ChemSource Trip to Krakow, Bratislava, and Budapest

My trip to Krakow, Bratislava, and Budapest with the ChemSource Study Tour group will be from September 27^th (Birmingham departure) to October 9^th (Budapest departure for home and arrival in Birmingham).  The itinerary will include 5 days in Krakow staying at the Hotel Pod Wawelem, which is centrally located.  While in Krakow we will have a walking tour of Jagiellonian University, visit the Pharmaceutical Museum, tour the Wieliezka Salt Miines and Oskar Schindler’s Enamelware Factory, travel to Auschwitz, and attend an evening concert at the Church of Saints Peter and Paul.  Hopefully my early arrival will permit me to visit the Royal Castle on  Wawel Hill to view Leonardo da Vinci’s The Lady with an Ermine.  On Friday, October 3^rd, we transfer by bus to Bratislava and stay at the Hotel Austria Trend.  We will have two nights in Bratislava and will tour Old Town, Apponyi Wine Museum (with a tasting) and attend a performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet, “Romeo and Juliet” at the Slovak National Theatre (Saturday evening).  Sunday afternoon, October 5, we travel by bus to Budapest where we stay at the Mercure Budapest City Center for four nights.  We will tour Parliament, the Foundry Museum, museums at Buda Castle, the Semmelweis Museum, and the Museum of Textile & Clothing Industry (Goldberger Museum) and visit the Aquincum Archaeological Site.  We have received 13 tutorials to acquaint us with the history, multiethnicity, politics of language, central Europe since 9/11, the Holocaust, and details of the numerous places we will visit in Krakow, Bratislava, and Budapest.  This promises to be a fun and very informative visit to historical areas of Eastern/East Central Europe.  Hopefully the postings of the trip log and photos will give you a good sense of what we are doing and seeing.