A Spirited Walk Through Old Town Krakow

We both got nice runs in this morning with Jennifer logging a solid eight miler and Sam lagging with a mere three mile jaunt. After cleaning up and finishing our history lesson blog entry on Auschwitz, we checked out of the hotel and headed out to get a French bread pizza we saw yesterday being sold in one of the Jewish plazas. The zapickanki, as we later learned they were called, was a great choice and hit the spot to fuel up for a day of walking around town and viewing half a dozen churches.

Caught a tram to town, which ended up being quite the excursion. After finding our way back to Krakow, we made our way around the city center, starting at the 14^th century Florian Gate. After entering the historic city gates, we made it to Collegium Maius, Polands oldest University (the second oldest in all of Europe behind a school in Prague)

Pictures from Collegium Maius

Since this was our last day in Poland we ventured over to the Rynek Glowny, Europes largest medieval town square (200m x 200m), where we could do some shopping in the 16^th century renaissance cloth hall. 

Although we are not big keep sake shoppers, Sam was in need of a clean shirt as his winter gear for Argentina just was not cutting it any longer. With a fresh shirt in hand, we decided to do a tour of Krakows many beautiful churches. For stop one we meandered across the plaza to the 14^th century St. Mary’s Church that impressively dominates the north-east corner of the giant plaza. Our second stop was at Franciscan Church, best known for its beautiful interior coloring and stained glass windows. Next we walked a block east to visit another 13^th century church by the name of Dominican Church.

Franciscan Church

Dominican Church

 As we left the city’s main center we reached two neighboring churches side by side. The first was the 17^th century Jesuit Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Poland’s first Baroque church. The second, was Saint Andrews Church which impressively was the only building in Krakow to withstand the Taters attack of 1241.

Church of Saints Peter and Paul

Saint Andrews Church

 With the church tour complete, our final destination was visiting the 14^th century Wawel Castle. The site served as the coronation and burial grounds of Polish royalty for four centuries and houses royal tombs as well as the Crown Treasury and Armoury. These exhibits did not make it onto our agenda, but we did however enjoy a stroll around the grounds, viewing the beautifully massive castle and of course finishing our visit with our final Polish church, Wawel Cathedral.

  

 Standing in the Wawel Castle Courtyard

On our way back to the hotel we walked through the Jewish Quarters one last time and stumbled across Remuh Cemetery, the grounds for some extraordinary renaissance gravestones. 

Before heading to the train station to catch our 8:30 departure for Budapest, we grabbed a bite to eat at a Polish vegetarian restaurant. Once again, we were very pleased with the food as we had another terrific soup and a potato panic stuffed with potatoes and various spices. We would have loved to of seen more of Poland, but at least Sam got the opportunity to visit some of his heritage before moving on to Hungary.