Fort VII

Over the centuries, Poznań had a fairly central role in Poland's history and at one point a ring of forts was built around the city. Today we went to visit Fort VII, which has a much darker aspect to its history, having been used by the Nazis as a concentration camp during the second world war.

The beautiful weather made for an odd juxtaposition; the fort, which appears to be built into the hills, looked beautiful. Inside, though, its grizzly wartime history is detailed in words, pictures, and installations. (A lot of it was in Polish but the frankly amazing Google Translate app will translate on the fly as you look at writing through the camera.)

Often the sheer scale of the horror, particularly in the photos, makes it hard to digest, as do the numbers. For me, it's always the words and the stories about individuals that bring the madness home. (I'd had mixed feelings about taking the kids along but I'm glad we did.)

The Minx had something lighter planned for the afternoon, when we went to the croissant museum to learn the history of the St Martin Croissant and there was even some audience participation in making one (which was a bit like taking part in The Generation Game).

As the afternoon drew to a close we took a stroll across to the astounding cathedral and had a quick look inside before walking back to a tex-mex restaurant we'd seen, which provided a very satisfying end to the day.

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Reading: 'Matter' by Iain M Banks