Day 11: Second Day in Kraków

Today was our second day in Kraków. The weather held up from the weekend and it was a beautiful day!

Kraków was the capital of the Kingdom of Poland (1385-1569) until King Sigismund III Vasa moved the capital to Warsaw in 1596. Our goal for the day was to tour around Wawel Hill. Just south of the old town, Wawel is a very old fortified complex whose main features are the Wawel Cathedral and the Royal Castle. The oldest stone buildings at Wawel date back to the 10th century. The site is especially important to Poles, as the crypts beneath the cathedral are the burial site of polish kings and prominent historical figures.

Our first stop was to climb up the top of one of the fortification towers (like the one you can see on the right in the previous picture). 

Next we climbed up one of the bell towers. This was a really cool way to see the inside construction, but the lack of people and rough nature of the directions had us second guessing whether we were where we were supposed to be!

Nevertheless, several steep stair cases and precarious walkways later we made it to the top!

After that exciting trip we toured the cathedral and crypts (no pictures allowed :( ).

Our next stop was the castle square! We're planning to tour the inside of the castle in the upcoming days but it was closed. We still got to see the courtyard which was very impressive.

The last stop on our Wawel tour was the Smocza Jama (Dragon' Den). There's a legend that a dragon once lived beneath Wawel hill and terrorized the town folk. To get down to the limestone cave, we take a long and increasingly cold/damp spiral stair case.

As we climbed down, Kuba caught a glimpse of the Wawel Dragon....

Or not!

The cave was really cool with lots of little holes and paths.

Outside, there's a large metal sculpture of the Dragon which breathes fire every few minutes.

We walked back to the Main Market Square along some of the old streets in Krakow.

And made it to the Collegium Maius (Great College), which is the oldest building of the Jagiellonian University, the first university in Poland. It is now famous as the university attended by Nicolaus Copernicus, in the 1490s.

We continued walking, through Plac Szczepański, which is surrounded by the Teatr Stary (the Old Theather, the oldest in Poland, not shown) and Palac Sztuki (the Fine Arts Society Building), shown below.

We then walked up Ulica Floriańska, which connects the Main Market Square and the Florian Gate, seen below. This street was part of the Royal Route, and polish rulers would ride along this street on the way to their coronation.

On a side note, we bought this book of fairy tales, and with lots of help from Kuba, Isabel is practicing reading in Polish!

We are a day behind in our blog, so this is actually the story from May 6th, and we will hopefully be posting again tonight, after our trip to the Wieliczka salt mines today!

xo

Day 10: First Day in Kraków

This morning we left for Kraków! Our train left from the main train station (Warszawa Centralna) which is right next to a new, big shopping center called Złote Tarasy (Golden Terraces) where we had breakfast. The whole mall is beneath a large wavy glass roof that looks as cool from the inside as it does from the street.

Following a series of rainy days in Warsaw, it was finally sunny and warm. The train ride took us through the beautiful Shire polish countryside with rolling hills and farmland.

After about 3 hours, we arrived in Kraków to find the weather as nice as we left it in Warsaw. Here we are in front of the main train station.

Behind us you can see the Planty Park that surrounds the old town. This used to be a moat but when the majority of old city fortifications were demolished at the beginning of the 19th century, it was filled in and turned into a park.

Isabel was very pleased to find a chain of vegetarian restaurants called Green Way which is where we ate our first dinner.

After dinner we walked towards the old town square, passing beside St. Mary's Basilica where, every hour, a bugler plays the Hejnał Mariacki. The exact origins of this tradition are not clear, but it is a popular tale that  during an invasion, a sentry on the tower sounded the alarm with a trumpet call but was cut-off by an arrow to the throat (hence why the song ends abruptly).

The main feature of the old town square is a large renaissance building called Sukiennice (Cloth Hall) in which travelling merchants from distant places would meet to trade their goods. Unlike Warsaw, most of Kraków avoided destruction during WWII, and as such the current architectural plan dates back to the 13th century with most of the historic buildings in their original form. In 1978, Kraków was added to the list of UNESCO world heritage sites.

Nowadays, the Cloth Hall is lined with shops selling local crafts. Most of the stalls have Baltic amber jewelry for sale, as well as wood carvings, cut glass, and other souvenirs.

Day 9: Warsaw

Today we met with our friend Dorota for lunch. We went to high school with Dorota, and she now goes to the University of Warsaw. It was really nice to meet up with her again after four years! We went to Zapiecek, which is a chain of restaurants offering traditional polish meals like borscht, pierogi, and hunter's stew. We then went up to the top of the Palace of Culture and Science located in the central part of Warsaw, to the west of the Old and New towns. Built in the 1950's as a "gift" from Stalin and the Soviet Union to the people of Poland, the building has a long and controversial history not only for its political connotations regarding Soviet domination, but also for its large and "arrogant" style. It is said that the 30th floor observation deck offers the best view of Warsaw, since it is the only place from which you can't see the building itself.

From the top we had a great panoramic view of Warsaw. In this picture you can see the Vistula river on the right hand side, and on this side of the river you can see the Old Town and Zamek Krolewski (the Royal Castle).

 In front of the Palace, we found this awesome crosswalk... piano keys!

We then met up with Kuba's aunt, uncle and grandma for a lovely dinner together before we leave for our next trip.

That evening we went to a multimedia show held in a park near our apartment. On the way there we picked up some snacks, and Kuba was very excited to find something he remembers eating during his summers here - essentially chocolate milk paste in a tube. The child in him was extremely pleased!

The show features fountains, lasers, and music! There were even short film sequences projected onto clouds of mist. We took this video during the light and water show. It was much more impressive live, but this gives you an idea of the experience!

We are nearly finished packing for Krakow... we will update once we arrive!

xo

Day 7 and 8: Day Trip to Gdańsk and Sopot

And we're back! Yesterday was a very long day for both of us as we had our first excursion out of the Warsaw area. Our day trip took us to Gdańsk and Sopot, on the beautiful Baltic sea. These two cities are part of a region called Trójmiasto (Tricity) which also includes the relatively new city of Gdynia.

The night of May 1st, after packing up our bags, we headed to the main train station in Warsaw (Warszawa Centralna). To save time, we would be traveling to and from the north by "economy" night train in little cabins with fold down beds for 6 people (Kuszetka). Here we see Isabel, all ready to take her first European train ride.

The three cities (Gdańsk, Sopot, Gdynia) are located right next to each other along the coast with Gdynia in the north, and Gdańsk in the south.The train there took us first to Sopot. The relatively small town is a popular summer time resort for Poles and international tourists. This funky architecture on the main drag is called the "crooked house".

The main street is called Bohaterów Monte Cassino Street (Heroes of Monte Cassino) and is lined with several shops, malls, and really cool statues.

This is the Pier in Sopot (Molo w Sopocie), the longest wooden pier in Europe (511.5m). Having just arrived in Sopot at 5:30am, it was much colder than we expected and all the stores were still closed. To pass the time we went out on the pier and took in the sights of the Baltic ocean. We're glad we got out so early because the early morning sun was beautiful, and the rest of the day was rather cloudy.

At the end of the pier we could see the stillness of the water and some men fishing right at the end. For some reason I didn't notice my gigantic finger in either of these pictures but despite my ineptitude, I think they get the point across.

Looking back you can see one of the more prominent buildings on the beach, the Grand Hotel.

The Trójmiasto region is interconnected by a system of trains and buses so after walking around Sopot, we were only a short trip from Gdańsk. Sometimes known by its German name, Danzig, this city used to be a semi-autonomous city-state between WWI and WWII. In the 1980s, the Solidarity movement (Solidarność) was started by striking shipyard workers, leading eventually to Poland's first freely-elected president since the communist era. Here's Isabel standing outside the main train station right after we arrived.

We stopped by an old mill converted into a shopping mall. It was cool because the original foundations were still visible.

Being a historic port city, there are several canals with nice walkways along the water. I couldn't be trusted to not fall into the water so I needed close supervision from Isabel.

This is the Gdańsk seaport crane, a very distinctive landmark. On the inside, the crane was essentially operated by human hamsters running around on big wheels. Though not unique in design, this is called a treadwheel crane and this one is especially large. I asked but Isabel did not want to go for a run on the wheel.

Eventually we came across Diagon Alley Mariacka street in the old town which is just one of the market streets lined with very tall row houses. The street is composed mainly of jewelry shops since Baltic amber is a local specialty.

The long market is another notable street in the old town which was nice to walk along and take in the architecture.

St. Mary's Cathedral is Europe's largest medieval brick cathedral and we climbed all the way to the top of the bell tower (400 steps to get to the top). Part of the trip was along an extremely tight spiraling staircase with no railing......this was a bit scary (for Isabel), but the view from the top was definitely worth it. I took a picture of Isabel standing on the other side of the tower, below her you can see the church bells which are already pretty near the top.

We tried to take a picture together but failed too many times so we eventually got fed up and independently decided to ruin the picture, this was not coordinated. It was our best one...

In the evening, we returned to Warsaw on another overnight train, and spent the rest of the morning sleeping once we returned to the apartment. That afternoon we met with some of Kuba's relatives on his dad's side of the family and had a great visit with them.

Our next trip is to Cracow, with side trips to the Wieliczka salt mine, Zakopane, and Auschwitz, then on to Vienna! We are leaving for this trip on Sunday, returning on May 15th. Should be lots of pictures!

xo

Day 6: Sixth Day in Warsaw

Today will be a quick post because we're busy packing for our train trip to Gdańsk tonight! This morning we toured Chopin's birth place and his family home in Żelazowa Wola, a small village about 60km west of Warsaw. The weather was nice and speakers placed throughout the park played Chopin's music.

Later we toured the Copernicus Science Centre which opened its doors in 2010. The museum's focus is on interactivity and individual experimentation, a far cry from glass cabinet and gallery museums whose prevalence cannot be understated. Needless to say it was fun! Below is Isabel and a robot (controlled by children out of the shot).

Foucault's pendulum which demonstrates the rotation of the Earth.

A random robot we found that could make poems from given words. Kuba was a little skeptical.

Kuba riding around on a "flying carpet". He seems to be enjoying himself....

Now we're eating dinner and packing for our trip to Gdańsk! We most likely won't be updating our blog tomorrow since we'll be on the train back to Warsaw, but subscribe to the blog to get the latest updates and stay tuned for more pictures :).