being upgraded and about half of it is stil  a gravel surface in poor condition. The local tucks are not well mantained and there seems to be one broken down around every other corner, usually in the centre of the road.......

There is also the matter of two way traffic; when these trucks meet it is often in a narrow section so somebody has to pull over, and these guys do not like to stop..........

.......still our driver was pretty cool and never pushed his luck so we had a slow but safe journey.

The mine tour was fascinating and the  transition over two years was amazing. These two pictures say it all...............

November 2009

Same view in July 2007!

We had a great visit with plenty to discuss and a lot of topics for the follow up meetings planned for the next day.

As we needed to be off the gravel road and  back into Karonga before dark, for road safety reasons, we could not hang around too long but the visit was comprehensive. 

 Back in Karonga there was chance to  take another loook at the incredible room I has been  given at the hotel...............

The bedroom with mosquito net................

and the semi-imperial bathroom; sadly the water pressure was so low the basin taps did not run!

The next day began with a few meetings before starting the return journey to Lilongwe.  We also checked out a couple of places aspossible venues fro afuture training course. This place was in an idyllic location on  the beach.........

....but sadly they are still building and have along way to go before they could deal with  30 people for a one week residential course!

.............see the unfinished structures at the back!

The daylight drive along the shore of Lake Malawi was very scenic .

and unlike my previous trip we did see some wild life.............................

 there are monkeys in the picture if you look closely!

The journey  was uneventful  and  we saw plenty of typical african scenes on the way....................

small shop with girls carying loads on their heads,

tomatoes for sale at the roadside,

new shops being built ,

roadside charcoal sales...............

and Malawi fast food - the guy is holding up a couple of kebabs made of whole field mice!

There was also a chance to photograph the shadow of our truck  as the sun started to set near Lilongwe......

Back in Lilongwe I was installed at the Lilongwe Hotel, a good place with  a reasonable restaurant; my two nights there were fine.

The next day and a half were spent in meetings before catching the  plane out of Lilongwe back to Johannesburg and Frankfurt before finally landing back in Vienna on Friday morning.

Return to Malawi: 31 October-5 November

So  another Saturday afternoon and yet again I was on my way to Vienna airport and preparing for what should be the last mission of this year - but not the last journey!  The taxi came at 4 pm as I was keen to see the outcome of the qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix before I departed.  It was indeed a very exciting contest  and I already knew that I would not be able to folow the race as I would still be travelling the next day. Given the time of the flight and the schedule of the airport train  a taxi was the safest solution. Anyway the Vienna weather had turned cold at 3 degrees or less and I was happy to be off to a spot of sunshine.

I was last in Malawi in 2007 when I was part of a mission to visit the site of a proposed new mine and discuss regulatory issues with the Government. This mission in Malawi was to look at the new mine, which opened in April of this year,  and hold more discussions with the Government about staff training and technical issues.  To think that I would see a mine where two years before there had only been bushland was exciting.


My journey was in three stages. The first an Austrian Airlines flight to Frankfurt and then  two flights with South African Airways, first  to Johannesburg and thence to Lilongwe. The flights went pretty well with no turbulence  and certainly the seats were more comfortable than the ones on the Austrian flight  recently.

Coming in to Johannesburg we flew in over fantastic tailings dams  from the gold miines which I really must get a picture of one day! The funny thing was that just as we were landing I realised that a fellow passenger was a chap I know from a German company  and so we commented how it was we missed each other at Frankfurt airport and then on the flight when we were in the same cabin.  He was off to work in Namibia  so we had a quick chat before we headed off to our respective flights. The 2.5 flight hours to Lilongwe was fine and Malalwi was hot and a bit humid with the countryside looking parched as it is almost the end of the dry season - a bit like the "build up" back home in Darwin, although that is usually more oppressive  as we live at sea level and Lilongwe is at 4035 feet so  bit cooler. Anyway with only carry on luggage and  a visa free entry I was soon outside and meeting my host from the Government .

We promptly went off to a local resort to wait for another government truck and another Government representative from  a different department  to join us before we all set off to drive in convoy up to Karonga in the north of the country, the closest town to the mine. No beers for any of us with 6-7 hours driving  ahead! 

The drive goes across what I guess is high veldt with  some very interesting rock outcrops sticking up all over the place.

Much of the country is cultivated and there are a lot of people arround which can make the driving a little hazardous as the ox-carts, bicycles, pedestrians and any number of buses and trucks all crowd onto the roads.

 Still the road is generally in good condition and we made fair time to a re-fuelling halt at Mzuzu.

Before Mzuzu we drove through extensive pine plantations with plenty of small saw mills and timber yards visible from the road.

Sadly there was also evidence of some large forest fires that had gone through some of the areas; these fires were still burning in places, so the smoke was an additional  factor for our driver to contend with but he took it all in his stride and did well.

The light was fading as we left Mzuzu so when the road desecended to run alongside the shores of Lake Malawi at around 1700 feet it was too dark to see much.  The road after the descent was especially good and we finally reached our destination at 8 pm  and the new hotel that was to be the base for our operations over the next 2 nights.

19 to 24 October : Mongolia and return

The stay in Mongolia was only in Ulaanbaatar this trip, unlike the great visit of 2006 when I went  for a 20 hour drive to a mine site. This trip was a mission to lecture on mining and modern good parctices and to disucss the uranium market etc. I was met at the airport at 0930 Monday morning and we drove straight to the Ulaanbaatar Hotel  where I was staying.

This view of the city from near the aiport road shows the smog layer with the stacks and towers of a power station just visible in the murk.

The air was clear but it was -7 degrees and remnants of the recent snowfall were evident on the streets and the surrounding hills.  UB traffic is horrendous with far too many vars and lilttle discipline amongst the drivers. To my amazement in the week I was there I only saw one significant  real "fender bender" accident and we were only involved in one small event when we bumped the car in front. Anyway the hotel was OK especially as there was  an excellent indian restaurant on the top floor and that was where I ate most evenings. On the last night I saw well known British comedy actor Martin Clunes  there with a small film crew having a curry and beer supper.

The air quality in town varied with the wind direction; when the siuth wind blows everything is clear and fine but otherwise thw coal smoke, smog and car fumes clog the air and an inversion sits over the city  which even made my eyes sting at times. The 4 coal fired power stations and all the little coal stoves in the houses and gers (yurts/tents) do not help at all.

work went well and the view from the lecture room reminded me that it was cold outside.

One morning on the way to the office we stopped at the main square and my guide insisted on photographing me in front of the statue of Ghengis Khan. I had seen the statue before but the surrounding building had not been completed at the time of my last visit

Ulaanbaatar is a city that is expanding fast with very many modern structures since my last visit barely 3 years ago. I was surprised at how much it had changed.

On the last evening I was taken to a very good folk dance and song show which was apparently celebrating its 20th birthday. It appeared that this troupe was a national treasure and so the TV cameras etc were there in full force. As one of the few  foreigners in the audience I found myself an object of interest for one camera man who wanted to see me clapping at the end of ecah act! Certainly the show was great with long song, short song, dancing, amazing acrobatics and throat singing - a great Mongolian tradition.

Still on saturday morning the job was done and I was on my way back to Bejing for anothr overnight stay back at the HWA hotel. A fine journey in clear weather. Another afternoon in and around Tianamen - sadly it was still too crowded to see inside the palace - and a dinner again at the amazing restaurant.

Sunday was an early start for a walk around the shopping area before the  trip to the airport and an all day flight to Vienna; same plane and same "new" uncomfortable seats. Bejing was a balmy 14  degrees and even Vienna was warmer than Mongoia at 11 degrees.

So that was Bejing and  Ulaanbaatar. A few more days at home in Vienna and I will be off again - Malawi is calling!

October 18th: Mongolia - via Beijing

Another Saturday evening and another trip to Vienna's airport for yet another duty trip. It was a cool evening with a bit of rain but I decided to take a cab as I had a case this trip. As the weather in Bejing was cool and Ulaan Bataar was downright freezing I felt that a few extra clothes might be a good idea.

At the airport  I arrived a bit early so had plenty of time to take in a restorative Bloody Mary in the airline Senator lounge before heading off to the gate lounge. This was already prettty crowded  and before long we weer being asked if we would give up a Business Class seat for an economy class seat and 800 euros. This was soon followed by an offer of any economy class passenger  willing to take  750 euro cash refund and a trip on the next day's plane. It seemed that we were not going anywhere until a brave soul "walked the plank". I was travelling with another member of the agency staff and whilst we were tempted to help, the thought of all the paper work to explain things later plus the issue of what to do with the cash  made us keep quiet.

Anyway some brave soul eventually put up a hand and we finally we boarded our ageing Boeing 767 and found it had the "new" Austrian Business Class seats. These turned out to feel narrower and shorter but with more gadgets and buttons, a retrograde step in my book especially as they were certainly less comfortable for anyone over 1m 75 in height we agreed.

The on board chef  got into his uniform and we had a good meal with nice wines; but the entertainment system is still very old fashioned with all the movies running at set times and no chance to see a proper menu on screen or start and stop films at will, as you seem to be able to do everywhere else nowadays.

Anyway, 9 hours or so later we hit Bejing and the new  terminal built for the Olympic Games. All very smart and super efficient - a great improvement on the old place I had seen in 2006, now it is very clean and well organised.

My travelling chum had booked the hotel so we got a cab and headed off.

Bejing Airport Expressway

Beijing traffic is still pretty bad but a 60+ minute ride cost us  less than 25 euros which seemed to be pretty good value for two. We were dropped off on the wrong side of the street and then found oour way, eventually, across the road and into the hotel. Not real big on English language skills but friendly and they took VISA so what more could we want? The rooms were quiet, clean and quite large suites in fact all for $75 US per night with breakfast! Sadly we would have to forgo breakfast as our flight toi Ulaan Bataar would require a 0500 departure from the hotel.

The view from my room shows the crowds on the street.

A quick wash and we were off for the  1mile stroll to Tianamen Square as my chum had not been to the city before. It was very windy with lots of dust in the air and bits coming down off the tress all the time. The place was pretty crowded as it was a weekend after the national day so heaps of internal tourists and barriers everywhere to control pedestrians.

 

Tianamen Square

Flower gardens at the side of Tianamen Square

Anyway we wandered around and  decided to walk back around the rear of the palace gardens. The people in the courtyard of the palace  were shoulder to shoulder so we hand long since abandoned any idea of going inside-next time perhaps.

Anyway it was an interesting walk with some different views and  few other foreigners  until we got back to the hotel.

We chnaged some money and then sat down for a Tsing Tao Beer or two. A quick rest again and then a stroll around to a local restaurant with only a picture menu  but the meal was good and pretty cheap by Vienna standards. And then back to the rooms before 9 pm to get some sleep before the early exit.

Liverpool: 13-15 October

Another flying visit; this time it was to the ICEM'09 conference in Liverpool to chair a session on Environmental Remediation, give a paper on the latest situation on the work at South Alligator Valley back in Australia and then help run a meeting of the Uranium Mining and Remediation Exchange Group (UMREG).

So off to Landstrasse station to catch the 0805 City Airport Train (CAT) and off to Vienna Airport. The flight was with Swiss but I had to change at Zurich - where I met up with Alex, an old friend and colleague,  (and a fellow member of the UMREG committee) so we could travel on together to Manchester. There we hired a car for the drive to Liverpool and our hotel. I was driving as Alex figured I was more used to the left hand side of the road. Anyway, we made the trip without drama and found our  destination. The Hotel Campanile was located close to the convention centre  and the rejuvenated area of Albert Dock.My room looked out onto the old Queen's Dock and beyond to the Mersey itself. We arrived mid afternoon so lunch was called for (Swiss don't do meals in economy anymore.). The closest pub was a place nearby  was called the Pumphouse and it turned out to have Greene King IPA beer and good pub food, so we were well content.  A quick check around the conference centre to sort out details for Wednesday and then it was out for few drinks with old colleagues from the remediation business.  Suddenly Tuesday was finished.

Wednesday began at 0700 outside the Campanile's dining room waiting for the place to open so we could get to grips with the "full english" breakfast, The meal was good and by 0730 we were at the speakers' gathering at the Convention Centre to check everything was ready for the day, All went well and we went  off to work. The papers in the session were interesting and  well presented and  there were several old mates in the audience. After lunch we spent the afternoon with UMREG which was all papers from well known chums and  covered a wide range of topics related to the remediation situation in uranium mining.

A group of 6 of us from the UMREG meeting went out to dinner after the session and enjoyed a good meal  at one of the many restaurant bars around the old Albert Dock.

Thursday morning  had not dawned and we were  off on the road at 0600 for the drive back to Manchester Airport. A bit wet in the dark but not too much traffic and so the journey was fine. We negotiated a few dodgy sign posts and found teh rental car retrun desk OK. Then the Swiss check in and although the staff were great the news was that we had a 45 minute delay. As they told us this so my phone  received the same news from Swiss via a text message.  Anyway my Austrian Airlines card got us into the lounge and although we had missed a Campanile's "full english" we did do pretty well  for breakfast there while we waited. The plane arrived and  off we went. An OK flight but the  delay meant that it as quick cheerio to Alex at Zurich (his closest airport) and a rush for me to cross cross Zurich Airport to board the Vienna flight in time.  There had been about 5 or 6 of us connecting  between the same flights so we arrived more or less as a group to find the plane full and then the door was shut and off we went. Reaching a 3 degree Vienna  was little surprise after seeing snow on the mountains en route and even some sprinkling on some of the hills around the city.  The weather has changed and winter cannot be far away. Friday the car was booked in to the garage to ahve the winter tyres put on ( a leagl requirement in Austria) and a winter check.

Saturday I am off to Mongolia via Beijing, !  No rest for the wicked......

4 October: Auschwitz

This was an day that I described to somebody afterwards as "Glad I went but in no way happy".

Sunday morning was bright but windy with some clouds around to keep the temperature cool. We had pre-booked a minibus to make the tour and it arrived at the hotel on time and had a very capable, english-speaking driver. I can recommend the operator we used as very efficient(http://www.krakowshuttle.com/index.html). Our driver explained how the day would be organised as we set off for the 40 minutes or so drive out of Krakow and through the countryside to the Auschwitz site.

We arrived at the car park for the Auschwitz site to find it was pretty crowded and hordes of people milling around. Anyway our man was pretty efficient and explained he would buy the tickets and make sure we had a good english speaking guide, a mate of his called Michael, all part of the service.

While we waited for him to get organised I noted that this was another World Heritage site.

The tour starts in a cinema witha showing of an old Soviet propoganda film about what the Russians found on arrival and how they helped the surviving inmates. All very heavy soviet music and language that is reminiscent of today's spin doctors but no less effective for all that. The film could have been full of true horrors but I have to say it was in no way harrowing but still a very thought provoking 20 minutes or so . Outside the cinema we met up with the driver and were introduced to the guide, Michael, who gave us our headsets. All the groups have a guide and headsets with a separate channel so you only hear your own guide. This keeps the level of noise and chatter to a minimum which adds to the sombre and respectful atmosphere in the site despite the many hundreds of people milling around.

Outside we also caught our first sight of the camp buildings and the double barbed wire fence.

The next sight was the front gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp with the infamous motto "Arbeit macht Frei". A bizzare sensation as one had seen this image so many times before on TV and at the cinema and there it was exactly as I expected. sadly my picture does not show the lettering off to best effect.

From th gate we walked through the camp hearing Michael's very good description of the history of the camp and the stories of some of the inmates. The history is interesting as many of the "facts" that one thinks are known before the visit turn out to be less than accurate. The camp was initially set up in the mid 30s nd was for political prisoners initially, the deliberate exterminaton of various groups began later. The camp was always a brutal place however.

We visited many of the buildings but there is no photography permitted inside any of them to preserve the dignity of the memory of those who suffered and died here. The displays include many pictures taken by the jailers at the tme as well as some aerial photographs taken by the allied airforces and a few images taken by inmates at incredible personal risk. Some displays also show the collections of shoes, spectacles, suitcases and other personal effects collected from inmates; and of course there was the room-sized display case full of human hair, taken from the prisoners, truly ghastly to contemplate.

Outside we came up close to the original fence; a double fence with electrified barbed wire, lights and watch tower and an original  warning sign.

At the end of the walk we ended up in the gas chamber and crematorium that had been added to the camp once the extermination campaign had been implemented. Again no interior pictures  but a truly moving place to visit, and everyone coming out was very quiet.

From here we went back to the bus, handing in the headphones on the way, and stopping for a quick drink of water (provided by the driver) and a chocoltae bar (provided by Tim) before the short drive to Birkenau. This was the  camp built specifically for the extermination campaign although  a substantial slave labour force was based there too. Our guide Michael re-apeared to show us around this place. By now the wind was stronger and cooler and the clouds were thicker adding to the sensation of  sadness and desolation that pervaded the site. A short walk through the woods at thr back of the site as the guide explained we would start at the back and walk through to the front thus avoiding many of the crowds for much of our visit.

The visit began at the great international memorial that sits at the far end of the site. 

The memorial is  an incredibly complex piece but the 21 plaques across the base all bear the same message which so poignantly recalls the horror of the history of the site

Standing at the memorial one is between the ruins of two of the four large crematoria  that were used  in the extermination campaign. The ruins have been left as they were after the facilities were destroyed by the Germans before the Russians arrived. Much of each complex was underground  and so thus picture is looking along he line of the entrance to the "changing rooms"  which led in turn to the "showers" (gas chambers) and the furnaces beyond at ground level.

Walking past the ruins and the ponds used for disposal of the ashes  we came to a fence  and noted that here there was only a single barrier around the site, but still electrified. Through the fence we could see the  huts which were used to hold  those people who were destined to be executed in the chambers  almost immediately.

We walked through the wire and  went inside one of the huts  to see how awful it must have been to be there waiting for the inevitable. Triple layer shelves with on;ly straw as bedding and 8 or 9 people on each set of boards 2m X 3 m  approximately, to think that people spent their last days like that was very depressing.

From the huts we wlalked to the railway lines that run up the centre of the site, effectively dividing the extermination camp from the labour camp. This was another emotive image from so many films and photographs but again to be there and see the reality was really a powerful sensation.

We went up into the man watch tower over the front agte to get an overall view of the site. The large number of chimney stacks left as reminders of the wooden huts that had also been on the site are an eerie reminder of the past; this area was within the former labour camp.

There was time for a final look over the site from the tower  to see the chimneys, the remaining huts, the fences and watchtowers and some of the crowds.

 And then we were off back to Krakow.

As we walked through the main square looking for somewhere to have a cup of tea we saw a bride getting ready for her wedding

The others arrived as  expected later that afternoon and  then there was just time to fit in a dinner for the 7 of us at a restaurant next door to Chico and Iwona's flat before I was off to the  station and the night train back to Vienna after a weekend that had been  extremely interesting but also very sombering at times.

The night train to Vienna