{"id":3701,"date":"2015-09-09T14:14:32","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T19:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3701"},"modified":"2015-09-09T14:14:32","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T19:14:32","slug":"european-vacation-day-12-old-cracow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3701","title":{"rendered":"European Vacation:\u00a0 Day 12 Old Cracow"},"content":{"rendered":"

We woke up in Krakow this morning.\u00a0 Wait, everything I see pretty much says Cracow.<\/p>\n

We got up with sunshine and headed upstairs to breakfast.\u00a0 The breakfast was big, bright, and radiant with sunshine.\u00a0 It also contained some pretty darn tasty looking food.\u00a0 We went around the buffet and picked up the things that looked good to us.\u00a0 It was all wonderful.<\/p>\n

Back in our room, we prepared for the day.\u00a0 We\u2019d need warmer coats since the temp was lower and the wind was blowing pretty well.\u00a0 Once we exited the front door, we were headed to the Florian Gate that is one of the entrances in the old city wall.\u00a0 Old Cracow is a walled city as well.\u00a0 This wall is from the 1200s when the city was fortified against the Mongol hordes sweeping through this part of the world.<\/p>\n

We continued down the street to the main square.\u00a0 On the way down, I saw a sign for pacnkzis.\u00a0 I knew I\u2019d have to try that.\u00a0 At the end of the street, the square opened up into a wide area lined with buildings of different time periods, colors, and purposes.\u00a0 St Mary\u2019s Basilica was right in front of us.\u00a0 We walked around the square to get an idea of what things were like.<\/p>\n

The streets are cobblestones and uneven.\u00a0 It is definitely old world here.\u00a0 The Cloth Hall, which was one of the first shopping malls in the world, was in the middle of the square.\u00a0 This is where the guilds would have a stall to come and sell their wares to the public.\u00a0 Around the square are stands that sell flowers, souvenirs, and other items.<\/p>\n

We walked around the perimeter of the square to see what was there.\u00a0 There were tours of all kinds going on.\u00a0 The free walking tours are gathering people in different languages to start out.\u00a0 Barkers are stopping you at every corner to purchase a tour of the city from them or to join some group for a tour at a cost.\u00a0 We just keep saying no.<\/p>\n

Once we get around all four sides, we went into the Cloth Hall to look at the different stalls.\u00a0 There are woodcarvings, glass items, textiles, pottery, and lots and lots of amber.\u00a0 This is a big amber producing part of the world.\u00a0 I see all kinds of shapes and colors.\u00a0 At one booth, I stop to ask the difference.\u00a0 It\u2019s all amber.\u00a0 However, it depends on long it was in the ground and what kind of impurities are in it.\u00a0 Rich sees a shot glass he wants for his collection.\u00a0 It looks like stained glass, which was once a big product here<\/p>\n

We come back out of the hall without buying anything yet. \u00a0As we leave the hall, the trumpeter on the tower of St. Mary\u2019s Basilica started to play the anthem for opening and closing the gates.\u00a0 Every hour on the hour, a trumpeter plays out of the window on one side.\u00a0 He gets to a certain point in the song and stops.\u00a0 He then moves to another side of the tower and repeats this for each side.<\/p>\n

The story is that the trumpeter was playing on the tower during a siege by the Mongols.\u00a0 An arrow struck the trumpeter in the throat and he halted his song at a certain point.\u00a0 This is the point where the song gets interrupted today.<\/p>\n

We walk over to St. Mary\u2019s Basilica, but the visitor\u2019s entrance is closed.\u00a0 We decided to walk around the entire square and look at the buildings and businesses.\u00a0 This is one of the largest squares in Europe.\u00a0 I believe only Red Square in Moscow is bigger.<\/p>\n

After this tour, we headed down the street toward Wawel Castle.\u00a0 Rich was looking for the Nicholas Copernicus statue and thought it was down this way.\u00a0 We stopped at the St. Peter and Paul Church.\u00a0 The oldest church in Cracow is St. Andrew\u2019s right next door.<\/p>\n

Since we were at Wawel Castle, we decided to walk about the grounds and have a look.\u00a0 We walked the outer wall that overlooked the Vistula River.\u00a0 It is a beautiful river valley here.\u00a0 We could see a mound off to the far right and wondered what it was.\u00a0 Rich made a note to ask Marcin about it.<\/p>\n

We walked on around the castle.\u00a0 At the opposite side, you could walk by the Wawel Chapel.\u00a0 A status of Pope John Paul II was standing nearby.\u00a0 John Paul was assigned to Krakow and was a cardinal here.\u00a0 The chapel has a beautiful golden dome on the front.\u00a0 We decided not to pay the money to go inside and tour.<\/p>\n

We made our way back down the hill from the castle and took one of the side streets.\u00a0 This went by the house where John Paul lived when he was cardinal here.\u00a0 It was right across the street from the Hotel Copernicus.\u00a0 But no status of Copernicus was around there.<\/p>\n

We got back to Grodzka Street and started walking back toward the square.\u00a0 We saw a Ukrainian restaurant and Rich checked for borscht.\u00a0 It was time for lunch.\u00a0 This worked out perfectly because they also had Zurek soup.\u00a0 The soups were wonderful.\u00a0 That would be enough to hold us for dinner time.<\/p>\n

Outside of the restaurant, we found the Information Booth.\u00a0 It was time to ask the experts where the Copernicus status was at.\u00a0 Rich really stumped the poor girl though.\u00a0 She had to go to the computer to find the information and then identify it on the map for Rich.\u00a0 A British lady had come in while the girl was looking up the info.\u00a0 She was practically hanging all over Rich while his map was being marked.\u00a0 She wanted the info also!<\/p>\n

Back on the street, we headed toward the Jagiellonian University to find the status.\u00a0 This is one of the many local universities in town and probably the largest one that had its start back in 1364.\u00a0 We went through one of the many parks in the area to get to where we needed to be.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t you know it?\u00a0 The statue was covered by netting as workers were cleaning it up.\u00a0 They kind of stared at us funny for wanting pictures.<\/p>\n

We walked through campus to get back to the square and came out on the opposite side from our hotel.\u00a0 Since we were at the square, we decided to get coffee and try to find something sweet.\u00a0 We walked to several of the restaurants without finding anything.\u00a0 We backtracked a bit and a found small place in a hallway leading into one of the restaurants.<\/p>\n

Rich ordered coffee and tried to ask for some of the poppy seed cake on display.\u00a0 I went into the adjacent room to point to the cake.\u00a0 The lady didn\u2019t speak English, but she got the gist and shook her head now.\u00a0 She came up with an alternative and offered us poppy seed pastry.\u00a0 That would work also.\u00a0 After paying, she delivered our coffee and pastry to the table for us.\u00a0 The pastry was sweet and tender.\u00a0 The taste was wonderful.\u00a0 We enjoyed our coffee and talked about our day.<\/p>\n

After finishing up, we headed back out to the square to wander some more.\u00a0 We walked over to St. Mary\u2019s Basilica to see if the visitor\u2019s entrance was open yet.\u00a0 It was, but you had to purchase tickets across the street from the church.\u00a0 Having done this, we made our way into the church.<\/p>\n

You had to step down a few steps to enter.\u00a0 The original church is at one of the lower levels from a few centuries back.\u00a0 The church was beautiful.\u00a0 The ceiling is an amazing blue that has gold stars painted throughout.<\/p>\n

The cathedral was decorated with beautiful statues and pieces of art.\u00a0 The alcoves and chapels were filled with monuments and crypts for local saints and dignitaries.\u00a0 I was in total awe of the colors and art around me.\u00a0 I did attempt one photo, but it was hard to get anything without a flash.\u00a0 It was church and they posted a sign for no pictures at all.<\/p>\n

We eventually let go of looking at the church and headed back out to the square.\u00a0 We made one more trip around the square before going in the direction of our hotel.\u00a0 Marcin and Aneta were meeting at for dinner.\u00a0 Marcin had a plan to whisk us away to somewhere for good Polish food.<\/p>\n

At 7:00 PM, we met them at the front door of the hotel.\u00a0 Once in the car, Marcin drove out toward the salt mine to a little place with a big reputation.\u00a0 It was a little cool to sit outside, so we went in and found that Marcin had called ahead with a reservation.\u00a0 Rich ordered the mushroom soup in a bread bowl.\u00a0 It was like having beef barley soup without the barley.\u00a0 It was definitely tasty.<\/p>\n

Everyone ordered and I apparently didn\u2019t listen to directions.\u00a0 My dinner came out on a trencher like in past centuries.\u00a0 The pork schnitzel was about 12 inches wide and maybe 14 inches long.\u00a0 It was huge!\u00a0 I cut off a third of it and almost managed to finish it.\u00a0 What was I thinking?\u00a0 I saw other people order it, but they were sharing with those around them.<\/p>\n

We got our bill and paid up with the waitress.\u00a0 Back on the road, Marcin took us on another whirlwind tour of town.\u00a0 Rich had asked about the mound we had seen earlier from the wall around Wawel Castle.\u00a0 Marcin said it was Kosciuszko\u2019s Mound.\u00a0 It was a memorial to the general and you could walk up the mound to the top with a view of the city.\u00a0 There are apparently seven such mounds in the area.\u00a0 There were also defensive points to see attacks on the city.<\/p>\n

We saw the field where Pope John Paul II had held mass when in Cracow for the large number of people who showed up.\u00a0 Marcin said it was like 200,000 people.\u00a0 The field is huge and I can image it holding that number of people to see one of the greatest figures of our era.<\/p>\n

Finally back at the hotel, we said good-night.\u00a0 Tomorrow, we go to the Motorola office to try and meet some of the people that we work with.\u00a0 Rich has a meeting scheduled with a team working on a tool that would work with his tool set.\u00a0 For tonight though, I\u2019m full and tired.<\/p>\n

\"Rich<\/a>
Rich outside of our hotel at the Florian Gate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Across<\/a>
Across the square from St. Mary’s Basilica.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"St<\/a>
St Mary’s Basilica on the square.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"St<\/a>
St Adalbert’s Church in the main square.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Cloth<\/a>
Cloth Hall in the main square was first mall in the world.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Inside<\/a>
Inside the Cloth Hall .<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"St.<\/a>
St. Peter and St. Paul’s Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"DNA<\/a>
DNA project to identify victims of Communist regime<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Vistula<\/a>
Vistula River from the city wall at Wawel Castle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wawel<\/a>
Wawel Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"House<\/a>
House where Pope John Paul lived when he was cardinal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Copernicus<\/a>
Copernicus status getting a good cleaning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich digging into his borscht.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Zurek<\/a>
Zurek soup for lunch. Yummy!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich outside of the Ukrainian restaurant after lunch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Inside<\/a>
Inside the cathedral of St. Mary’s Basilica.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Cawa<\/a>
Cawa and poppy seed roll for afternoon pick me up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We woke up in Krakow this morning.\u00a0 Wait, everything I see pretty much says Cracow. We got up with sunshine and headed upstairs to breakfast.\u00a0 The breakfast was big, bright, and radiant with sunshine.\u00a0 It also contained some pretty darn tasty looking food.\u00a0 We went around the buffet and picked up the things that looked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3701"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3720,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701\/revisions\/3720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}