Hello again - we hope you are all doing well! As you all know, one of the things we really miss from home is football season. We have a subscription to Yahoo Sports, but we only get video for one or two games a season - we get audio for all of them. Well, we took things to a new level for the Tennessee game - we participated in the first ever live tailgate from London. Isn't technology great? We set up webcams and had a live audio and video feed during the tailgate - and Manderson also joined from Chicago - so we had a two-state, two-country, 4000 mile remote tailgate. Remember that these are the guys that have the big screen, so they positioned the webcam and we got to watch the game from here as well - and beating Tennessee at home - this was one of the best tailgates we've ever had! Special thanks to the tailgating crew for making this happen - just when we didn't think the tailgating crew couldn't top what they had - the question of "How can we top the big screen?" has been answered. Roll Tide!

Happy belated Halloween! So who dressed up besides Mika? We carved pumpkins with Justin and Rachel again - since we couldn't find any big ones, we carved two of them. Jill and I went on a haunted walk in Richmond - that was neat - lots of history about ghosts and murders from up to 200 years ago. We also went to see the movie "Saw 2" - very good movie - even better than the first. If you haven't seen them, we recommend them (watch them in order).

I had a week long MySQL training class a couple of weeks ago, and it was outstanding. I learned all about how to use and manage databases - the classes were in London, so I got to enjoy the crowded morning train and tube commute - it wasn't too bad though. Jill, Rachel, Justin, and I all went up the street to the Marlborough Pub last Wednesday for a pub quiz. We did much better than the one we did a while back at another pub - we actually won this one - 25 pound prize. It was a lot more fun than the one we played in the past - this one not only had questions, but also "name that cartoon character from the picture", "name that song and artist", and the "dwarf race". What's a dwarf race you ask? Well, you choose a member from your team to race on your knees and chug a half pint at the finish line. Of course, I was chosen to be the dwarf - I represented our team well by coming in second place. We're all planning on going back this Wednesday to defend our title.

Krakow:
We spent a few days in Krakow, Poland last weekend. We landed late on Thursday night and got a cab to our hotel (the cab ride was pretty scary - it was dark and the streets were narrow, and this guy was passing cars like it was nobody's business. I wanted to tell him that I'd pay him double to slow down, but I didn't know enough Polish. So we made it to the hotel and were lucky to get "upgraded" to a larger room with a king sized bed - well, "king size" to them is more like a "full size" to us - it was fine, but just different - hotel rooms are not very large in Europe, even if you do get the "king" suites.

Krakow is a very neat place to visit - I've read a lot about World War II, and the images that come to mind of how Poland looked during that time is pretty much how it looked to me on this trip. Jill thought the same - it's old like most places in Europe, but unlike everywhere else we've been, it's not really "modernized". It looks as if it hasn't changed much in many, many years. We really enjoyed this aspect of it because most of our trips have been to the big popular cities throughout Europe - and they are old, but they've all been modernized so much you don't get the same feeling as you do with Poland. At least this is our view - we have no idea what Krakow used to be like. But this is what made Poland so cool to us.

Krakow has a very nice city center and Rynek Glowny Square is right in the middle of it. Museums, churches, shops, etc. surround the square. St. Mary's Cathedral stands tall in the north-eastern side, and the Cloth Hall is on the west side. The present building of St. Mary's Church (Church of Our Lady) was founded in 1290, on the site of at least two previous churches. This is the principle house of Christian worship in Krakow, and it has two large towers, but one is taller than the other. Legend has it that two brothers built the towers and the less talented brother built the shorter one. This brother was jealous of his older brother and so he killed him. He was executed the following day and the city council still has the knife he used to kill him. From the higher tower, the famous bugle call - the hejnal Mariacki - is delivered every hour by a trumpeter. Except during the Nazi occupation, it has been played every hour, every day, since 1810. Famously the melody ends abruptly, in mid-phrase - it recalls a legend that an earlier trumpeter was killed by an arrow in his throat in 1241 when his call warned of an approaching Tartar invasion.

The Veit Stoss Grand Altar is the most famous feature of this church. This altar is only open for about 15 minutes a day - when closed, the altar's twelve pictorial panels include representations of the birth of the Virgin Mary, infant Christ in the Temple, the placing of Christ's body in the tomb, and then the risen Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene. When the shutters open, the central design consists of over 200 sculpted figures which range from 3cm to 3 meters high and depict the final sleep of the Virgin Mary. The pictorial representations who surround her are the appearance of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, the birth of Christ, the visit of the three Kings, the Resurrection, the ascent of Christ into Heaven, and the events of the Pentecost.

The main shopping street is called Florianska, and of course we went through and checked that out. On top of Wawel Hill (pronounced Vavel) lies the city's cathedral and royal castle. The first cathedral was built in 1000, the second in the 11th century (burned down in 1305), and the present Gothic construction was built between 1320 and 1364. Wladysaw Lokietek was the first Polish king to be buried in the cathedral, and nearly every Polish king was buried here after him - from the sixteenth century onward, they were buried in the Royal Crypts.

We walked around the Jewish community of Kazimierz, where the old ghetto (created by the Nazis for the Polish people during World War II) used to be. This is where a lot of footage from the movie "Schindler's List" was filmed. The Old Synagogue is in this area, and it was built in the early fifteenth century (making it the oldest synagogue in the country and the second oldest in Europe).

The Cloth Hall market is on one side of Rynek Glowny Square - it's a long hall open on both ends with shops along both sides. We walked around Jagiellonian University - this is where Nicolaus Copernicus (the guy who had the idea that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around) studied, and it's the most prestigious university in Poland.

Another thing we really enjoyed in Poland was the price of things - much cheaper than London. Our 25 minute cab ride from the airport to our hotel was the same as it costs us to go from the station to our house in London (less than a mile). The food was excellent, and a very nice dinner was very affordable - actually, it was almost cheaper than us eating burgers and fries over here. I'm sure you won't be surprised when I say that their sausage is excellent - nothing like Polish sausage in Poland - we ate it everyday for breakfast. We had great dinner at a place called Poezja - it's actually underground and had a really neat atmosphere. We had some smalec for the first time - still not sure what it is, but it's some kind of dip with meat, beans, and stuff in it for dipping your bread. We liked it so much we ordered more when we finished the first one. Jill had bigos - sausage and kraut in some kind of soup form. I had deer meat in cherry sauce and potatoes. Believe it or not, iced tea was on the menu - we knew it wouldn't be the same, but we just wanted to check it out - not only was it not too great, it didn't even have any ice in it - how do you have iced tea without ice? I think Jill's done this in every country - she found a Mexican restaurant - and we had a nice lunch for about 6 dollars - plenty of food, just cheap over there.

Krakow has more drinking holes per square meter than anywhere else in the world. We had two very good Polish beers, Zywiec and Okocim, and we had a White Russian with bols vodka (since they are known for having good vodka over there). Everywhere we went, people were selling big round pretzels called ocypki - just round, not tied in knots - and they were surprisingly good.

The day after we arrive in Krakow, we took a train to Auschwitz. Before I get into that, I want to mention a couple of observations we noticed on the train. There aren't many signs in English - just Polish. Most places we go have the national language and at least English as well. The train announcements are only spoke in Polish (same thing here - usually announcements are spoken in multiple languages). And there isn't quite as many safety features on the trains as the other place we've been. The doors actually open before the train stops moving and some stops don't even look like stops - you just hop off in the middle of nowhere without a proper platform. Again, this is what made Krakow such a unique and different trip from everywhere else.

Auschwitz:
Auschwitz and Birkenau - where do I start? I know some people have read all about this place and seen it on TV, but I'm sure some of you haven't read, seen, or heard so much - so I'll give a brief history. After the defeat of Poland by Nazi Germany in World War II in September 1939, the towns of Oswiecim and Brzezinka became part of the Third Reich and were renamed Auschwitz and Birkenau. Soon after, the disused barracks of the Polish army at Auschwitz were turned into a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners. Auschwitz was chosen because of its remote area, availability to expand, and it was close to a major railway junction. Rudolf Hoss was appointed as the first camp commandment, and the first prisoners (mainly Polish Jews) entered the camp on June 14. Their imprisonment was part of Hitler's plan to control, and eventually obliterate, the Polish nation.

About 20,000 people were housed in Auschwitz in 1942 at any one time. The architect of the Nazi's "final solution" to obliterate European Jewry, Heinrich Himmler, decided that Auschwitz should become a mass killing place for Jews. This led to the creation of a second camp, Auschwitz II, located in the Birkenau and it was specifically designed for the purpose of exterminating Jews from all over Europe. Auschwitz I was a concentration camp as opposed to a death camp, but many tens of thousands of people died there. Death came through random individual executions as well as mass executions - through being worked too hard and fed too little - and through incredibly unsanitary conditions of the camps, which led to the easy spread of fatal diseases. Josef Mengele, the chief Nazi physician, also carried out his experiments here, most notoriously on groups of twins. A third camp was also established in 1942, Auschwitz III, and most people here worked in slave labor under horrible living conditions. Between 1.5 and 2 million people died in these camps between 1940-1945, the vast majority in Birkenau.

We had a guide that started at Auschwitz I. We saw a black and white film, and the footage was taken when the Soviets were liberating the camp - as they found it. It was horrible - the people that were actually alive were in bad shape - weak and skinny from lack of food, children with frost-bitten feet from being force to walk in the snow barefoot, and scenes like this. Next, we walked around the camp - still surrounded by barbed wire and a few barracks were made into museums.

The main gate at the camp says "Arbeit Mach Frei", German for "Work brings Freedom". Although the Nazis burned most evidence, there were several massive glass case displays in the museums containing material proof of the crimes (just a fraction of the evidence is left, but the scale is so huge that it seems like a lot). There were big stacks of cans of the Zykon B gas - each can had enough gas to kill 100 people. When people arrived at the camp, their heads were shaved and their hair was used to make things for the Germans such as uniforms and blankets. A glass case contained hair from 40,000 people. As people arrived, their suitcases were taken from then and the Nazis took everything they had. A display contains many suitcases with their names, date of birth, and country they were from - people were from all over Europe, and there were many children as well. On display were also piles of eyeglasses, combs, brushes, toothbrushes, clothes, false limbs, dishes, and shoes - there were 44,000 pair of shoes found, and this is not including a huge case full of children's shoes - only 600 children survived the camps.

Block 11 was known as the "block of death" and today it is the same as it was over 60 years ago. Trials took place in this block, and 90% of the people were sentenced to death. The living conditions in the jail cells were terrible - hard floors and no beds. There were some standing cells where four people would have to stand at a time - usually after a full day of extremely hard labor - many died of starvation here. Those that were sentenced to death were either shot in the courtyard between block 10 and block 11 or placed in cells in the basement - there were 18 starvation cells and 20 dark suffocation cells. One man was sentenced to death, but said that he had a family and that he didn't want to die. Maximilian Kolbe asked to take his place, and the Nazis granted his request - he was placed in a starvation cell to die a slow and painful death, and he was still alive after two weeks. The Nazis grew impatient, so they finally ended his life with a fatal injection.

The use Zyklon B gas was first experimented on 600 Russian POWs and 250 sick Polish prisoners in the basement of block 11. Many chemical experiments were also conducted on twins in this block. 5000 people died in the courtyard at the wall of death by being shot. This area was isolated from the camp, and prisoners were not allowed to witness the murders. One prisoner saw an execution of a family from the attic of another barrack - the baby and children were killed first so the parents had to watch before they were killed. The courtyard also contained torture instruments - people were hung by their shoulders, and this caused deformity in addition to extreme pain.

Many sterilization experiments were performed on women in block 10. The women were not given any anesthetic, and many died of internal bleeding. The experiments caused infertility to those who survived. Dr. Mengele performed his experiments on children here, and most of them died. He fled to America and drowned in 1979. Only 800 people tried to escape, and 140 were successful. Those caught were hanged in the camp in public view. Rudolf Hoss had a special hanging post built for him, and he was hanged there on April 16, 1947. After the Zyklon B gas experiments were used in block 11, a gas chamber was built where over 17,000 people were murdered and then cremated. They revved a car engine in an attempt to drown out the screams - then they started looking for a cheaper, easier way to exterminate in mass.

This is why Auschwitz II (Auschwitz-Birkenau) was built - Auschwitz I was 15 acres, and Auschwitz-Birkenau was 425 acres. Upon arrival at this camp, the people were separated by a "doctor" - those fit to work were taken to the barracks, and the rest of the people were taken straight to the gas chambers to die. The Nazis lied to them and said that they were being taken to a shower to be "disinfected". They were told to remove all clothes, put them in a neat pile, and remember where they were so they could find them when they came back from the "shower" - they were even given a towel and some soap. Once they went into the gas chamber, the door was locked and Zyklon B gas was dropped through hatches in the roof. They waited 30 minutes, had prisoners go in and took all valuables from the bodies (jewelry, gold teeth, etc.), had the bodies taken to the crematorium, then dumped the ashes into a small lake - the ashes are still in the lake today. The prisoners that did this were killed and replaced every few weeks - they knew they were going to die - several of them wrote notes about what was going on in the camp and hid them in bottles and buried them. These notes were found when the camp was liberated, and a book has been written with this information.

Most of the gas chambers, crematoriums, and barracks were destroyed by the Nazi Germans before liberation. There were three hundred barracks, and some have been reconstructed so people can see the horrible living conditions of the prisoners. The barracks were designed for 42 horses, but they held 600-1000 prisoners. It was very hot during the summer and very cold during the winter. Six people slept in each bed, and the weaker people had to sleep on the floor as they could not get a bed. When it rained, the roof leaked and the floor became cold and muddy. They were not fed much at all, and the food they did get was often stale and rotten. The most common cause of death was starvation. The total number of men and women living here reached its peak of 100,000 in August 1944, and the place was infested with rats and disease. The life expectancy of prisoners here was only 6-7 months.

The train tracks went directly into the camp so the people could be unloaded right by the gas chambers - around 70% were chosen for immediate death. They were herded, two thousand at a time, to the buildings at the end of the platform where they were killed in the gas chambers. The crematoria was next door, and the ovens could dispose of 350 bodies per day. The main gates remain intact today, and the remains of the gas chambers and crematoria are untouched exactly as they were when they were blown up by the SS in 1945. There is an International Monument to the Victims of Facism between Crematoria II and Crematoria III (built in 1967). Thousands died in Auschwitz I, and over one million died in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Soviets liberated these camps in 1945. The guides want many people to visit these camps - to learn about everything that happened there and to make sure nothing like this ever happens again - they are hoping to have one million visitors this year - up to August, there have already been 600,000.

It's very difficult to describe the feeling we had at Auschwitz. We had mixed emotions as we tried to decide whether or not to go - as sad as it was to be there, we are glad we went. There are feelings of pain, frustration, anger, thoughts of "how could anyone do something like this?", but there is also a chance to pay your respects to those who lost their lives in that awful place. As much as I've read on the subjects of Auschwitz and World War II, I could not even fathom the scale of this atrocity until we went. Even now, it's hard to imagine - think about this - we saw 44,000 pair of shoes, and that is an absolute enormous amount - but this is less than 1% of the total number of people that died in those camps. Seeing this place made it more "real" - books can only describe so much - this really happened and an unbelievable amount of people were put through hell and lost their lives. It's still hard to really imagine what they went through. God bless them all!

I also think about all of the soldiers who lost their lives as they stormed the beaches in Normandy - there were so many that died that day (as well as all men and women who fought for the Allies in World War II). But they gave their lives to stop the mass murdering that was happening at Auschwitz and in other concentration camps. They saved the world from the Nazis - they gave us all freedom. God bless all of our soldiers all over the world! We appreciate and respect every single one of you!

We don't want to end on a sad note, so let us send our congratulations out to my sister Ashley and her husband John - they are expecting another baby in May! We are so excited and we can't wait! And a shout out goes to Cory Edwards - he's recently gotten engaged! We wish all of you the best and we are very happy for everyone! Jill's dad Gary and Glenda just arrived for a visit. We're all heading to Budapest, Vienna, and Prague next week - we'll let you know all about it on the next update. Here are the updated pictures - London, Krakow, and Auschwitz. Until next time, be safe, take care, and God bless! We love and miss you all!