Blogs from Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Austria, Europe

Travelling again, a week ago I was in Krakow, Poland, on a tour with Grand Circle's "Old World Prague and the Blue Danube." Poland was an extension of the main trip, and several reasons compelled me to travel there. The first is simply that I had never been. Another reason is that my husband Bill thinks he is part Polish. And yet another reason, purely a terribly selfish first world desire, was to add to the growing list of countries I have visited, trying to eventually reach one hundred. Poland is number 65. Earlier on this tour our group had travelled to: Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, and the Czech Republic, visiting their capital cities along the way. I had been to Budapest, Hungary awhile ago, but returning to Budapest is never a hardship; it is a city ... read more

On the way to the Austrian Tyrol we stopped in at Mauthausen Concentration Camp. We saw a movie first then wandered through the camp. The atrocities that occurred are unspeakable, and walking around that place, the cells, the gas chamber, the crematorium, the death stairs, it really will stand the hairs up on the back of your neck. It’s such a powerful sobering experience. It’s just so hard to believe that one idea could corrupt an entire nation and make people commit such evils. I’m not going to outline the history of camp, you can look that up, but let’s just say it’s definitely an experience I will never forget, and an eye opener for anyone travelling that way. On closing I would like to quote something I read. Carved into the wall of cell block ... read more

Friday 13th June Back on the coach, to find our way out of the Czech Republic. A long road, and we don’t quite make it across the border before Freddie’s drivers hours run out, so we stop at a service station for 45 minutes. Next obstacle is getting a refund on the Czech Road Tax. The border “sends us to the Devil” (service station) - but their machine is not working, so we welcome everyone back into the Czech Republic having already welcomed them to Austria! The other Devil service station also works and thankfully we get a rebate along with all the other money that we’d left behind at the entrance to the country (still think that’s a strange system though!). We then had to look out for a place to renew the Austrian road ... read more

Saturday March 3, 2007 - On Saturday a few of us decided to go and visit a concentration camp in Austria. It is located in Mauthausen, Austria and was the largest camp within Austria. Getting to the camp was a bit of a struggle though. We woke up Saturday morning to catch the 7:30 bus to the Wiener Neustadt train station, then took a train to Vienna, then in Vienna took the subway to another train, where we finally got on a train headed towards Salzburg. We had to switch trains one more time before we finally arrived in the town of Mauthausen at 12:30. Once we walked out of the Mauthausen train station, we began to look for a taxi but had no luck. So we started to make the walk to the camp. We ... read more

I have already described my experiences there, but NOW, I have the pictures. WARNING, some of you may find them disturbing!... read more