How often will we have the opportunity to say, "Hey, let's drive over to Poland for the weekend." So, last Friday the girls had a free day from school, so we hopped in the car and headed southeast. Our first stop was Gorlitz, a city that lays on the German/Poland border with half the city on each side. Our cultural trainer recommended this city and we really enjoyed our brief stop there. The city is ancient and has many medieval buildings, crooked & narrow streets, and the lower market square has a fine collection of Renaissance and baroque buildings. One house from 1570 features bas relief scenes from the Old & New Testaments. It was very interesting.
After a short lunch we continued our drive to the city of Krakow. It is one of Poland's oldest, best preserved and most cosmopolitan cities, dating back to the 7th century. The city survived WWII unscathed and with it's wealth of medieval churches, baroque architecture, and stunning Wawel Castle & Cathedral - it is Poland's biggest tourist draw.We had to rely on our "German" GPS to get us there and that was comical because we had to keep looking up words in our mini German dictionary to figure out what to punch in. But, we made it with little problems and found our hotel, the girls were treated to stuffed animals at check-in and discovered an X-BOX right around the corner in the lobby, which proved to be worth double the price-more details to follow on that later.
It was dinner time. We found a quaint restaurant in "Old Town" recommended by our hotel and sampled some typical Polish fare, pierogies, beer with fruit preserves and slaw. Apparently by Polish standards, Krakow is a food paradise. There is lots of variety available but we really worked at getting to try local cuisine. One of the famous restaurants in town opened in 1364 and was attended by five kings and nine princes. We skipped that one but we did eat at U Babci Maliny which formerly housed a cafe that was the post-day job meeting point for high-ranking Nazis. An outdoor plaque commemorates a heroic attack on the cafe by Jewish resistance fighters. Ruby sweet-talked the musician into letting her play a song on his guitar, while the restaurant diners watched on. I believe the next guide book for future visitors will state that Ruby Taylor played at U Babci Maliny in 2011.
Enough about the food. Our big adventure starting out on Saturday morning was to visit the Wawel Hill Cathedral & Castle, conveniently located near our hotel. We saw the church literally from top to bottom as we climbed one of the bell towers and explored the crypts below. We learned that Augustus the Great, King of Saxony (DRESDEN) was buried here. One highlight is the large Dragon Bones chained up outside the main entrance of the cathedral, it is believed they provide magical properties in protecting the city from destruction, particularly during WWII when almost every other major city in Poland got flattened, these bones have remained untouched for centuries. For the castle we viewed the Crown Treasury and Armory. You could spend hours here but we were eager to head to our next stop via bus, the Wieliczka Salt Mines.
We saw only 1% of this enormous mine, it is so large that it features an actual church, everything is carved out of salt. (They have regular services every weekend.) Construction of this church took more than 30 years. This mine also has ballrooms you can rent out, plenty of room for weddings and we also saw 4 other chapels. It is unbelievable how enormous this place is. We were inside this mine for around 3 hours. I put a suggestion in the "idea" box, get a bigger elevator (I was sweating bullets, way too tiny for my liking of an elevator.)
In Old Town at St. Mary's Basilica (which is stunning) you can enjoy listening to a fascinating tradition. It is called the hejnal mariacki - a short bugle call played every hour from 4 sides of the church tower. It is played by a trumpeter that started playing in 2006, only after taking the role over from his father, who had been playing since 1971. The song stops abruptly keeping in tradition with the legend of the original trumpeter who was shot in the neck while playing back in 1241.
We had a small tour of the Jewish Quarter, called Kazimierz & Podgorze. We learned from our guide that unfortunately this part of town is frequently overlooked and so the money for remodeling goes to the "old town" area. It is very evident that much history lies in this area and we were able to see some prominent buildings & synagogues. We saw Schindler's Factory and a piece of the remaining wall that created the "ghetto" built by the Nazi's to contain the Jews. A sobering memorial to those Jewish people lost in Krakow is also in this neighborhood, it shows empty chairs on a square of town where the Jewish people from Kazimirez were marched across and taken to the Ghetto. Across the street is the ONLY pharmacy for Jewish people, run by a non-Jew living in the Ghetto, he managed to convince the Germans to allow the pharmacy to operate round the clock. It was a secret meeting point and he saved messages for families.
Our original plan was to leave Krakow on Sunday around lunchtime, but things changed when we went to our rental car and found a flat tire. Because Krakow is very Pope-friendly (everyone goes to church), there was no place that could repair our nail-challenged tire. Avis, our rental car company, wanted 900 euros to swap out cars. We opted to stay another night in Krakow. That meant another evening of venturing around Old Town and more delicious pierogies to sample. That is also why we were so tickled that the hotel had an X-BOX, it completely entertained the girls while the grown-ups decided what to do about the car (and while Ron sampled the Polish Vodka). By 11 am Monday morning we had a newly repaired tire and 5 hours ahead of us on the road.
There is something really captivating about this city, several people we spoke to that had traveled there before us said the precisely the same thing. You can't really put your finger on what it is exactly. Maybe it is because it is so very old, or the overwhelming sadness in certain parts of the area that remind us of the devastating wrongs that took place there, perhaps the little streets & city center or the warm people we met. Or possibly seeing things like a book shop that had been open for 400 years. It's interesting, even though this place has been through so much you still feel like maybe something or someone is really watching over Krakow, even a dragon or two. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and we would recommend it on our top cities to visit in East Europe. The following photos are just some random shots that either amused us or we found them very unique. Hope you enjoy as well.
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