Days 21 and 22 - 9/25 and 9/25 - Krakow
Left Warsaw today to head south to Poland's most visited city of Krakow. We piled into the Opel that John rented and headed down the Polish highway.
Our first stop was in Czestochowa, which has a very famous monastery named Jasna Gora. Each year it attracts many tens of thousands of Catholic pilgrims to see the Black Madonna. The Black Madonna is a painting from the 8th century that is very sacred. It is inside a beautiful church and the monastery grounds are amazing.
We had some pretty heavy traffic between Czestochowa and Krakow. We learned quickly that having a map in Poland is a must since often roads are not marked well. We also learned that in traffic jams, people get out of their cars very quickly. In one stop, some guys played hackey sack while waiting for the traffic to move.
We arrived into Krakow and checked into our hotel, which was an old apartment building literally across the street from Krakow's main attraction and Old Town. Huge rooms that were probably bigger than our apartment in Chicago. We had a great dinner at the classic Old Town Krakow restaurant Wierzynek. The restaurant was built in the 1400's by a Polish king to house a party to celebrate the engagement of his daughter. The only people in jeans, I think we got special treatment since Margie's family speaks Polish. Lauren ordered pierogis for about the 18th time.
In the morning the next day, we headed to the Wawel Castle across the street from our aptly named Royal Hotel. Wawel housed the Polish kings during the time of Poland's monarchy when Krakow was the center of the country. The castle grounds are gorgeous with lots of open green space. We saw the main cathedral which housed the tombs of many famous Polish kings and bishops. Also took a tour of the castle's State Room and Private Royal Apartments. We learned that Poland was one of the world's first democracies (if there was no heir to a king when he died, a new one was chosen by nobles) and that the Wawel Castle has the world's biggest collection of Cordovan (a leather art that lined the walls of many of the rooms in Wawel).
After freshening up, we walked back to Old Town. The St. Marys Church was on of the most beautiful we've seen yet (up there with Prague's St. Vitus). It definitely was painted the best inside and we actually paid the 5 zloty to take pictures. We had made fun of the charge for pictures when we first got there. On the hour from St. Marys bell tower a bugler plays the hejnal (pronounced "hey now") signal, which is a tribute to warning calls made from the old town and is a symbol of Krakow.
We had dinner at the Chlopcy Jadlwo, a fun chain of Polish country restaurants. Had a family-style plate of food including ribs, sausage (obviously), pierogi, sauerkraut, potatoes, etc. We talked a lot about Margie's parents' experiences and unbelievable struggles during WW2 in Poland. Hard to imagine for us, but still great to hear to the stories.
We loved Krakow and could have spent another day here. Tomorrow we're off to the mountains and Zakopane.