Rain, rain, go away. Dreary and dull – and a little wet – that is how this day has dawned. We are so glad we decided to see Auschwitz-Birkenau yesterday. Our timing has worked out. Not necessarily for today however. So, we decide to take the Hop on Hop off bus around Cracow and use it as our rainy day transportation. It’s $20 each for a 2 day pass – which isn’t so cheap since you can easily walk everywhere in this town – but when it is pouring rain – the HoHo sounds like the deal for us! Plus – we can pick it up right past the Galleria – a 5 minute walk from the apartment.
We plan to ride the bus for one whole circuit to catch the sites, then get off at the Barbican and St. Florian gate to walk the Royal Way. Depending on the rain, we’ll either walk back to the apartment or rejoin the bus somewhere further down the line. Our timing works out – we have 4 minutes to spare are lucky enough to catch the 9:30 bus to begin our Cracow circuit. There is a good narration onboard that points out the main sites. We go to Kazimierz, past the Jewish Synogague, then on up to Wawel Hill and the castle and fortifications. Then we skirt old town proper, along the Planty, a beautiful park that encircles the old town, built/planted where the original moat and town walls were located. We stop at the train station, then at the Barbican (which is where we’ll be getting off on our 2nd round). Then a couple other stops on the side of the old town, with access to the main square and of course Wawel Hill again. The bus then veers off to the Mound – which I’m still pretty unclear about what it really is besides some “mound” that was manmade with dirt from I don’t know where. Sigh. What can I say? There is a fantastic view point over the town from here – unfortunately not in the pouring rain – so no sense getting out here that is for certain.
We head back down into town – through Kazimierz again and then over to Podgorze. A stop at the Ghetto Heroes Square – where there is a fabulous display of empty chairs, designed to signify A) the selection area on the square when it was the ghetto, it was here that the all the belongings and furniture were thrown into heaps and piles by the Nazis, or B) the empty chairs of the Jews that were no longer there. Take your pick, both explanations are completely suitable. I really want to see this up close and in person, but not today in the rain.
Next stop, Schindler’s Factory which is packed. Holy cow – we are so lucky we did this yesterday – as it was not crowded at all when we toured. The final stop is back at the Galaxy Hotel where we started our journey. So we’ve made the whole circuit in an hour and a half. As we leave the Galaxy to go back into town – we notice we are completely alone on the bus! Too funny – where did the other people go? We knew some got out at Schlinder’s but not all. Oh well – it’s now a private bus tour.
As such, the driver turns off the narration and just points things out to us. He speaks only a little bit of English, but enough to show us the main sites and a little commentary. We hop off at the Barbican, again counting our luck as it has stopped raining and we might be able to make our walk through the old town.
We meander down the Royal Way, taking pictures of the Barbican and St. Florian gate.
Then we stop for a bathroom break at McDonalds (of course), but also to see what Rick Steves calls the Mc Vault – it is a vault that was excavated beneath the McDonalds. You can grab your Big Mac and eat down there in old Cracow glory. Its really sort of cool.
Back out on Florianska street, we snap pictures of the crowded Royal Way all the way down in to Rynek Glowny, the Main Square. It is a magnificent square – huge with cafes lining the outskirts, the mammoth Cloth Hall (the old market place, currently a souvenir market place) in the middle and the Basilica of The Virgin Mary towering above it all. There is also the old City hall and the small, round Holy St. Wojciech church, one of the oldest in Cracow. There is a status of Adam Mickiewicz, the celebrated poet – as well as this funky monstrous head statue on the side of City Hall.
Sunny enjoys the miniature models of the castles as we enjoy walking around and people watching.
We divert long enough to walk into E Wedel’s chocolate shop (the original shop is in Warsaw, we missed it because it was too early on Sunday morning). We’ve bought some of their chocolate at the grocery store – and it sure was better priced there. Although I do take pictures of the little chocolate flowers they have on display – I’m not going to buy any – just looking!
It is time for lunch though. As we were walking down Florianska street (The Royal Way), we were hucked by a couple different restaurants – both with appealing lunch specials. We head back up the street, stopping to buy a couple obwarzanki (Cracow bagels) in the process (cheese and rye – and oh do they smell delicious!) – then onto Stodota 47 where we find the most appealing wooden, ski lodge looking cave to have our lunch. It is really quite cute inside.
The specials are so cheap it isn’t funny – 7zl for 7 pierogies – that’s 33cents each. I can’t decide between Bigos (hunters stew) and pierogies – so I opt for them both – this time trying the meat pierogies. Ed goes for the Zurek Staropolski - a traditional Polish sour rye soup. It's truly awesome and now he is on a mission to make it when we get home! For his main meal he has the grilled pork steak. It is all terribly yummy and totally cheap. I’m so stuffed, I take half the pierogies home for our dinner later tonight!
Back out on the street, it's not raining yet, so we push our luck and head down through the main square again, and onward toward Wawel Hill via the Royal Way (Grodzka Street). We pass the Church of St. Peter and Paul, with its 12 apostles lining the entrance gate,
then on to the towering Wawel Hill. This castle was home to the first Polish monarchs in the 10th century, and has played an important part in Polish history throughout the years. Reconstructed, expanded upon, burned to the ground and then left to deteriorate - long term reconstruction and archeological preservation was slowly begun after the war and the structure in place has been brought back to its original (or even better than original) splendor.
Because of the weather, and the thousands of school age children descending and ascending the long ramp up to the castle, we satisfy ourselves with pictures of the exterior of the castle as we walk along the perimeter to the HOHO bus stop. Back on the bus, we make the now familiar circuit back to the Galaxy hotel. Once again passing the Ghetto Heroes square - this time with a little bit better photo results.
Drying off and warming up once in the apartment, we decide to go out for dinner this evening. The weather is clearing up a bit and the forecast for tomorrow is for heavy rains and strong winds. So we will cook in tomorrow with our spoils from the restaurant today and the sausages and sauerkraut from the grocery store.
Tonight we choose Zazie, a French Bistro. Polish food is great - but we are ready for a change. And what a lovely change it is. This small little restaurant is adorable - open area upstairs (where they seat all the young Poles so you can see the crowd through the windows on the street) and a lovely cave-like basement area where we are seated by the old brickwork walls. Our waitress is adorable - friendly and chatty and obviously brand spanking new - at the end of dinner we find out this is her first night on the job. So cute.
The food is just as fantastic as the service. I start with goat cheese and onion marmalade baked in phyllo dough and served with pears and hazelnut salad (to die for!), Ed starts with onion soup (which will actually be my main) that is served with excellent crusty bread, topped with melted cheese. Instead of the bread and cheese in the soup - you use the bread slices as dipping slices. Wonderful.
Ed chooses the mussels as his main and is as pleased as I am with my soup.
We've not had a bad meal yet. We'll roll ourselves onto the plane to get home!
No comments:
Post a Comment