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CRACOW
We arrived in Cracow last night. Our two flights were long but uneventful. We both sleep a little bit. When we got here all we wanted was a shower and a clean bed. We got both and slept soundly until 4 am at which time we woke up but went back to sleep.
Our tour this morning started at 10am, after breakfast. The Sheraton Cracow is a very nice hotel located just next to the Wawel, the castle. It is a relatively new hotel built on the top of the former brewery. The castle complex stands on the hill right at the side of the river. The city got its name from an ancient legend about a dragon that inhabited the hill. Crac is polish for dragon and “ow” means place of. So this is the place of the dragon. Dragons are all over and it is the symbol of cracow. The whole city is built on limestone. It is in a deep valley that runs along the river. The river Vistula, runs from one side of Poland to the other.
The weather is beautiful today. About 70 degrees and sunny. We walked up the hill to
the castle. There are three walls around the castle. The oldest is made of limestone. The gate into the interior can hold 40 horses across. In the interior of the courtyard are numerous buildings including the royal residence , and the royal church which is still in use. During Polands turbulent history, the palace was occupied by the Austrians, and the Germans. Much of the interior was severely damaged and it was pilfered constantly. It used to have exquisite Belgian tapestries an many paintings by great artists, but all of these were confiscated by the Germans. Some have since been returned but some have been returned badly damaged. We stopped outside of the palace at a cafe and had a diet Pepsi before continuing on. I also stopped and bought some gingerbread which is a polish specialty as well as one of mine.
We came down out of the castle and entered the old city. No cars are allowed in the old city. This makes it very nice to walk in. The buildings are all painted in soft pastel shades and have beautiful wooden doors. Many of the buildings are part of the university. The university has 45,000 students.
We passed many churches. There are 120 churches in Cracow.
By this time Dennis was getting hungry, so we stopped for lunch at a cute little restaurant called Wiesel which means bridal party. We had pierogi and potato pancakes with sour cream and smoked salmon. The food was quite good and very reasonable. We walked across the square which is the largest medieval square in all of Europe. There is a tiny church right in the middle of the square. We went to the cloth hall where they used to sell cloth but now sell all sorts of souvenirs. There is an archeological museum underneath the Cloth Hall. Across from the Cloth Hall is St. Mary’s Church which is Gothic style built in the 13-15th century. The interior was very colorful. The ceiling was painted blue with stars. The altarpiece was huge. It is covered with figures showing the Virgin Mary surrounded by the apostles. Jesus is holding Mary's head. All of the faces were townspeople. This cost the town a fortune for the artist to make this altarpiece but when they saw it, they were ecstatic because they were represented there. We went outside just in time to
hear the bugler play his song. Every hour he rotates around the tower and plays a short melody and then waves from the window. He does this for 24 hours and then had 48 hours off.
Tomorrow we go outside of town to Auschwitz and Birkenau.
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