October 20 and 21, 2017 Final Day of the cruise, Trip days
19 and 20 Athens to Munich to Krakow
We had breakfast on the boat and then departed about 8:30.
Took a cab back to the hotel. Our friends checked in and we checked our bags, we
then separated as they went on a food tour (I was not interested in eating
anymore) and we went to a tour of the National (formerly Royal) Gardens behind
the Parliament. Nice peaceful area in the middle of Athens’ bustle. We then
walked to the National Historical Museum. We caught a free day. The museum is
housed at Plateia Kolokotroni in the former Parliament building on the steps of
which Prime Minister Theodoros Deligiannis was assassinated in 1936 leading to
a restoration of the monarchy and the installation of a right-wing military
government. However, that government resisted the demands of the Italians for free
passage of its troops and defeated them in a short war in 1940. However, the
next year the Greeks were overwhelmed by the Germans and experienced a
difficult occupation.
The museum’s exhibits are heavily focused on the War of
Independence. It had an entire wind devoted to the British poet Byron who came
to Greece to fight for the Christian Greeks against the Muslim Turks. He was
killed in 1824 as part of a siege. There was an extensive collection of Greek royalty
and heroes’ portraits including one of Laskarina Bouboulina. She was the only
one whose name was not under the portrait. It was explained to me that as the
only woman in the gallery and given her fame in Greece, it was not necessary to
list her name. There was also a model of the ship she financed for the War.
We then walked to the Jewish Museum. The building was
nondescript on the outside and locked. We were admitted through an intercom
system. Its exhibits traced the history of the Jewish community in Greece back
to the 3rd century BC using a collection documents, religious
artifacts, costumes and folk art. The Greeks largely participated in the Nazi
roundup and deportation of the Jewish community and only about 10% survived
WWII. There was a small reconstruction of a synagogue as well as information on
the synagogues throughout Greece.
While there we met the tall man from Montana from the
cruise. He greeted me, “so another member of the tribe?” We then walked back to
the hotel and picked up our luggage which we dragged a few blocks to the
airport bus stop at Plateia Syntagmatos. The bus ride was uneventful, but it
provided a daylight view of the non-tourist part of Athens. It did not look
bad.
We got to the airport early and went to an airport lounge.
It was the worst lounge I have ever visited. The food was limited and mediocre.
there were few electrical outlets, and some were broken, and the Internet
service was weak.
I did not pay for bags on line, so Lufthansa charged us an
excessive amount for the two checked bags. The flight took off on time and was
uneventful until we landed in Munich. Then we were told that our connecting and
the last flight to Krakow had been canceled. We learned that it was due to a
heavy fog in Krakow. Lufthansa customer service booked us into a near airport
hotel, arranged for transportation, gave us meal vouchers and rebooked us on an
early afternoon flight to Krakow. That wasted a lot of time since we were too
far from Munich to go into town, but the earlier flights were connections and
would not have gotten us into Krakow much earlier. It was a big contrast to
what a US domestic airline would do in a similar situation which would be to
say, sorry we are not responsible for weather delays and send us on our way.
The hotel was equivalent to a Marriott Courtyard. Had a buffet dinner, with no
dessert, but beer was included with the voucher.
The breakfast was very good. I spent most of the morning on
the hotel computer printing out the train tickets to Auschwitz and subsequent
train trips. It was hard to get to English on the computer and the keyboard
layout was different. We went out to the airport early since there was no mid-day
transportation to the airport. The airport lounge was in a different terminal
that we were able to walk to easily. The lounge was quiet, good food and drink
and effective Internet. However, getting to our gate was a trial and we almost
missed our flight. We were told that there was a bus to our terminal. We went
to the waiting area for the bus indicated
by the signs. The door was locked, but when the bus came passengers disembarked
form the bus, entered the waiting area and the door quickly shut so we missed
the bus. We go on the next bus and as it traveled to several stops we realized
that we were locked into our compartment in the bus. In hindsight I think that was because the bus
was passing through secured and unsecured areas of the airport but as we were on
it I was wondering if we would be able to get out. When we finally were able to
get out of the bus we had a long walk through the terminal past lots of shops
and after we got to the gate we had to take a bus to the plane. Just made it.
We arrived in Krakow about 3:30. Poland does not use the euro,
so I had to change currency. I took out too much local currency. I thought that the Airbnb had arranged airport
transportation, but when none materialized we took an unlicensed taxi to the Airbnb.
I realized that he was unlicensed both when he had me sit in the front seat and
when he could not find the place until I gave him my GPS. (it was hard to find,
and it was on a 1 block street.)
As promised, we were met at the door by a friend of the
Airbnb’s owner/manager. He was on roller blades and helped carry the luggage up
to the third floor on them. The apartment was good. It had a separate, spacious
bedroom, a loft and separate living and kitchen areas. There were even
breakfast foods for us in the refrigerator.
We left the apartment seeking dinner and intending to walk
to the old Main Square. Instead I made a wrong turn and we were walking away
from where we wanted to go. We visited the Krakow Opera House, a handsome and
modern building. There was a performance that night, but it was sold out. After
realizing my mistake, we took a tram back to the central area. It skirted the
main square and we got off at Sierra Street. There were lots of upscale shops
and restaurants there. We attempted to eat at one, but it is Saturday night and
we did not have reservations. We walked up to and around the Main Market Square,
Rynek
Glówny. It is a very large open space that is the site of the Cloth
Hall, a Renaissance-era trading outpost, and St. Mary’s Basilica, a
14th-century Gothic church. We stopped in at the Hard Rock cafe and
purchased a tee shirt for my friend who collects such shirts.
We ate at a local restaurant on Florianska Street, a main
shopping street. I had perogies. They were very filling.
We walked back to the apartment through an underpass and
through a small park. Tired and went
right to sleep.
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| Former Greek Parliament Hall |
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| Cloth Hall, Main Market, Krakow |
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| Jewish Museum, Athens |
