Krakow - September 29 - 30, 1999

Krakow was the second major destination of the trip. It actually doesn't look that far on the map, but when you also have two additional stops to make on the way (Jasna Gora and Auschwitz, plus you ride in a bus that doesn't go any faster than 50 mph and mostly has to travel 2-lane roads going much slower than that, it makes for a pretty long trip from here to there.

So, we left Warsaw bright and early, and received a scolding from our guide, Bettina. Apparently, we were on a very tight schedule and every minute counted. We really didn't leave that much after we were supposed to, about 15 minutes. And it really is quite funny, thinking back on it, that she had the temerity to scold a bunch of people older than she is. (I am the closest in age to her and I am at least 5 years older than she is.)

We drove down to Jasna Gora, which is the religious capital of Poland. Poland is mostly catholic (the practitioners of the other major religion in Poland, the Jews, were pretty much annihilated during the second World War). Poles make pilgrimages to Jasna Gora, which has a large, overly decorated church, a monastery, and used to be a fortress. In fact, when the Swedes invaded Poland about 500 years ago, Jasna Gora was the only place in the country that the Swedes did not conquer.

Jasna Gora sits in the city of Czestochowa (chestohova). It looked to me like a conglomeration of buildings, as the picture shows. Our guide at Jasna Gora was Father Eugene, who is not a priest. Father Eugene is a monk, and he speaks English very well. He has been to the United States several times, as a matter of fact. And he had a very good sense of humor.

The big draw in Jasna Gora, aside from the fact that it is the religious center of the country, is something called the Black Madonna. The Black Madonna is a picture of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus painted on a very old piece of wood by, it is rumored, Saint Luke himself (he of the New Testament fame). I don't know if that is true of not. But the picture is only displayed during church services (i.e., mass); otherwise, it is covered by shutters. So we trouped in, alongside the wall behind a railing, to view this picture. It felt very awkward doing this as all of these devout people were worshipping. It felt rude. And me, who pretty much scorns the Catholic religion for reasons we will not go into here, thought that the worshippers should be allowed to worship without feeling like a tourist attraction.

Back to the Black Madonna. The picture itself isn't all that attractive. At least it wasn't to me. But the really wierd thing is that they (the church people in Jasna Gora) "dress" it up. They have these coverings, which they call clothes, that they cover the painting with on different occasions. The only things not covered are the faces and hands. I just think "dressing" a painting sounds really wierd.

After a quick lunch, we headed further south to Oswiecim. We better know it as Auschwitz. I won't go into the visit in this narrative but you can read more about my impressions of it by clicking on the link. Auschwitz is the second concentration camp I have visited; the first, Dachau, I saw back in 1982 when I was in Munich.

We spent most of the afternoon at Auschwitz before heading to Krakow. Krakow was pretty much unscathed by World War II, unlike Warsaw. The old city, where I spent most of my time, really feels like an old city. And there is a castle, Wawel Castle (pronounced Vavel as there is no "v" in the Polish alphabet).

We saw the castle on the next day after we arrived, as we arrived in the city around 8 p.m. All tourist attractions pretty much close about 5-6 p.m. Our guide for the city tour led us up the fairly steep, cobble-stone incline to the castle, which has an attached church. The church is undergoing renovations, so it was surrounded by scaffolding. What we could see of it was interesting to say the least - it looked like a hodge-podge of buildings just thrown together. Different styles, different colors. There is nothing like it in this country.

For the castle tour, all of the guides are given a specific time at which they and their groups are allowed to enter. Therefore, we had to be punctual. And we were, even though having a group of older people climbing a steep hill doesn't make for fast progress. No pictures are allowed to be taken in the castle itself. Mostly because the flash and other lighting might damage the furnishings, specifically the tapestries. Wawel is very well known for its tapestries - they hang in every room. They take a long time to make, tapestries. Some take decades.

The tour lasted about one hour. Then we walked down another hill from the castle and back to the old city. The old city boasts the largest market square in Europe (that's a picture of it on your upper left). It really is quite huge. Right in the middle of the market square is a building called the Sukiennice, the Cloth Hall. It used to be in medieval times but now it is a craft market for rich tourists, to buy either genuine craft goods or junk. And you aren't told ahead of time which is which, so you must guess.

Across from the Sukiennice is St. Mary's Church. Every day a trumpeter goes up into one of the towers of the church and plays the hejnal, originally played by a lookout on watch for the advancing Tartar army. He spotted the enemy approaching and began playing the song to sound the alarm; legend has it that the song ended abruptly when he was hit it with an arrow through the throat. The daily trumpeteer also ends the song abruptly, supposedly at the same place as the unfortunate lookout.

The inside of the church is dark, decorated in blue tiles mainly. It was pretty, don't get me wrong, but I much preferred the lighter, more airy St. Anne's Church, on the other side of the square. The church was closed that day, but I was able to peek in through the door windows. The color scheme was definitely warmer, lighter, and less cluttered.

After the city tour, we had the afternoon to ourselves. I had a copy of a Krakow walking tour I'd downloaded from the internet and I spent the afternoon doing that. It basically covered the old city, starting at the Barbican, going around to many churches (St. Mary's and St. Anne's among them), through the market square and the Sukiennice, and back to the castle. I did not go back up to the castle as I had already been there. Plus my foot was hurting. No, this was not blisters, like last year's trip. This was just plain clutsiness - I fell off the curb and turned my ankle not 20 minutes into the walking tour.

But, sore ankle or not, this was my only full day in Krakow and I wasn't going to waste it resting my ankle at the hotel. So, I walked around the old city walls, through the back streets of the old city, looking at the many churches and old buildings that were mentioned in my walking tour. Even with the time I spent shopping for souvenirs at the Sukiennice I completed the tour by about 4 p.m. Sore ankle or not. And, let's face it, if I don't have crisis of some sort, it's just not a real vacation.

Krakow is a pretty city but I had done all that I'd wanted to do by this time. So I ate at that fine dining establishment of McDonald's (and I don't want to hear how I should eat the local food - everyone should know by now just how picky an eater I am) and walked back to the hotel. Our hotel was on the outskirts of town, about 2 miles from the old city. The walk was actually quite good as it gave me a chance to walk off dinner.

I also paid attention to the ordinary people doing ordinary things. Do you know that the world's smallest automobile is produced in Poland? Called the Fiat, it is incredibly tiny. It has no trunk and I have yet to figure out how grown human beings contort themselves in order to sit in the backseat. Amazing.

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