So I buy a multi day transport pass in Berlin and Prague. No one ever checked it. I need to go 2 stops on the Krakow tram with no local currency nor a clue how to buy tickets. I get bagged getting off at my stop. I explain. Figure he will not have any idea what I’m saying yet hoping my Polish/Scottish friend was right when she told me most Poles speak English well and are all as nice as she is. She did not lie. Guard got off with me. Another guard exchanged my Euro note and showed me how to buy a ticket. He didn’t take it but told me to use it later then pointed me the way to my apartment. What a positive beginning!
Due to the train being delayed an hour, I arrived at the OK Apartments at the time when they had told me there would be no one to let me in. Not there fault or mine. I sat in the lobby with a beer I had brought with me just in case this happened. 45 minutes later, Krzysztof, let me in and showed me around. Could not have asked for a better place to spend a week. This is the inside courtyard in the apartment building, and the hallway to my apartment.
And the exterior. I’m in the tall part in the back. This was no shabby redone apartment. It was a classic building upgraded with care. Much more than OK!
And not only am I one block from the main Town Square with so much to see and do but half of it is filled with a Christmas Makrket meaning good, cheap grub, I am on one of the safest streets in the city with 24/7 police stationed outside and the hydraulic road blockers on either end since these two offices are next door
Took a walk around the block to locate a place to pick up beer etc and find place to eat since I had no intention of cooking tonight. Krzysztof had given me a discount card to the restaurant next door, Morela. FYI tiping seems to be expected here as the menu noted service wasn’t included. I was offered a taste of the buckwheat which seems to be a nation dish but found it bland. I opted for the potato pancakes topped with goulash. Great choice!
A next day’s walk brought more interesting things to see like the window of a wax museum. And yes, they was a fan under MM’s skirt in the background.
This Basilica of Holy Trinity in Kraków, Poland, is a gothic church and monastery of the Dominican Order. Its history dates to the year 1223and was across the street from my apartment. At first I thought the peak was a false front but once inside you see it’s the real deal.
Long lines for the confessionals so I felt intrusive to walk around and take a lot of photos.
Cloth Hall was a major trading center dating from the mid 1500’s. Today the center is filled with market stalls and the upper houses the Sukiennice Museum and Gallery which I’ll go more in depth in a separate post.
But on the other side is the Christmas Market.
The Town Hall Tower offered great views of Krakow but it was the most painful I ever encountered. In Wales I climbed over 1000 steps up 10 turrets in 2 castles in one day and I was no where near in the pain this one inflicted the next day. Only 115 steps but each step was at least 15″/38cm high. Talk about 2 days of front thigh burn!
St. Florain’s Church was originally built between 1185 & 1216. Burned down a number of times, this version is from the 1500’s. Pope John Paul II served as vicar here. It was too dark inside for any photos worth showing.
The Battle of Grunwald, fought between the joint armies of Poland and Lithuania against the Teutonic Knights on July 15, 1410, is considered to be one of the greatest battles ever to take place in medieval Europe. A defining moment in Polish history, the battle was immortalised in Kraków with the unveiling of this weighty monument in front of an estimated 160,000 people on the 500th anniversary of the event in 1910. Antoni Wiwulski’s (1877-1919) original masterpiece was, not surprisingly, destroyed by the occupying Nazis during WWII and the copy that now stands in its place dates from 1976, having been faithfully reproduced using sketches and models of the original. At the top on his horse is the King of Poland Władysław Jagiełło, his sword pointing downwards in his right hand. At the front is his cousin the Lithuanian prince Vytautas (Vitold), who is flanked on either side by victorious soldiers from the joint army. The dead man at the front is Urlich von Jungingen, the Teutonic Order’s Grand Master, who lost his life during the battle.
The Krakow Barbican was once a gate attached to the walls that surrounded the city (most were destroyed for the rocks used in other buildings when cannon fire would have made them pointless).
More of the ancient walls
And these Christmas ornaments were all over the city
I do not know anything about the next 3 buildings other than I was impressed by the detail
Jan Matejko was one of Krakow’s most famous painters
The Wawel Castle complex was closed the day before Christmas so I will have to wait for my next visit to see inside,
Judging by the copper pipe in the dragon’s blacked mouth I’m guessing he periodically spouts flames.
I’m churched out! too tired to go inside St Peter’s and St. Paul’s Sunday.
And below the castle there are a number of plaques with hand prints. I’m guessing that it is sort of like Hollywood but I only recognized 2 names. How this guy landed, I have yet to find out. The other name was one I would not honor with a photo. Romand Polanski.
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Morning WB, another great catalogue of photos from Krakow. The last photo and write up is very interesting. I totally agree and undetstand why you haven’t put a picture of Roman Polanski up. His history is tainted with many stories, good, bad and indifferent, more bad in my honest opinion… After our last telephone discussion we had, I remember reading about the members of Charles Manson gang murdering RP’s wife Sharon Tate in 1969.