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Warsaw Prague Budapest Viennese tour May 23 2015
Looking for people on this tour who would be interested in attending a Klezmer concert one evening in Krakow and people interested in touring the salt mines
Also read that the Jewish Museum in Warsaw is interesting
Since this is not a Jewish Heritage Tour we are looking for people who may want to do some optional Jewish cultural activities
Also read that the Jewish Museum in Warsaw is interesting
Since this is not a Jewish Heritage Tour we are looking for people who may want to do some optional Jewish cultural activities
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We took this trip two years ago and it was wonderful.
I contacted Tauck about setting up a night at a Klezmer concert and they were not helpful so I made a reservation (but not
paid for) on my own, it involved missing one of the Tauck group dinners in Krakow, but so what. When we started on our trip I mentioned the Klezmer concert to our tour director who immediately suggested that she could arrange a group outing if others on the tour were interested. As it turned out, 22 of our 40 member group chose this so our tour director arranged for our group dinner to be scheduled earlier than originally planned, she arranged for a "private" concert and even arranged for group transportation from our hotel. All who attended really enjoyed this, even those who had not planned to go before hand. I think the total cost was about $20/person. Since we had a reservation that was not paid for, we were covered either way. As a courtesy, of course we cancelled out previous reservation as soon as the group outing was arranged.
We also toured the Jewish Museum on our own on our pre-tour day in Warsaw. The building was newly opened but there were very few exhibits. Maybe because it hadn't officially opened, our tour director did give our group a quick walk-thru on the day we toured the Warsaw ghetto even tho' this was not a scheduled stop. The building itself is worth visiting, and from what we viewed as the potential exhibits I am sure that the museum is now spectacular.
Enjoy your trip!
That said, try to arrange with your guide to see the following, as they are not part of the tour.
!) In Warsaw, walk to Poznan Street (spelling?) to see the one remaining street of the Warsaw Ghetto. It has a large photograph in each window of the resident(s) that occupied the apartment. It is a modest walk from the hotel in Warsaw.
2) In Budapest, see The Shoes, a monument along the bank of the Danube, a remembrance of the Arrow Cross rounding up Jews during WWII, marching them to the edge of the Danube, having them remove their shoes, then shooting them into the Danube.
We also want to see the Jewish Museum.
We were in Budapest in October with an Israeli friend who was born in Budapest, goes back twice a year, and her mother was a Holocaust servivor. The Shoes is a must see. However, the guide may not include a pertinent fact about the execution: the Arror Cross militia lined up the Jews along the Danube in pairs , tied one leg together (like a 3 legged race) and then shot them with one bullet, per pair.
I'll provide another story of amazing heroism when we are together, if the Guiide doesn't include the story about the Jewish Olpypic swimmer.
Carol