Good morning, Poland!
We flew Ryanair from Stansted to Krakow on Friday night (before Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday). We got in quite late, but had no worries about getting to the apartment in the center of the city since we had organized a taxi to pick us up and take us there. It worked out great:)
Our apartment was 100 feet away from the main square of the city--excellent location for us. But it was also an excellent location for one of the many pubs/bars, thus making it quite a loud place. The first night we were there the cigarette smoke from the hallways of the apartment building was so strong that we had to open windows in our apartment, situated on the third floor. It was not pleasant at all...
On the upside, that evening it started to snow a bit, so the kids were so excited to see snowflakes finally!:)
We all got good night rest (I only slept because I had ear plugs with me, partying outside continued till 5 am:)). And were up and ready to meet our free walking tour group at 10 am on the main square.
Cheerful and ready to see Krakow!
So free walking tours are fabulous! We have done them many times in a few cities. The problem is that although you are thoroughly enjoying each one of them for those two hours of the tour and you are getting acquainted with the city and its layout, as soon as you come home from your holiday, you forget anything that the tour taught you... Therefore, I am left with a bunch of beautiful architectural pictures, and no captions to submit for the blog:) I'll do my best.
We walked around the main square quite a bit because a lot of beautiful buildings and monuments are right on the square. This is th monument to Adam Mitskevic in the middle of it. He is a famous Polish poet of the 19th century. It's funny, we have a monument to him in my city, Lviv, as well.
The famous St. Mary's Cathedral with its uneven towers.
A beautiful park surround the main square of the city. Of course, during the winter it doesn't look so lush, but we got the idea.
This a unique monument to the famous Polish painter, Jan Matejko.
After more than an hour in freezing weather, everyone was ready for a quick hot chocolate break. It was very welcomed! Here is our guide, Jacob, who taught us lots about Polish history and people in just two hours.
Here is the park. And our touring group. I am at the very end with Katya in a blue coat. I like to stay close to the front of the group so I can hear better. Robert was hanging at the back too much, and he almost got lost:)
While we had another sightseeing spot, the kids played with the snow.
Oh man..another blog post without Robert in any of the pictures.
We finally arrived at the Wawel Castle hill and the Wawel Cathedral. It's very important to the Krakowians. The bell inside is only rung when something very important happens such as when the new Pope is announced or when something tragic happens (like the death of the Polish president in a plane crash a few years back).
They love their Pope John Paul II. In fact, you don't even say his name. You just always say "the Pope", and everyone always knows who they are talking about. He was a very revered man all over the world, of course, but especially in Poland, as he was the leader of the Catholic church right around when communism was still in full force. Many believe because of him people had enough courage to stand up and make changes in their country at the end of the 80s.
No matter how small, it's still a snowman.
A mixture of all sorts of architectural styles in this cathedral.
And that's inside the castle courtyard. These three were not really paying attention any more:).
It looked even more beautiful than normally with all that light snow falling.
Yeah! Krakow 2016!
After the tour, we had to let the kids play with the snow for a little bit.
Then we walked over towards Kazimiertz, the Jewish Quarter of the city, for some lunch.
That's the Wawel Castle wall and the castle in the background.
Look at that! Lwow (Lviv) is so close!!
Snow and pigeons--who needs castles?
So after a very-very good traditional lunch at Kuchnia Dorothy (I am talking chicken, mushrooms, goulash, potato pancakes sort of GOOD), we walked over to the center of the Jewish Quarter. And by accident we ran into their afternoon free walking tour of Kazimiertz. Although Mark and Katya didn't want to join them half way (so that's only an hour left), they got outvoted, so we got to see more of the real Krakow neighborhood.
The tour also took us across the river Wisla to the Jewish Ghetto, the place where all Jews from central Krakow were forced to move to during the WWII, as otherwise they lived too close to the beautiful center of Krakow. They were crammed and worked horrible hours in sad conditions. Thousands of them were also sent out to nearby concentration camps. It is unthinkable that out of 65,000 Jews that lived in pre-war Krakow, only 3,000 survived...
This is the Ghetto Heroes Square with iron steel chair. They symbolize absence.
If you would like to learn more about the history of this place, you could go here.
We also walked over to Shindler's Factory. The guide told us a brief story about Shindler (obviously people know about him mostly because of the famous movie) and his heroic and not so heroic side. It was decided though that it is impossibly tough to make judgments of someone's actions not being able to comprehend what sort of circumstances that someone was battling with.
Since it was at least a 30 minute walk back to the main square, and it was cold, we opted to take one of those funny golf cars-taxis to make it more fun for these three trooper kids who are "forced" to travel all over with their crazy parents.
We got to our apartment, warmed up for a bit and then went out to eat at the yummy place nearby. We had pierogi (vareniki) and potato pancakes...and oh...they were yummy.
Lyana.
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