Last Day Here in the Europe

We had just a few things we wanted to do today that we hadn't gotten to for various reasons and by this time we are moving very slowly, due to the miles and kilometers we have been walking every day. First, we walked to the Jewish section again since we didn't see anything the last time and visited the cemetery, the old synagogue (by old, they mean built around 1200) and another synagogue that was much newer, built in the late 1700s.

Jewish Cemetery

Old Synagogue

After that walk, we met up with Tina who took us to a restaurant to get my long-awaited duck. I thought that duck in Poland was always served with cherries but maybe it's not the right season. All the duck dishes seem to include cranberries now. We really had duck, duck, goose and yes, Lola had the goose, served with plum sauce. This was a ritzy restaurant, meaning our elegant lunch cost around $12 a piece instead of the usual $6. A pleasant dining surprise to me is that the restaurants are now carrying really great wine selections and wine bars are all over town. Beer is still winning, of course, but wine is now popular.

We finally got into the Peter, Paul, and Mary church which has always had an event going on when we walked past. Another beautiful cathedral.

Peter & Paul Cathedral

All the touring and eating inevitably leads to napping and today, it also meant packing since our 14 hour multi-flight trip home is tomorrow. For those few of you who don't follow the Krakow weather report, it's been unseasonably cold here--just a couple of rainy days, but chilly. We are not really looking forward to 90 degrees when we get back. 

Peter, Paul, & Mary's Organ

Since we had a large lunch, we spent the last evening just sitting on the square drinking beer and eating jurek. Jurek isn't really how you spell it but close enough. It's a traditional Polish rye soup with sausage, potatoes, and pieces of hard-boiled eggs. One of those dishes that varies from region to region and everyone's mother makes it best. This version was superb.

The highlight of the day was that I finally saw the trumpeter who comes out small windows (north, south, east, west) in St. Mary's Basilica every hour after the clock strikes. 24 hous a day, volunteers from the Fire Department perform a trumpet solo which stops in the middle to commemorate the guy who was shot in the neck at that moment in the song. The event happened around the year 1200 when the original trumpeter was warning everyone that the Turks were invading.  I have looked for the trumpeter for days and never spotted him until today and have been understandably bitter towards him--now I've seen him twice. At each window, the trumpeter sticks his arm out and waves but those windows are really high up.

The square has entertainment in every corner every night. Tonight, since we have too many zloty coins, we even tipped the roving gypsy violinist. And with that magnaimous gesture, we bid goodbye to Krakow.

The Fountain on the Square

Market Square at Night

Auschwitz/Birkenau

I went to Auschwitz by public bus back in 2000 but I'm not sure whether there were tours then or maybe there were summer tours and I went in the fall. But I was given a map and explored Auschwitz on my own. Now, there are many guided tours in several different languages and you visit both camps--Birkenau is 3 kilometers from Auschwitz. The tour took a total of 7 hours. There are no words to describe the experience so here's just a couple of pictures.

Auschwitz

Birkenau

Pope wuz here

Just in case you didn't know, Pope John Paul II was born in a village about an hour outside of Krakow and lived in Krakow for about 13 years. He visited often and everywhere he set foot is now a chapel dedicated to him. The house where he lived has a gigantic poster of him on the outside, so you can't miss it. Every church has a statue of him. I have bugged Lola every day to buy a refrigerator magnet with his picture, but she continues to refuse.

Today, we walked to the Wawel Castle. We forgot it is Saturday so what Polish people aren't here already have descended on the city in droves. The Castle was packed but the grounds are beautiful and they don't charge admission to the cathedral. We also saw the famous dragon statue. Legend has it that it lived in the area but King Crack (or something like that)

killed it--thus, Cracow.

Castle Wall

Castle grounds

Castle

Then we walked along the river, a very long walk, to the Jewish section, forgetting again that it is Saturday, Shabbat, so the famous cemetery was locked. It was the hottest day we had so far so we were exhausted and thirsty by the time we had lunch at the Polish Italian restaurant. Lola had the best pesto farfalle ever (even better than hers) and I had carbonara potpie. I had to ask the waitress whether she delivered the correct dish and she assured me the pasta was under the potpie crust--and it was. There was no crust on the bottom.  We somehow managed to get to our lunch at lunchtime instead of our usual 3:00 so we rewarded ourselves with ice cream cones. We eat all meals outside and at most restaurants, the WC is down the stairs underground. At the Italian restaurant, you walked down a long staircase and passed through a hooka bar. The women's bathroom was indicated by a picture of a woman in a veil. It was your Polish-Italian-Muslim bar.

After naptime, we went on a shopping spree at the Cloth Market. I buy a pair of sheep skin slippers every time I come--the price is up to $11 from the original price of $5 when I first came 10 years ago. They would last forever but my dogs tend to eat them.

We ended the day meeting up with the remaining Trapdoor folks for a beer. Lola is now a confirmed beer drinker, although she does prefer it with a flavoring, usually raspberry. Glasses with syrupy beer come with a straw so everyone can know you're a sissy.

Dinner

The Salt Herein

Sometimes, senility is a good thing. I totally forgot that the tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mine begins with a walk down 368 steps. It's a round staircase, 7 steps to a landing. That gets you to level 1. When you finally walk the grand total of 800 steps, you are at level 3, 135 meters underground. In a two hour tour, you see approximately 1 per cent of the total mine. The walkways in the entire mine total about the distance from Krakow to Warsaw. The mine was the longest continuously operating mine in the world; it shut down production in 1996.

The interesting thing about the mine, besides learning about mining is seeing all the salt sculptures made by miners. There is a salt statue of Goethe, Copernicus, and Pope John Paul II, who all visited the mine and also sculptures of

 the 7 dwarfs, who probably didn't. There's a large cathedral on level 3 that is sometimes used for weddings and official events but since there's around 7000 visitors a day, it's rarely rented out.  The cathedral has sculptures of Biblical events, including a copy of Da Vinci's Last Supper. From the earliest times of the mine (1300s) miners made sculptures of salt in their spare time. Eventually, the truly talented miners were employed as sculptors full-time. Many of the ancient sculptures have disintegrated so most of what we see today were made after 1800.

Some King Dude

Goethe

Last Supper

Lola, Back to the Salt Mine

Hey, she volunteered to learn how to raise a pillar of salt from the level below.  They made her work only a few hours so don't feel sorry for her.

After walking down to the bottom of the mine, you take an elevator that gets you to the top in 40 seconds. Nine people get into each of the two chambers so it's a little slow-going, especially since it was having mechanical problems that had to be fixed. When we got back to the city, we had our typical 3:00 lunch. It seems we don't manage to get lunch until around then every day, making the midafternoon snack difficult to fit in. Luckily, there's a gourmet chocolate shop on every corner. The chocolate shops seem to be the only stores in this touristy town that don't offer English translations. Some clerks get perturbed with us when we ask "What's in this one? What's in that one?" They're all good so now we just point and buy.

We had chicken livers and chocolate cake for dinner with wine followed by more wine when we met up with the Trapdoor folks on the square where some American band was singing the blues (American, not Polish blues). Very entertaining.

Rainy Day Here

It was rainy this morning so we did our laundry in our apartmenthotel. Of course, that means no dryer so the drying rack is now taking up half the tiny apartment. We are just hoping the laundry dries so we have clothes to wear home, 4 days from now. There were few people out in the rain; the few who were joined us at the new underground museum in the Cloth Market. Between 2005 and 2010, they excavated part of the sqaure and discovered all the years of layers which you can see in the museum. As we heard a tour guide say, everyone dumped their garbage on the square so every so often, they just covered the old square with new concrete.  When they excavated, they found tools, jewelry and other items which authenticate the dates of each of the layers. The museum is ultra-modern and interactive.

We tried to get into St. Mary's Basilica several times and finally got in this afternoon. You have to pay extra to take pictures which we didn't do in the main cathedral because it is so huge, you can't take a picture that would do it justice. We're hoping to buy a professional picture, like on a postcard. However, in the smaller chapel, St. Barbara's, we were allowed to take pictures of the famous altar.

St. Barbara's

After lunch, the weather cleared and we walked to a larger farmer's market which had fresh fruit and vegetables as well as some house shoes Lola liked. Then we went on our Amber Alert, visiting several shops including Amber World and

Lola's Amber

The stores have the expensive amber although they give certificates authenticating it but we finally opted for the cheap stuff at the outdoor market that has been set up on the square.

We had the all-pierogi dinner at a hole-in-the-wall pierogi restaurant with 5 tables. 12 pierogis, choose your own combination, cost $6. We each chose 4 meat, 4 vegetable, and 4 cherry pierogis. 

We took a long walk around the planty (a green park area that surrounds the main square) after that and then somehow ended up at a wine bar. 

The only other accomplishment of the day was fulfilling our desire to take pictures of buildings made of people, like this one:

Dude with Bird on Head

Picture Us Here in Krakow

We took the bus from Zakopane to Krakow today; only around 2 hours. There were loads of cars going to Zakopane but not many leaving. It's still holiday season so many families spend their vacation in Zakopane. Tina told us a story about her 80 year old neighbors who, during Communist times, would pack up food to take to Zakopane since there were no restaurants there. Now, they just have to take their own potatoes, because, as everyone knows, Krakow potatoes are just better than those in Zakopane.

We have a tiny apartment on the square but when we got here, I had to throw the American-style fit. I had emailed them to give us ground floor because we are old; she took us to a flight of stairs and, noticing my despair, said "It's floor 1." I said that's fine but our suitcases are very heavy, so this tiny girl just picked mine up and carried it. Lola and I carried hers. The girl said when we leave, someone will carry our bags for us.

We went to the square for lunch; it is jam-packed with lots of booths that aren't usually there and various performers. We walked through the Cloth Market (UNESCO World Heritage site) but didn't do any serious shopping...yet. We're scoping out the best amber stores.

Cloth Hall

After lunch was nap time; then we went shopping for breakfast food since we're in an apartment and don't have free breakfast. We met up with Tina for dinner at an Indian Restaurant where "medium" heat means "very hot" in American.  Then, she was just going to show us one street but ended up walking us all over Old Towne. There is a church on every corner, most of them are magnificent.

St. Peter, Paul, and Mary Church (well, maybe not Mary)

Basilica of Mary and the fountain on Krakow Square

We even made it to see two sides of the castle.

Besides the sites, we have located the best chocolate store, the best amber jewelry store, the best pierogi restuarant, and the best potato pancakes in town. So, even though we got a late start, it was a productive day.

Wawel Castle

Lola Brings Good Weather Here

Lola has singlehandedly stopped the monsoon season in both Prague and Zakopane. I know I am afraid of her wrath but I didn't know Mother Nature is, too. We've been out in two 4 second sprinkle events, but that's it.

Yesterday was the day we planned to go to Morskie Oko, the eye of the sea, which requires getting up to the top of a gigantic mountain in one of two ways. We opted for the horse and wagon transportation while Tina decided to walk the mountain. I couldn't climb it 10 years ago when I was here; now I am 5 years older so it was out of the question. There is a paved road so it's not a strenuous climb, more of a steady incline for about 3 hours. We ran into Tina as we were waiting for a horse and wagon. The 10,000 people who are vacationing here were also standing in the line and each wagon can hold only 15 people. In a little over an hour, we finally got on and by coincidence, when we got to the top, Tina was waiting to take our pictures as we got out.  From the horse drop-off, it's a 1 K walk, straight uphill. It's difficult because it's such a high altitude; I would tell you how high but I don't understand meters. We found out this is the last month for the horses and wagons--people were complaining about the animal cruelty. We don't know whether they'll start running buses to pollute the forest.

Lola at the mountain top

Morski Oko

How you get ther

Today we spent the day shopping on the main street and enjoying our spa at the hotel. They have a jacuzzi, huge swimming pool and 3 saunas--dry, steam, and infrared. We didn't stay long in the infrared because we were convinced alien forces were invading our bodies.

We went to dinner and then to a concert of Flamenco Fusion music at the theater where we saw the Trapdoor play. Incredible. We got in early for us--the last two nights we came back around 1:30 a.m. and are convinced that on the staff shift, the clerk tells the new person "the weird old American women will come back at 2." They don't have to ask our room number--it's the only key left. Our late nights are the result of seeing the great Trapdoor play one night and babysitting one of the actor's kids the next. The one year old is a high-quality baby but he didn't feel the same about us.

We're off to Krakow after breakfast tomorrow. I can only hope the buffet is serving chocolate croissants because when they don't, Lola gets very angry and that might cause rain.