Day One - Welcome to Krakow

Wednesday, May 1

I could not have had a more uneventful passage to Krakow than I had on Lufthansa.  Both flights were smooth, early (!) and quick.  Funny how 6 1/2 hours feels like nothing after doing 14 hours last fall!  My only complaint is the amount of walking I had to do to transfer in Frankfurt; that airport feels Heathrow-like in its spread, but I suppose walk fights of DVT, so all is good.

I met my pre-booked driver to take me to my hotel and away we went.  Only 79 zloty, which is about $20 for a round trip transfer. Yes, Poland is proving to be a budget-hunter’s paradise.  Prices are amazing across the board.

My hotel, Hotel Wawel, is about 2 blocks off Old Town Square, on a nice quiet side street away from the throngs.  People generally don’t wander down this way, there’s nothing but the hotel.  As it’s a public holiday (Labor Day) today, there are herds of people walking around the square and the castle and everywhere in between, so it’s nice to get away from it all.  I have the bedroom window open now since it was so nice out today (mid-60s, sunny and blue skies, such the opposite of home right now!) but may close it just in case it drops overnight.  The day was perfect for walking!

And walk I did.  I showered and changed when I first arrived and hit the streets by 11:30.  Since I had about 4 breakfasts and my dinner all in the space of 10 hours, I wasn’t really hungry until late afternoon.  I opted to follow Rick Steves’ self-guided walking tour of the Old Town.  Love him or hate him, his walking tours are informative and lively.  I learned a lot and had some a-ha moments.  There are a ton of churches here, and I think I was in about 6 today, but there were reasons for each and it made the walk interesting to compare them.

There’s a church with two towers in the market square.  Historically a trumpeter has played a song from the top of one of those towers on the hour.  But many years ago, the trumpeter was killed in battle up there when he was struck by the enemy, cutting his song short.  Today the ritual continues and on the hour a trumpeter plays the same song from the top of the towers in each of the four cardinal directions, and cuts off the song at the same point that the original trumpeter was slain.  Random trivia: today’s trumpeters are also firefighters and they stay up there for 24 hours at a time to do this job.

The beautiful gothic cathedral on the square was a highlight but for the scaffolding on the high altar.  It would have been nice to see its claim to fame while I’m here but restoration is part of the risk of traveling for art, I suppose.  I wound my way around and through the university district and the cloth hall which is now market stalls.  I ended up over where Pope John Paul lived when he was visiting here as Pope, which is across from one of the churches where he first worked as priest.  The church has a pew marked with a silver plaque indicating where he liked to sit and pray when he visited there by himself.  Now St. John Paul is a major celebrity here.  You can’t walk more than a few blocks without seeing where he went to school, where he lived, or was first a priest, or archbishop or cardinal of Krakow.  They haven’t forgotten him for sure.  He is likely Krakow’s favorite son.  There is a chapel in the cathedral with a floor panel that’s waiting for his remains. He left no instructions on how to deal with his body after his death, so the Vatican buried him there.  Krakovians are waiting for him to be moved back here, but all signs point to that being unlikely.

I popped into a cafe to have a hummus, tomato and spinach sandwich and then took on the castle area.  Of course castles are up hill, so that was a hike but once up there, there is the national cathedral, a bell tower to climb and a cathedral museum.  Of all these, I found the museum pretty interesting with it’s collection of St. John Paul memorabilia, everything from his cloaks and shoes and hats to silverware that he gifted to the cathedral over time.  They only have 4 rooms, one of which is devoted to him, but some very nice papal artifacts.

Probably the coolest thing I did today was climb the bell tower at the castle hill.  It was only 70 very narrow steps up but we passed 3 enormous bells on the way.  These had been forged 500-600 years ago!  And they were each upwards of 6000 pounds.  I was baffled seeing them all hung in a wooden bell tower...just how does that work.

I made it to 5:00 before I really needed a break.  I came back to the hotel and recharged, then went out to dinner at a place on the town square called Wesel. I’d read their menu during the day and it looked like it had a few things for vegetarians on it.  I wasn’t disappointed.  I had a bottle of still water, a glass of Polish rose (who knew? Very cherry and fruity!) and fried sheep’s cheese with cranberry jam, pierogi stuffed with lentils in a mushroom sauce, and fried apple cake with a shot of cherry vodka, all for $32!  That’s a bargain!  And it was very filling.

So far my initial impressions are that Krakow is similar to Prague, only maybe not as friendly or as pretty.  It’s very walkable and comfortable.  I need to spend more time before I can say for certain how I feel about it. And make the determination after a good night’s sleep!