Arriving from Austria at the border of the Check Republic, there is all of a sudden an almost palpable change. The ghosts of communism are lingering. Suddenly the quality of everything goes down by several notches. Nevertheless, once in Krakow, the seat of the Polish kings from time immemorial, the weight of this splendid past more than made up for the horrors the last century has inflicted on this great city. It is difficult to escape the comparatively recent past, however, with tour guides bouncing up, smiling broadly and offeringly guided tours to Auschwitz!