Note: My camera decided it didn't like my lens anymore sometime during/after the geocaching adventure. I did my best to manauly correct this while taking photos, but I could only do so much.
To Poland and beyond! Or...just to Poland, but whatever. We went to Kraków!
And we got up VERY early to do so.
A sunlight sandwich. The clouds are the bread.
Wake up!
I think we might be flying over cotton candy.
It was foggy when we landed.
The little succulents in our apartment. We stayed just outside of old town Kraków.
We're going off to explore!
So Old Town Kraków used to have a moat around it. It eventually dried up or the water was diverted or something. Anyway, Modern Kraków made where the moat originally was a green space. There's a ring of green space/park around what is the old town. I think that's really cool.
Apparently liquor stores are called Alkoholes. This amused Dan.
Art!
Dan is pleased with his pretzel bagel like thing.
Look at the pretty garden!
I don't know whose garden this is, I saw it through a gateway when we were walking down the street.
This is Saint Andrew's Church (Andrzeja). Andrzeja was built in the late 11th century AD. It is one of the rare remaining Fortress Churches of Europe. You could pray to God and defend yourself here.
Andrzeja from the gardens of the church next door.
A model of the two side by side churches.
I believe this is predominantly here for the visually impaired, but I thought it was neat nonetheless.
This is the Church of Saints Peter and Paul (Piotra i Pawła). It was built sometime around 1600. It may be the first Baroque style building in what is modern Poland.
I was mostly amused by the fact that the front is marble/stone and the rest of the building exterior is brick. It made me think of houses in suburbia that have brick fronts to look expensive but then have siding on the rest of the exterior because it's cheaper.
Let's go inside.
Pretty ceiling details.
Organ pipes, and cherubs, and chandeliers, Oh my!
This pulpit is actually really pretty and I imagine a lot of craftsmanship went into it.
SUPER FANCY burial monument for....that guy in the middle.
We were able to wander into the crypt. Most of it looked like this with an occasional tomb.
Doorways in doorways in doorways in doorways!
Leaving Piotra i Pawła we continued to wander around old town.
It's a bookstore with books carved into the wall. They take their books very seriously.
Hey there's a fortress or something over there! Let's investigate.
(With my investigating feet. - skip to 22:00)
Wawel is a fortified architectural complex (it is not a fortress nor is it a castle).
The oldest parts date back to 970 AD.
A Map!
Some of the view from the fortified architectural complex. So many rooks!
More views. The Wisła River.
Directly below us is the dragon's den. The dragon, or smok wawelski, used to terrorize the local villages, eating their sheep and virgins. This reign of terror ended when Krakus, a Polish prince, slay the dragon and then built his fortress on top of the dragon's lair, founding Kraków.
We found some Fall around the outside of the fortified architectural complex.
I think this is the Sandomierz Tower. I did not get to climb it.
This is the Wawel Cathedral. The original parts were built in the 11th century.
Like most things in Europe, it was modified over the centuries.
Artsy photo!
Dragon details on the Cathedral. See the gargoyle/downspouts?
Passageway between the larger courtyard and the Wawel Castle.
The courtyard of the Wawel Castle. The castle was rebuilt, after a fire, in the early 1500's in the Renaissance style, which was not really known much outside of Florence, Italy at the time.
We left the fortified architectural complex, finding a geocache along the way, to head to old town.
Here you can see the Town Hall Tower and the Cloth Hall.
This is Saint Mary's Basilica (Maryi). We tried three or four times over our trip to get tickets to see the Basilica and were never able to for one reason or another. Oh well.
Every hour, on the hour, a trumpet is heard from the left tower. It plays four times in succession to each of the cardinal directions. This is called the Henjał Mariacki. Originally it is thought to have signaled the city gates to open and close at the beginning and end of the market day. The current Henjał Mariacki ends abruptly as tribute to the sentry who saved the city from Mongol invasion in the 13th century. The sentry spotted the Mongols and signaled to the gates to close so the Mongols couldn't invade. The sentry was shot in the throat before he could finish the full Henjał Mariacki.
Another bronze model. This one of Maryi.
You can take a horse drawn carriage ride around the old town.
The Cloth Hall. It is sometimes called the world's oldest shopping mall. In the 1300's a roof was placed over the rows of merchant stalls to create the first incarnation of the Cloth Hall. It was rebuilt in the 1500's in the Renaissance style, much like the Wawel Castle.
Someone hasn't seen a lion before, but it's not as bad as some of the previous attempts we've seen.
This is a bronze model of the Town Hall, of which only the Tower remains. It was built at the end of the 13th century. The rest of the Town Hall was demolished in 1820 under the Austrian Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Yeah, you can look that up on your own. It looks long and complicated.
The tower is open and climbable!
These are military uniforms from the first World War.
Views of Kraków from the top of the tower:
There's the Wawel fortified architectural complex!
Can you tell I'm amused by "fortified architectural complex"?
There's Maryi.
The mechanisms of the bell which....I don't think works anymore.
Steep narrow stairs going up are not so bad. They are a little harrowing going back down.
A pretty stained glass window.
There wasn't a sign, but I'm guessing these are replicas of what Cracovians (people from Kraków) wore in the 1500's.
Having climbed the tower, we continued to wander a bit.
A wall of art! It was mostly generic, which was unfortunate.
Dan found a model of old Kraków. The Wawel fortified architectural complex is closest to us and we are currently by the little nub at the back.
This is St. Florian's (Floriańska) gate, the northernish gate to Kraków.
And this is my token photo to prove I was on this adventure.
We wandered back to the main market and went to a restaurant on the outside of the Cloth Hall.
Ah Polish beer, Tyskie, in a liter mug. A good way to end the the adventures from today.
This concludes our adventure for today.
