 |
| Wawel Cathedral, Krakow |
Sun 22 April 2018
We landed in Krakow bang on schedule courtesy of Ryanair - and transferred by pre-booked taxi to The Secret Garden hostel in the Kazimierz district. It was a glorious afternoon, and the entire population of Krakow appeared to be out enjoying the sunshine. We wandered along the path by the wide river Wisla that bisects the city, and had our first view of the stunning Wawel Castle.
 |
| Wawel Castle |
Krakow in April sunshine is the perfect city to meander in; no crowds, wide streets and amazing architecture. We headed towards the Old Town, marvelling at 16th century churches along the way.
At the heart of the Old Town is the huge main square Rynek Glowny - with a brace of churches, Cloth Hall, and a hundred bars & restaurants! We would return here tomorrow to investigate properly, but first impressions were fab!
 |
| St Mary’s Basilica |
We felt we had early our first Polish supper, and made our way back to Kazmimierz for an excellent meal in authentic Polish tavern Marchewka & Groszkiem. I had my first taste of Pierogi (dumplings with various fillings; I opted for meat) washed down with Brackie draft beer and Jess had a tasty beef stew.
Mon 23 April
We returned to Marchewka & Groszkiem and had the full Polish breakfast: scrambled eggs and white sausages with horseradish & mustard!
Fortified, we crossed the river into the Podgorze district. More wide streets and big churches, but also the site of the Krakow Getto created by the Nazis in 1941.
 |
| Bernatek footbridge |
 |
| St Joseph’s |
Oskar Schindler’s factory is now an excellent museum chronicling the complete story of Krakow in the WWII. It’s very well laid out, and takes a minimum of 2.5 hours to work through the harrowing detail; absolutely not to be missed, and fortuitously free on Mondays!
 |
| The metal pans produced at Schindler’s Factory |
 |
| Rynek Glowny with St Mary’s Basilica |
 |
| St Mary’s Basilica: magnificent altar piece 15C by Veit Stoss |
 |
| St Adalbert’s church: Krakow’s oldest. |
 |
| Collegium Marius: Jagiellonian University 2nd oldest in Central Europe : Copernicus studied here! |
And also Cloth Hall with fascinating Rynek Undergound exhibit beneath - excavated in the ‘90s
Shattered from tourism, we re-energised with beer and herring!
Rain and thunder hit conveniently as we made it back to the hostel, then stopped for our walk out to a light supper.
Tuesday 24 April
Up early and into the queue for tickets to Wawel Castle & Cathedral. Despite seeing it from the outside, the scale and diversity of architecture within the vast complex is still gob-smacking. It has undergone various renovation programmes over the last 120 years, and survived WWII despite being the HQ for General Hans Frank who commanded occupied Poland.
You could easily spend the whole day here - so we opted ‘just’ to visit the State Rooms followed by a guided tour of the Royal Apartments; both are incredible - with an array of 15-19thC furniture and paintings, and part of the staggering collection of 135 tapestries (that were saved from the German occupation by the foresight of the Castle’s curator who shipped them all to Canada). Cameras not permitted inside - hence only external pics :)
Wawel Cathedral is on the same site - and equally as impressive.
 |
| View towards Old Town from Cathedral Tower |
The afternoon was spent touring Kazimierz in detail, and more Polish food!
 |
| Plac Nowy, the centre of Kazimierz |
 |
| Temple Synagogue |
 |
| Old Synagogue (that’s it’s name!) |
Off south to Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains tomorrow.
Comments
Post a Comment