It’s an ideal time to travel by train through Poland, where a rail journey bridges the past and present.
A statue in front of Krakow’s Church of St. Barbara represents a student contemplating what students everywhere contemplate. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
A lone cattle car stands at Birkenau as a reminder of the thousands of people from all over Europe carried by them to their deaths at Auschwitz and Birkenau. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
Light meals and refreshments are served with a smile — and adequate English — on newer Polish trains. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
A predawn vendor prepares her wares -- with a companion eager for crumbs -- on the old platform at Krakow’s train station. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
The Ghetto Heroes Monument, unveiled in 1948, stands in what was the Warsaw Ghetto and honors resisters who had risen up against their German captors five years earlier. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
Dusk in Warsaw turns the city’s restored spires to silhouettes overlooking remnants of the medieval wall. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
A man in no apparent hurry checks his glasses as a train eases out of Warsaw’s central station. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
One of the Wroclaw’s estimated 300 brass dwarfs brings an air of whimsy to a city being celebrated this year as a European Capital of Culture. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
The facades of Wroclaw’s market square, badly damaged during World War II, once again bring color and joy to the city’s center. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
The main train station in Wroclaw has been tweaked a bit since it was competed in 1857. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
Fresh beverages are free with a first-class ticket on the new Wroclaw-Warsaw trains. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
Nothing but rubble not so long ago, the Royal Castle -- now a museum -- symbolizes the rebirth of central Warsaw. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
