On Tuesday, we arrived in Krakow by train and found our boutique hotel within the confines of Krakow’s Old Town. Krakow appears to be a very young city. The oldest university in Poland and one of the oldest in the world, The Jagiellonian University, is only a few blocks from the main square. There are lots of students and travelers here coursing through the city. Once again, we didn’t see many Americans wandering around the crowded streets.
The Old Town area of Krakow is incredibly beautiful, culturally rich and very well preserved. Krakow was not destroyed by the Nazi’s (as was Warsaw) because the Germans saw it as a “German” city that they wanted to enhance. After the German occupation, many Germans did move to Krakow. The city also suffered less damage than other cities as the Polish army left the city as the Germans invaded. The Russians, at the same time, had invaded Poland from the east. Poland was in quite disarray.
Old Town consists of nine squares with many shops, restaurants, a few hotels, churches and museums. Krakow is also known as the city of churches because of the large number of them. In one small square, we counted 4 churches. The main square in the heart of Old Town Krakow is a whopping 10-acres square! It is officially Europe’s largest market square and is surrounded by impeccable pastel buildings. It is truly the most picturesque square we have ever seen. The magnificent St. Mary’s Cathedral, located in the main square (a.k.a. Rynek Glowny), is Krakow’s most famous and most spectacular landmark. It has two very large brick turrets visible from all over the city. Every hour a trumpeter plays a short piece out of the tower windows. If he acknowledges your waving to him after he plays, it is supposed to be good luck (the trumpeters are local firemen). There is a large sculpture of a head in the main square. It was the same artist who did all of the sculptures we saw in Pompeii. (The Polish artist died 3 years ago and had always wanted some of his works on display in Pompeii which is reason for that temporary exhibition.) Krakow is also the home to Pope John Paul II.
We toured The Museum of Wartime-Krakow, which is commonly referred to as the Otto Shindler Museum. The museum lies on the outskirts of downtown Krakow in the Jewish Quarter. It used to be the factory of Otto Schindler who saved more than 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust by employing them in his enamel factory. While the museum disappointingly doesn’t really depict too much about Otto Shindler’s life, it does show the fate of the Jewish workforce. The sorrows of everyday living and family life in the Nazi occupied city after the Nazi invasion in 1939 where pictured with detailed comments throughout the museum. We saw an excellent short documentary interviewing some of Otto’s employees. It was another emotional 2 hours spent learning more details about this incredible tragedy that occurred so recently in history.
Wawel Castle is a gorgeous landmark which abuts Old Town. It majestically sits high on a hill next to the Vistula River; and, it is visible from almost anywhere in the city. It looks like a fairy tale castle and is the place from which the kings ruled ancient Krakow (back then it was called “Cracovia”). The Leonardo da Vinci “Lady with an Ermine” painting is on exhibit here and it is truly a magnificent masterpiece painted in 1490. The room we entered only contained this one mesmeric painting; and, the painting has been hailed has one of Leonardo’s most consummate achievements. It is truly a fabulous piece when you view it in-person.
We bought tickets to view the fabled “Dragon’s Den” at the castle. You enter at the castle grounds and then descend through a cave down the hill. We entered a long, very narrow, steep spiral stairs. As we kept going down and down the dizzying flights, suddenly Lesley went into a claustrophobia attack. Fortunately, nobody was behind us as she ran back up a number of flights to exit. David continued down the 135 steps. It was a tourist trap. Once down, the underground route is only 260 feet long. The rest of the cave, including the five underground ponds and narrow passages are too dangerous and off limit to visitors. A life-size sculpture (pictured below) of the “Krakow Dragon” is by the exit and spurts fire on demand.
