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We had a very comfortable fast train ride from Warsaw arriving in Kraków just after midday. In time to drop our bags off at our apartment and set off to explore. The apartment is only about 300 metres from the train station and just outside the Old Town, so that is very convenient. Tatiana, our host, had done a great little video of how to find, and get in to, the building so we knew exactly what it looked like when we arrived.
The main square is huge, 200m by 200m as as such is the largest medieval town square in Europe. It’s perimeter is bounded by many cafes, and is bisected by, the Cloth Hall, once the centre of Kraków‘s medieval clothing trade. Now it houses the permanent market.
While exploring the streets and finding our way to one of the main sights, Wawel Castle, we came across an English speaking free walking tour so we tagged on to the end of that, just in time to hear all about the Hill and its Castle. It was the seat of Polish kings for over 500 years. I don’t have a very good photo of it as it was
hard to get far enough back and shadows were falling. Legend has it that the hill and Castle are guarded by a dragon. We didn’t visit him but did look down on his den.
After that we headed down to Kazimierz, which was the Jewish Quarter, in order to catch the next walking tour on the Jews of Kraków, which began at 5pm. What we didn’t realise was that it went for two and half hours. However it was extremely interesting and depressing at the same time. We walked a lot but the excellent guide stopped at various stops to talk to us while we had a seat somewhere. Like Warsaw, the Jews were forceably moved into a ghetto over the river, because the Nazis, who ensconced in Wawel Castle, didn’t want them in the suburb next door.
We crossed a very modern bridge over the Vistula River to get to the Podgorze where the ghetto was set up. On the bridge‘s supporting wires were sculptures of acrobats and high wire artists performing. They moved as the wind caught them making them look very lifelike.
Back to the ghetto. A very, what I thought was decorative, brick
wall was built to imprison 16,000 Jews, however, as I learned the next day at Schindler’s Factory Museum, the wall had a scalloped top to resemble tombstones!! Foretelling what was going happen to the inhabitants. I won’t go into it any more than that. You all know the history, suffice to say that in the Ghetto Heroes‘ Square, there are a number of bronze chairs symbolising Jews who perished. Two of them are facing Schindler’s Factory for those who were saved by him.
The tour finished at 7.30 outside the factory so we knew exactly where to go the next day. Next door in the same building is the Modern Art Gallery. Also for the next day.
We nearly got home on the tram except Ian had a disagreement with the ticket machine which wouldn’t accept one his 5 zloty coins - you had to have the exact change - so we jumped off halfway. On the next tram we watched another woman have the same problem. She then used her credit card PayWave so Ian followed suit. Trouble was, by the time we got our tickets we missed our stop, carried on to the next one and
had to walk home from there. Such are the joys of travelling!
Exhaustion set in as we got our provisions at the large supermarket by the train station and I am ashamed to admit that we had Chinese at the food court for dinner! Got ‘home’ at 9pm.
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