I woke to sunshine pouring into my room at 4:30 AM. What a beautiful sight, now it is beginning to get foggy, the same thing happened yesterday, but the fog lifted eventually and the sun had full reign of the sky. I hope it becomes over cast, I will be outside many hours today and I do not have any sun screen! Oooops, something I had not thought about.
There is a change of plans because of a slight misunderstanding about my ticket and reservation. So I will visit Auschwitz tomorrow. Later this afternoon I will go back to the Town Square and join a walking group tour. Yesterday my tour was on a golf cart.
I left the hotel about 12:30 because I had to buy a ticket for the tour beginning at 2. I had no idea where the ticket office was. I am glad it left early, I asked for directions and people had me running in the opposite direction of the ticket office. The tour guide from yesterday took me to the correct street and pointed out the building.
I arrived at the ticket office about 1:15, purchased my ticket and decided to walk around and enjoy the sights, people and souvenir stands. As I was enjoying the sights I began to turn bright red, I was getting sunburn. The sun was hot and there was not a cloud in the sky. Knowing I would be outside for the rest of the day, I found a pharmacy and purchased sunscreen. I have no idea what this stuff costs, but here it was $20.
I am covered with sunscreen and ready to tour the city by foot. I was the first of our group to show up and with fifty or sixty other people gathered where we were to meet I asked around if anyone was there for the same tour. I met a woman from Ukraine and talked to her a bit. Then I continued my search for the group. I found them, there were three of us, and my comrades were husband and wife from England. The small group was very comfortable we could hear the guide easily. I really enjoyed making new friends and after the tour we stopped and had a fruit drink and rested our poor tired feet. Ok, my spirit feels like 20 but my body tells me differently.
I truly enjoyed our walking tour. We began at the Main Trade Hall and made our way down Grodzka Street leading to the zamek which is the Polish translation for castle.
It is better known as Wawel Hill, the Royal Castle, Treasury and the Cathedral. We discovered numerous churches along the way. Our first stop and history lesson was at All Saints square where we visited St Francis church and St Domican Church. Our guide is very knowledgeable about Poland’s history and had many great story and legends to share with us. Many of Krakow’s historical buildings are original. Krakow was saved from most of the destruction of WWI and WWII. It was occupied, but by some strange phenomenon never destroyed. They were bombed with two bombs during WWII, the one bomb detonated but did not destroy a building, and the second bomb is buried and undetonated under the Royal Castle.
The history is very rich and as you can imagine some of the buildings are very old, many are of gothic architect; the Italian architect is unbelievable. Numerous buildings date as early as the 11th century. I will not bore you with all the dates, but Krakow is a very beautiful and old city.
As we continue our journey towards the castle, we pass many churches, the one that I like is St Paul and Peter’s church. The twelve apostles guard the door to the church, the statutes are life sized. We passed several homes of cardinals and bishops. They would mark there place of residence with a symbol of a hat. The sculptures were beautiful, but I got the impression it was saying ‘look, I live here’.
We arrived at the castle and heard many historical stories of the buildings and reigns of kings and their families. The castle was built in the 10th century and the treasury was built in 1502. Outside the castle is a statue of General Kascicihszko.
The guide told us that he was friends with President Washington and Ben Franklin. I will include a photo of the General. It was a very interesting story. He also told the English couple that he was the first general to beat England, they laughed. Leaving Wawel Hill we followed a beautiful park route which used to be the moat for the castle and the city boundary. We passed a beautiful building that served as residence for the SS during the war. We visited the oldest university in Europe and our next visit was another St Francis church.
There is a beautiful stained glass window over the entrance of the church. I will include it with the story. At first glance, it appears it may be Moses. It is told that the artist used his uncle’s face who was the town’s beggar at that time. Our tour brought us back to the Main Trade Center and beyond. We visited St. Mary’s and heard the story about the bugler. The trumpet has played every hour since the 16th century. I am including a video of the sound, (Please forgive me for the orientation of the picture.) Our last stop was the original main gate to the old city. It is beautiful. It is hard to imagine this city is so old; America is only 400 years young.
Needless to say, it was a wonderful tour filled with facts and information. I took brief notes for my photos and to remind me of what I saw. I am curious and want to research the history of Krakow a little more.
Tomorrow I will be visiting Auschwitz.
You have been busy. The trumpets sound wonderful.
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