Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 13:29:12 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Last day in Poland... (and parts 3/4)
June 4...
I spent the day roaming around Krakow, before taking the overnight train to
Prague.. except when I left in the morning I didn't know where I was going or
what I was going to see that day...
As it turned out, my first stop was "Collegium Maius", the Krakow University.
600 years old, and the alma mater of Nicolaus Copernicus. That's the reason why
I went there -- it contains a lot of his instruments and also the first known
globe ever made, which shows the North American continent -- just south of
Asia! No photographs were allowed in "his room" ... the globe is actually quite
small, that can fit in a fist. But it was a nice historical object to see :>
The rest of the tour of the university was not as interesting as that... there
were stops in the library, a dining room etc -- nothing too interesting.
Next I went inside St Mary's church -- I hadn't seen the inside last time, only
climbed the steps for the view from the top. Again, "not much" .. there are
some beautiful stained glass windows, but other than that.... "Eh!"
The final stop was what I found the most interesting. But it was a little out
of the way, and took me a while to get there... following a few trams, a little
bit of walking, backtracking in one or two other trams, and more walking....
finally ending up at "Frabryka Oskara Schindlera Emalia". For those of you
who've seen the movie "Schindler's List" (and I think its all of you), this was
Oskar Schindler's factory during the second world war, where he employed (and
therefore saved from almost certain death) 1100 Jews to work there. The
building is slowly being converted into a museum (my tourbook actually said
that the museum didn't exist yet at presstime, but "will within the next year"
-- so I decided to check it out).. All that exists right now are several
information boards (in English) which tell the story of Schindler and how he
was able to keep so many people there working and in good health. It also shows
a lot about the history of the holocaust, how it was systematically carried out
from the 1930s through the end of the second world war..
I took a picture of every sign.
Well, it started raining soon after, and I decided to spend the remainder of my
afternoon in an internet cafe sending you a couple of emails from a few
previous days on this trip... On the way.... was "Part 3".
Hm.
After that was a big italian dinner in Rynek Glowny with a bottle of wine
shared with 2 other people, one of the best pastries I've had so far in both
quality and quantity, sharing some stories about Budapest, Bucharest, Prague,
the pastries in Vienna, etc... then taking the tram back to my hotel, picking
up my luggage that was left there since morning, and tram to the train station
-- all this in heavy rain. But by now I had practically memorized every stop on
Tram #4 between the train station and my hotel -- it was my "daily tram" for my
whole stay in Krakow.
The train, like many night trains in europe (even some day-trains), was
destined to both Prague (my destination), and Vienna. So it was fun to catch up
with a little bit of "Part 4" again and exchange a little sightseeing advice in
Prague, Vienna, and Salzburg really quick before "checking in"...
Anyway, Prague next...............
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| June 3 | Contents | June 5 |