June 2, 2007

Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 10:18:56 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Into Polska... (and Part 2)

June 2...

Foggy early morning as the train approached Cracow Glowny station. I was up for
a while taking some pictures out the window of the green hills nearby and the
fog rolling in...

Arrived in Cracow right on time, 5:30 in the morning. Maybe hoping for a 7 hour
delay so I could check into my hotel was expecting a bit much.

Hmmmm...

I started walking from the train station, thinking "its only 2 km according to
my map, that shouldn't be too bad" .. Well, its only 2 km without the road
being closed. Half way through there was a long detour through a construction
site... Now, it would've been okay if I was just by myself.. but I was hawling
2 heavy bags too.. It took till 8am to reach my hotel, so I'm guessing it was
almost 2-3 miles walk in the end, instead of 2 KM.

When I got there I was told the standard line -- my room wasn't ready yet --
but then the lady said "It should be ready by 9"... oh wow, that was
unexpected! I waited in the lobby, marking in my Krakow tourbook what all I
wanted to see TODAY (almost all museums are closed on Monday so had to plan
accordingly).

9 AM, I went back up to the counter and she said sorry, room should be ready by
12 noon.

Well, alright then...

I gave them my bags, took out some essential "day stuff", and was on my way for
some sightseeing.. There was a tram stop in front of my motel, so I took that
(wrong direction at first, there is a detour in the opposite direction because
of the road closure/construction zone) to Rynek Glowny -- the main town square,
and the original "old town" of Cracow.

It was still before 10 AM, the time most museums open. So I decided to head
into St Mary's church, which pretty much dominates the square... There are 269
steps to the top (if I remember correctly -- and yes, I counted each one). The
view is relatively mediocre.... compared to other such views I mean. Maybe it
was just my mood after that long walk and long climb up, not to mention leaving
Budapest... whatever it was, I didn't stay up there long. Whats interesting
about this tower though, every hour the guards play a bugle call from the top
of the tower, and the tune stops suddenly in the middle of a note. According to
legend, there was a 13th-century guard who was playing this same tune from the
window and was struck by an arrow in the middle of that note....

Rynek Glowny is a good place to simply "hang out", and in the last couple of
days I've come back here often, and its also where I am right now -- at one of
the internet cafes in the square composing this email but primarily resting my
feet before my 10:30pm train departure to Prague.

Ok... that was the background. Continuing forward....

After a while roaming around there I made my way to the tourist info office,
buying the "Krakow Tourist Card" for 3 days. Essential, but most of the museums
that the card covered were not really of interest to me. One of them that WAS,
was my next stop this morning -- the Czartoryski Museum [char-tor-yes-kee].
Photographs are not allowed inside. Actually, they're allowed inside for a fee
of 9 zloty (just over $3). I didn't pay it.

The museum contains some of my favorite things in museums -- renaissance art,
and roman sculptures. There is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, precursor to
the Mona Lisa called "Lady with an Ermine" .. similar to Mona Lisa, and just as
un-impressive in my view. But there are others by Rembrandt that I liked. Also,
there is a complete marble chess set once owned by a Sultan from Turkey... how
it got to Poland is anybody's guess! In my tourbook it says a lot of Turkish
weaponry, armor, and rugs (BEAUTIFUL rugs -- my eyes widened when I saw them!)
were "recovered" after the 1683 Battle of Vienna. I don't know what was the
1683 Battle of Vienna about, but then again -- how did they get to CRACOW?!

Anyway, on the top floor were several sculptures from the Roman era -- those
were very impressive to see.. Many of them are still completely intact too! A
few were labelled as "copies" of originals that are either in the Uffizi museum
in Florence or the Louvre in Paris. I dont recall seeing them in either of
those places.. so these were really a treat to see!

Next was Wavel Hill -- an old fortification on ... hmmm, a hill. I decided to
walk, against my better judgement. The climb is not really that bad, but I
could have saved valuable time by taking a tram about 3/4th the way.

"Part 2"
--------

Well, I was about to enter the castle gates, when coming from the other
direction I saw the same two girls from the Budapest Synagogue tour yesterday!
It actually took me a while to recognize them, but I knew I had seen the faces
before... I slowed down, we greeted each other, chatted a little bit about
where they were going (Vienna--I had been there last night), where I was going
(Prague--they had been there before Budapest), ... how long we're in Cracow,
etc etc... I asked them whats "up here" in Wavel Hill, they said not much --
there's an armory and some palace museums, but nothing TOO interesting. (That
also answered the question in the back of my mind how they could be out so
quickly if they museums opened at 10). Nothing much more said today... and we
went our separate ways, me into the castle and them out..........................

(end Part 2, and yes there is a Part 3 also, later email....)

The Wavel Hill inside the castle walls is NICE -- VERY NICE... its almost as if
I was transported back to the Middle Ages... the typical fairy-tale castle,
with gardens all around... and views of the Wisla river and the city below.

But only the exterior. I chose not to take any of the tours of the palace or
museums, based on the recent review just 1/2 hour ago.. After staying up there
a long time -- till around 2 -- just roaming around outside the buildings,
sitting down on the benches whenever I felt like it -- basically lazing around
-- I was starting to make my way back when it started raining pretty heavily,
so I quickly took the tram back to the hotel, finally checking in and staying
there the rest of the day... By now it was around 4pm.

Next day -- June 3rd -- would be a tour of Aushwitz-Birkenau concentration
camps, one of my main reasons of coming to Cracow...

.... As if leaving Budapest wasn't depressing enough!!

Thats all for now, its time for dinner and then off to the train station...
Last couple of days emails will be sent from Prague in the next couple of
days...

June 1 Contents June 3