October 24, 2017 Krakow 3 and Night Train to Prague Day 23
of trip
Last day In Krakow, but we are not leaving on the overnight
train until 10:00 pm and since we cannot leave our luggage in the apartment, we
had to store it in lockers in the train station. So, following breakfast we
carted our luggage over to the train station and stuffed it into the largest
storage lockers we could find. That required lots of Polish coins which I obtained
only by purchasing some unneeded, but still eaten food.
Next problem was our night train tickets to Prague. I
purchased them in the US but could not print them. Instead we were instructed
to provide the address of the place we were staying in Krakow for delivery 3
days prior to the train departure. However, since our Airbnb there was an
apartment and the owners were nowhere to be seen, there was no one to accept
delivery from DHL. After several frantic phone calls, I found the location of a
DHL office just outside Krakow where our tickets were located. So, using some
of our surplus zloty we took a cab to get train tickets. That trip was a real
adventure since the cab driver did not speak fluent English and I was not sure
that he knew exactly how to get there. After several wrong turns we finally
found the small DHL office in a small strip mall. We finally got the tickets
and drove back without incident through Jagiellonian University to Wawel Hill
just on the outskirts of downtown.
This hilltop and its structures embodies a millennium of
Polish history and we were told that to the Poles it embodies the Polish nation
and is a symbol of national identity. Its great castle was the seat of Polish
kings for almost 500 years from the beginning of the Polish state. Even after
the capital was moved to Warsaw, the Cathedral remained the site of royal
coronations and burials.
It is now a museum which contains five separate sections,
each requiring a separate admission. We climbed the ramp and visited the Royal Cathedral
first. This is the third church on this site, the first dating to the 11th
century. The current Cathedral is a gothic structure with lots of chapels and crypts
that surround the basic structure. We entered through a massive iron door manned
by a guard dressed in medieval garb. Adjacent to the door were huge prehistoric
bones. Inside the cathedral there were lots of sarcophagi, tombstones and altarpieces.
I ascended the tower which had 70 steps and the Sigismund Bell. That was cast
in 1520. It is massive, 2m high and 2.5 m wide and weights 11 tons. It takes 8
men to ring it which happens only on important church holidays or state events.
Impressive views from the top. We also descended into the Crypt of St. Leonard,
which is the only remaining part of the 12th century cathedral, and
the Royal Crypts which contains, among many, the body of Tadeusz Kosciuszko,
who fought in the American Revolution, lead an unsuccessful revolt against the
Austrians and has a statute of himself on horseback outside the Castle complex.
The last chapel we saw was the Holy Cross Chapel that had 15h century frescoes
and a big red marble sarcophagus.
Next, we went to the Royal Palace. The Renaissance building
we toured was built in the 16th century. A palace occupied this site
as early as the 11th century. It is a three-story structure that
surrounds a large courtyard. The facility was repeatedly sacked and vandalized
by the Swedish and Prussian armies until the 19th century when it
was occupied by the Austrians who converted it into a military barracks and
hospital. Restoration commenced after WWI when Poland became an independent state
but was interrupted during WWII when the Nazis made it their headquarters. The State
Rooms are a never-ending chain of restored rooms and chambers that are crammed
with period furniture, paintings, tapestries and works of art. The Halls of
Senators and Deputies had impressive and ornate interiors. We skipped the Royal
Private Apartments and Crown Treasury.
The Wawel Cathedral Museum contained lots of treasury and religious
objects, but not a single crown. The Prussians made off with them and melted
them down. We went to the edge of the grounds and peered down at the Vistula
River and a fire spitting bronze dragon.
We descended the ramp at the bottom of which I negotiated
with a street artist for a picture. I caved on the final price when he pointed
out how little 10 zloty meant to me but meant a lot to him. We took a trolley into
Kazimierz to the Ethnographic Museum. It is housed in a building that was
originally constructed in the 14th century and previously served as
the Town Hall for Kazimierz. The exhibits showcased traditional Polish
villages, costumes, crafts and religious customs.
We attempted to go to a few restaurants in Kazimierz, but
the wait times were too long, so we took the trolley back to old town and ate the
upscale restaurant that we were unable to get into the first night we were in
Krakow. The service was very impressive, and the food was very good, but the drawn-out
process left us short of time and we had to race to the train station. We made
it with 6 minutes to spare boarding our sleeper train after freeing our luggage
from the lockers.
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| Sigismund Bell |
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| Royal castle |
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| View from Wawel Hill |
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