Walking Around Krakow

We kind of sleep in today and do not rush right out the door. Enjoying coffee and the pastries we bought yesterday with the last of our Czech Money. We than walk over to the Barbican And Florian Gate leading into the old town.

Barbican Tower

As a response to several Tatar invasions, Kraków started building a wall in 1241. The Barbican Tower added fortification standing outside the wall with a moat between it and the bridge to the Florian Gate. The moat has been filled in and is now a park that goes around the whole old town. We walk down the main drag until we reach the Main Market Square. We now get to see it in daylight. St Mary’s Church which has stood here for 800 years is open and we go inside. Carol sits along the side while I more boldly sit in the middle. There is a mass going on and I pray with the Poles. They have flags near the alter that they raise and lower at certain parts of the mass. The acoustics are beautiful and I share a peace be with you handshake with several Poles around me.
The two towers of the Church are really only one. The second is the municipal watchtower. Legend has it that during one Tatar invasion, a watchman saw the enemy approaching and sounded the alarm ( a bernal song) with his bugle. Before he fished an arrow pierced his throat. To honor this event, a bugle is played by a ” watchman in the tower every hour. The song is cut short just as it was then. Today’s buglers are local firemen who spend a 24 hour shift up in the tower.
We walk around the busy square where in the old days everything had to be sold. No shops or stores in town were allowed, I am guessing it had something to do with tax collection.
The cloth market still sells wares on its main level.

The Cloth Hall

The Church of St Adalbert, the oldest in the city stands on another corner. We try to find the underground tour but have no luck. We continue on to the other side of the cloth hall into another square with the town hall in it. There is also a large head sculpture by Igor Mitoraj, who studied here in Kraków. It was supposed to be by the train station but due to construction delays, it was placed here and never moved.
We walk down another street to St Francis Basilica. This was Pope John Paul II’s church while he was Archbishop.

Wyspianski Stained Glass

It has an interesting stained glass by artist Stanislaw Wyspianski called ” God the Father, Let it Be”. There  is a more modern painting of St Makyamilian Kolbe, a catholic priest who traded his life to save a fellow inmate at Auschwitz. We also kneel in a pew in the spot that was John Paul II’s favorite spot to pray while he lived in the Archbishops Palace across the street.
We exit and continue our walk towards Wawel Hill. A castle has stood here since the beginning of recorded Polish history. As we climb up the hill, we pass a statue of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who for those who got an A in history, was a hero of the American Revolution and helped to design West Point. He also fought against the Russians when he returned to Poland. We pass the Wawel Cathedral and head to the ticket office to buy tickets for the Royal State Rooms. We are given a time to enter and go sit in the courtyard to wait. The inside gives us a good feel for the 16th and 17th century life here, and has a throne room with thirty heads carved into the ceiling. One apparently got too belligerent when the King was trying to pass judgement and his mouth has been covered to keep him quiet.
After our route is complete, we go to check out the cathedral which is Polands National Church. Contrary to the mostly non religious country of Czech Republic, Krakow has the highest amount of Churches per capita in the world outside of Rome. This 12th century church has been modified by Kazimierz the Great and his predecessors over the years and has twenty chapels. The Polish St Stanislaw, Kazimierz the Great, king Sigismund, Kosciuszko, and many other important Polish people are entombed or have alters here.

Pope John Paul II Alter

The last alter is for Pope John Paul II’s whose body was entombed under St Peters in Rome. We walk back out along the courtyard and find a viewpoint over the Vistula River. We can see the Kosciuszko Mound made of soil from battlefields where the famous General fought.
Having seen enough of the Wawel Hill complex, we head back down into old town. We decide to eat an early dinner/late lunch at Pod Wawelam, a famous beer house. We wait in line for a table and are seated at a nice one on an outdoor covered patio. The beer is cheap and so is the food. We get a schnitzel that is the size of a small hubcap. We also chose a chicken special of the day. The food is good and so is the beer. We order another round and just sit and relax, people watching and talking.
From the beer hall, we go back to the main square looking for the Rynek underground. We find it this time and get tickets which have an entry time of 1715 about 45 minutes from now. Like most European Cities, they just kept building on the old foundations or remnants of the previous town. The ruins underneath are an archeologists dream. Here in Kraków, they excavated the whole town square for 5 years from 2005 until 2010. The churches, cloth hall, and statue were left intact, everything else was dug up.

Excavated Square and Cloth Hall

They catalogued items and then rebuilt the square above this with a supporting ceiling that allowed the old streets and walls to be left as is under the new square above.
We enter at our time and start the underground self guided tour. Quite honestly, the first 3/4 was pretty dry and not super informative. They had touch screens with information in different languages, but only one for each display. Often you were stuck waiting for so,some to read it in another language to,finish and the screens had many pages to read. Not the best of systems. We actually enjoyed the last part where you went through the old street they had dug up and they had photos of the project. There were also several informative movies about the history of the area. This helped to not make this a total bust, but we do not think it was worth the money spent.
When we leave, we walk up a street to a 24 hour pierogi place. We get two orders to go, one Russian style with cheese and potato and another which is a mix of sweet cheese, strawberry, and plum pierogies.

Carol Eating Pierogies

We bring them back to our place for pierogies and wine. They are tasty and very filling. You get 10 pierogies per order for about 3 U.S. Dollars.
I have to mention that last night when I was reviewing our apartment bill, I noticed that there was a very poor exchange rate given and it seemed like they converted the Polish currency to dollars. This led to us paying about 18 dollars over the current exchange rate. Not happy with this, I spoke to the reception girl who checked us in who said it was her mistake, she hit the wrong enter button under currency. She said she would call her boss to see what they would do. As we were leaving to go out again, she was on her phone with her boss and then asked if I could talk to him. He said it was their mistake but the charge had gone through but they want to correct it. I told him if they just wanted to,give us the difference of 65 Polish Zlotny, that would work for me. He told Margara, the girl to do that and my money was instantly returned. I was very happy with the service and know that it was an honest mistake on her part. She was so apologetic about it and had owned up to it to her boss right away.
It was good to see that we had picked an honest place to stay. Tomorrow we will see more of Kraków.
Expenses
Wawel State Rooms 36 PLN
Early Dinner and Beer at Pod Wawelam 67 PLN
Rynek Underground. 38 PLN
Pierogis at Miod I Wino 23 PLN
Walked 8.2 Miles