Apartment living is going pretty well. We rented AirBnbs for all of our nights of travwl. We like it much better than hotels! Sharing 1 bathroom has it’s challenges, but we plan a shower schedule before bed & everyone’s been sticking to their timeslot so far. We enjoy sitting around, playing cards, listening to music, talking & arguing at night. It’s amazing we have so many people who happen to know everything about everything all in one family. What are the odds??

Down-time does provide a fantastic opportunity to talk with the kids. Last night we all had to pick one word that would best describe Auschwitz. Disgusted, heartbroken and sad were the common words among our family. Last night the kids drew MN on the chalk-board wall of our apartment. Listening to the 3 of them try to decide where to put the X for Perham was a laugh…

Last night we ate at the Christmas market. I wish we had these at home, it’s a wonderful atmosphere to share food, shop, drink mulled wine or a beer & relax. The food selection was incredible. We shared a Belgian chocolate waffle, pierogis, kielbasa, grilled Oscypek (sheep cheese), an. A load of laundry finished out the night back at the apartment, with a few hands of cards & a couple of beers.

Parking is a fiasco everywhere. There’s just no space, anywhere. Curbs, sidewalks, anywhere you can squeeze in works. And fuel is super expensive here. We paid 35,570 CZK per liter for diesel. That equates to about $6.18/gallon. The car we have is nice, some kind of Ford. Everywhere we’ve been so far the car tells you the speed limit, no matter where you are, even in construction zones. I am pretty impressed with that. Steve told me he’s not speeding today, but as we fly down the freeway, I’m not sure about that.

Weather is cold -2C with snow/rain blend. Just saw the first snow plow in Poland putting sand on the highway. We are driving from Krakow to Berlin today. It’s about 350 miles & will take us about 5 ½ hours of travel, assuming the roads are good.

Even though driving has its challenges & expense, I’m glad we decided to rent cars instead of use trains and/or buses. With a family of 6, traveling by public transport wouldn’t be inexpensive either, and a car gives us far more freedom with our schedule and allows us that ability to cram in a last minute tour, like we did at Schindler’s factory today.