Krakow, Poland

I have to admit that my first days in Krakow, Poland I was not impressed.  The buildings were old and gray, I had a hard time finding food for us at the market and it was rainy and cold.  But my impressions changed as we stayed longer.  The Main Market Square is a fun place with street musicians, beautiful buildings and inexpensive ice-cream.   We found some fun restaurants to try and the weather improved so we had some beautiful days.

I enjoyed the view from the top of the St. Mary's Church tower.  Sam, Joe and I climbed the tower and were at the top when the bugler played.  A local legend is when the Tatar's invaded Poland in 1241 a town watchman sounded an alarm to warn the townspeople by playing the hejnal song.  He was part way through the song when he was  killed by an arrow.  So now when the bugler plays the song, he stops part way through the song in the same place where the watchman was when he was killed.   When I first heard it, I thought the song just ended abruptly, but after learning about the legend, it made more sense.

St. Mary's Church.  We climbed the tower on the left.

Sam climbing the church tower

Bugler at the top of the tower

View from top of tower.  This is the Main Market Square and the big building is the Cloth Hall.

Joe and Jenna at the Wawel Castle entrance

We spent a day touring the Jewish Quarter known as Kazimierz.  We saw the area where the Kazimierz Ghetto was during World War II.  Part of the wall that surrounded the Ghetto is still in tact.

Monument in Kazimierz

Elaine and Joe by the Ghetto Wall

Walking on Krakow's sidewalks presented some unique challenges.  First thing I noticed is cars park on the sidewalks.   Sometimes there isn't much room to actually walk on the sidewalk.  The other part of that is you don't want to walk to close to the sides of the buildings because hundreds of pigeons are on the roofs of the buildings.  Add in the uneven cobblestones and you have for some challenging walking on the sidewalks.

A car parked on the sidewalk

Pigeons flying off a gray building

The reason you wouldn't want to walk to close to the buildings

And the part of Krakow that I just didn't get is the sculpture of a giant head in the Main Market Square.  Apparently it was made by someone who lived and studied art in Krakow.  It was fun to take pictures of it, but it really does look out of place.

Joe and Jenna looking out the eyes of the sculpture

 I think the kids will say their highlights from Krakow were attending a football game and visiting the salt mine.  I think the most memorable will be our day spent at Auschwitz.  I am glad I gave Krakow a chance.  There is still a part of Krakow that displays evidence of it's hard past, but there are also some beautiful areas and some fun things to experience in the area.