Saturday in Krakow

 

I was up and at breakfast at 7.30am, always the early bird!

Firstly scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, followed by my body weight (which is increasing as we speak) in cheese, OMG, goats cheese, mild blue cheese, marinated feta cheese, you name it, it was on my plate. 

I waddled back to my room, where I watched 'Midsomer Murders' dubbed in Polish for half an hour. Now here is an interesting piece of information ( gleaned when I watched House early evening). I think that there is only one dubbing artist in Poland, he seems to do all the American and English programmes..............AND he does all the characters including the woman! It makes for a very monotone  commentary. When I was watching House, Hugh Laurie was getting very animated but 'the voice' remained calm and carried on reading ( obviously for a sheet). When I saw Ghandi dubbed in Spanish it was nothing like that!

I headed out at about 9am to walk to the old town, to my Museum of the day. I am just going to leave this here before I am asked. I have chosen not to go to Auschwitz. I know what happened and I really do not want to go. If I come again I possibly would. I just wanted to be in the city and see what it has to offer. 

And off to the main square I went, which was very quiet although there was lots going on around the 'edges'.

I helped an old lady who was struggling down the steps of a mini market (good deed for the day) and then wandered through the cloth hall, were modern day traders were setting up their wares.

My museum of the day was Rynek Underground, a museum which is spread  under the market square. This museum is the result of 5 years archaeological excavation, it takes you on a journey to medieval Krakow.

Lots of interactive information as well as great displays .

There are parts of the old traders stall from the 13th century. As well as the original street cobbles. And that's just scratching the surface
I was here for over 2 hours, I guess you could do it in an hour, but I read every piece of information, and went on every interactive board.

At a price of  just over £6 entrance fee, it was worth every zloty.

I came  back up to street level and headed over to the St Marys Basilica

A wonderful example of 13th century Gothic architecture.

 There was a service on so  I lit a candle and said a prayer for all who need some help or support at the moment. I'm hoping to have time to go today for a walk around.

I took a long  and winding way home, I sat in the park at the entrance to the old town, and watched the world go by, the trams running through the city and the children playing  in the park, sometimes it is worth just stopping and watching for a while.

By this time it was mid afternoon and I decided to head to the river and have lunch, there a few floating restaurants near the hotel so I went to 'Aquarius' which I had read good things about.

After a belly busting lunch of traditional potato pancakes for starters and non traditional tagliatelle with wild mushrooms, washed down with a Mimosa Eldeflower buzz (very very nice), I was ready to have a nap, which I did.

My evening was very much spent walking and taking in Krakow by night, there are lots of stalls set up around the city to sell kebabs, tacos etc which are very busy all day long.

I came back to the hotel and decided to test a bottle of Polish wine.

This was a fizzy red wine, which was very nice, although sweeter than expected.

Good bubbles which stayed right down the glass.

18 zloty  which is just over £4

Enjoyable.

And now................off for breakfast and a new day, its raining so it will have a lot of brisk walking and plenty of coffee stops.

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