Today we went on 2 tours. The morning tour to Auschwitz and Auschwitz II–Birkenau, then the afternoon tour to Wieliczka salt mine.
I don't have any words for Auschwitz as any attempts to describe it sound glib.
I will just say that actually going to the site gives you some sense of the scale of the horror. It also humanises the word or idea that Auschwitz symbolises. As we walked through the exhibitions and stood in the places if countless atrocities, the collective grief was a solid entity that walked with us.

In the afternoon we went out to Wieliczka salt mine. We walked down a flight of stairs to get 65 metres underground. An anazing feat of engineering - the salt mines and huge chambers are supported by tree sized beams of wood. Within the caves are sculptures and chapels carved out of the salt by miners. Incredible works of art. Our tour guide was quite flamboyant and he was a bit if a hoot.

We got home near 8pm and walked down to the Jewish quarter, had dinner in another fine Jewish establishment with great traditional music coming into our room through a door where a concert was taking place. Very special.