Elegant Elbe: Day 4
Day 4: Wednesday, November 01, 2023 - Kraków, Poland
The day's statistics:
- Weather: upper 50s, mostly sunny
- Steps: 22,537 Linda; 21,774 Steve
- Miles traveled (approximately): 14
Today starts the second half (from a number of days perspective) of our vacation. Not this cruise, but the entire vacation.
Breakfast was the buffet at the hotel. We had a bit of a larger breakfast this morning because we were going to have a late lunch.
We sat at a small table for two.
Today's excursion was called "Historic Kraków" and we would leave at 9:00 with our local guide Monica.
Our tour started on the bus with a little driving around the city.
We arrived in the Jewish Quarter. The bus pulled at the curb, we got off, walked ahead a block, turned right, and walked anothe couple blocks.
The first building was an old synagogue.
Our walk continued into the quarter further.
We passed by Helena Rubenstein's house, the famous cosmetician.
Some flowers.
The plaque reads "Place of meditation upon the martyrdom of 65 thousand Polish citizens of Jewish nationality from Cracow and
its environs killed by the nazis during World War II".
We were back at the bus, boarded, and headed out.
We came across a plaza with a display called "Memorial to Emptiness" that contained a large number of chairs (not all visible) each
representing ten thousand dead Jews.
We returned to the hotel and got off the bus. We crossed the street, and entered the park - more in the middle of it, rather than
near the edge like last night.
We exited the park and found ourselves at the base of the palace and royal church.
We proceeded up the incline to the top of Wawel (pronounced "va-vell") Hill (pronounced "hill").
When we passed through the gate in the image above, we were then within the palace grounds. The tower system of the palace wall is different
than that of the city towers.
We observed a couple statues, including one of the Pope, the royal Catholic church - the second oldest building in Kraków, other buildings,
and some ruins within the palace walls. Unfortuately we did NOT go inside the church - though we would like to have.
The three domes of the church show the three different architectural style during the different building phases of the church: the gold
dome (Renaissance 16th century), Gothic, and another.
We walked through the passageway to the right of the church while looking at it, and entered the palace courtyard. The palace is a museum
that we could tour on our free time. Also, during the summer, shows and performances are put on in the courtyard.
The drain spouts embrace the symbolism of the dragon (more on the dragon below).
Afterward, we passed a small garden area, then proceeded to and out the gateway on one side of the palace wall, and had an overlook of the river.
Near this overlook was a dragon "sculpture" - that shot fire out of its mouth. It is called the Wawel Dragon,
and the legend is that the dragon terrorized the capital city and was appeased with a weekly ration of cattle until the dragon was
defeated with a decoy that was stuffed with sulfur. The dragon became the symbol of the city.
We continued down this path, and it turned into a downward slope around the back of the palace walls, and pretty much emptied not far
from the ramp we took in the front to get into the palace earlier.
Before continuing on, we took a selfie.
We took a roadway that ran parallel with the park, and eventually made our way to the market square, entering the area a couple blocks
down from where we entered last night.
These aren't carved or chiseled blocks, but rather the design is painted on.
We saw more sights on the way to the market square, including Saints Peter and Paul Church, and St. Andrew's Church which is the second oldest
building in Kraków.
The oldest restaurant in Kraków, an obviously named one, city hall tower, and some other sights in the square.
There was a performance artist near the fountain. At least I hope that's why he was dressed like that...
Church of St. Wojciech - in the daylight this time.
A few of St. Mary's Basilica - in the daylight too.
We walked paste the front of St. Mary's, around the back, into a courtyard, and eventaully stopped near the back of the basilica.
The story is that long ago, a lookout was in the church tower. He saw enemies approaching the city so he sounded the wake-up alarm
(played a tune). An archer from the invaders shot him. Every hour, a trumpeter plays the melody in three directions from the tower -
toward the palace, toward the army, and tpward the town. But the trumpeters melody stops abruptly simulatng be shot with the arrow.
After the song, we walked along one end of the market mall, and toward the tower.
We continued down the road - and then path - that we used to get to the market square last night. More is visible in the daylight...
At about 12:40, we eventually arrived back at the hotel.
It was what would be considered a usual lunch time. But we had a bigger breakfast, so we forewent eating at this time.
We talked to Ivan about our next task: laundry. Yes, laundry. Our trip was four weeks, and rather than pack exclusively for that long, we
felt it would be easier - and it fit conveniently into our schedule - to do a load of laundry or two (darks, and whites and lights).
We spoke to Ivan and he gave us a map and detailed directions on how to get to a laundromat - it was about eight or so blocks away.
We went to the room, stuffed everything we needed into a launddry bag - which I threw on my shoulder - and headed to the laundromat.
We were following the map, and yet walked right past it. In the middle of a short cross street, we pulled out the map and looked at it
again and determined we walked clear past it. Fine, let's try it again.
We walked down the street that was behind the laundromat. I looked in the window and saw the washing machines and said "There it is!" But
on the window, drawn in what looked like wax marker, there was a "you are here" map with a dotted line going around the block and showing
the entrance on the other side. We took the short stroll and sure enough, there it was. (The image is taken from the inside and flipped.)
The machines were in the back. We headed there and did our best to figure out how to use the machines. A young lady - from Italy -
was there and gave us a little bit of assistance. And a Tide pod - even though we DID have our own soap.
We loaded up the two washing machines and waited the 40 or so minutes to wash.
We played on our phones while we waited.
They also offered laundry service - drop off your clothes and they wash them for you.
And the front of the facility had a café.
While the washers were just turn on and use, the dryers required special coins from the cashier. At the end, one pays for
what they used. In our case, we had to 2 - 6 kg washes, and 6 dries (three for each type - because we did a cold dry because
we weren't sure how hot the hot dry was going to be). We folded everything, put it back in the laundry bag, and paid on the
way out. It wound up costing 80Zł, or $19.23 (at the time). We headed back to the hotel.
In all, it was less than three hours, including travel.
We were back at the hotel before 4:00. So we sorted out our laundry, and bided our time until we went back to the lobby at 5:45 for our
next adventure: Flavors of Kraków.
There were only four travelers participating: Peter and Philis, and the two of us.
Our guide was Magdalaina, or Magda.
We started by heading to the market square, taking the path we took last night and at the end of this morning's excursion.
We arrived in the market square, and entered the hallway adjacent to the Starbucks®.
The first stop was at "Cellar Under the Rams". A bar-type pub - but is considered a "literary cabaret" downstairs from the entryway
that had the rams heads.
Our first tasting was beer - which was disgusting [to me] - and goat smoked cheese called "ostipek" with a wreath shaped braided
bread called "obverjanic". The obverjanic name can only officially be used in Kraków, Poland.
There were some older artifacts and decorations around as well. We didn't notice that there is what looks like a lamp stand
made from an old clarinet next to this unusual communication device with some sort of dial thingy on the front.
Piotr Skrzynecki is credited with saying decades ago "We are on an island in a sea of brutality, silliness, stupidity, villainy, cynicism,
introlerance, and violance." Much really hasn't changed, has it?!!?
We walked across the market square, past St, Mary's Basilica, and turned left at the next corner and in the middle of
the block was our next stop "Pierogarnia Domowa", which was and means "home-made dumplings".
We shared five - FIVE - different types of piorogis, four served with carmelized onions: spinach (which was green), mushroom, cheese
and potato (the most traditional type), and meat. The fifth was an apple and cinnamon filled dessert style. They were all good.
And we each had the cahnce to try at least one of each flavor.
Fortunately this was a walking food tasting because, well, we needed it.
We walked another three or so blocks to a location that wound up being a little further away from the square.
It was called "Jama Michalika", a restaurant that was established in 1895.
It was a more formal restaurant, at least compared to the dumpling shop. It was a little darker inside than the pictures may reflect (not
that there's anything wrong with it).
This was a meal in and of itself. We could have just had this, and it would have been enough. But noooooo, we had all those other yummy
appitizers first.
The first course was a collection of four soups: borscht, tomato, mushroom, and barley. At least they were small sample size servings and
not full bowls...
Then we had our entreé which was served family style. It included glumkis (cabbage stuffed with meat and rice), potato pancakes, and
bigos (chopped cabbage and onions).
We ate and chatted for about a half hour before leaving to make our way to our final stop.
We left the restaurant and headed toward St. Mary's and the market square. We started down the street on the other side of the square.
Magda was telling us about some locations that are, what we would call, "holes in the wall". Sort of a place that you would really only
know about because someone told you about it. And then we stopped walking, turned left through a door and into a small narrow alley. It
could also be considered a courtyard - at least that's the vibe it had.
"Café Zakątek" was located in the back left corner of the alley.
We had a shot of Klasztorna, a cherry vodka, and a slice of cream cake which is a favorite of Pope John Paul II. The countrywide arguement
is which cream cake the Pope liked. It's akin to the label of "world's greatest cup of coffee"...
Before departing the café, we captured a selfie with Magda.
By now it was a bit after 9:00 and our tasting tour was over. We started our walk back to the hotel.
We walked the end of the market square we had walked earlier in the day. At least we weren't the only ones eating so late...
Then we exited the corner, walked down the street, through the segment of the park, crossed two streets, and we were at the hotel.
It was a busy day, and we were certainly full from our tasting tour.
We relaxed, washed up, and went to bed.