Thursday morning and an early breakfast in anticipation of a long drive from Warsaw to Krakow. 298kms and 5+ hours. Anyway we arrive in what is a much more beautiful city - our perceptions perhaps induced by warm and sunny weather. We check into a lovely Novotel Hotel in Centrum and walk towards the old town for lunch. Afterwards we engage a driver and golf cart for a one hour tour of the old town and Jewish Centre of Krakow.
The first thing that becomes obvious is that the people of Krakow have embraced the Jewish history of the city. Perhaps I am giving them the benefit of the doubt that this is based on motives other than commercial ones but.....
The driver is a charming 20 year old engineering and robotics student who explains that he has been doing this work for two weeks after paying the owner 300 zlotys for a course to learn how to do the tour and that he is resigning today after not being paid his 20% commission. He takes us past an ice cream shop where there is a queue of people with just two workers inside – one taking the money ($A0.75 per large scoop) the other doling out the tastiest ice cream I have tasted – and that is a big call trust me. By the time I leave the shop the queue has grown from 10 to 30 people – we note the address on our tourist map for reference purposes only you understand.
The guide goes on to explain that his father is a lecturer in Physics at the University where he studies and is not impressed that he failed physics and awaits a re-examination. His mother is a secondary school teacher specialising in children with behavioural problems – something he finds difficult to understand as he says “she studied at university for five years to control her temper and be understanding but she is always screaming at me”.
Past the Kazimierz or Jewish area of the city with its seven synagogues (only one functional today), Jewish shops and historical monuments. We had planned to return tomorrow to spend some time here but it is good to get the orientation.
The tour finishes at our hotel where we have some quiet time.
At around 8:00pm we decide to drive down to Kazimierz for dinner and settle for Ariel where I recall reading that during August they have a Klezmer band. We are shown upstairs to a room with stuffed animals over the walls, “traditional old world” Polish decor and deep armchairs. We order matzoh ball soup, gefilte fish and chicken schnitzel. Danielle confesses to enjoying the Klezemerim despite some initial doubts. The Japanese tour group next to us had mixed feelings while the French foursome adjacent to us seem to enjoy it when they stopped talking loudly.
Next morning and off to the Wawel Castle which is a most beautiful medieval castle right in the middle of town. The guidebook suggests queues so we get there at opening time 09:30 and queue for 30 minutes – seems they have adopted the French methodology to inefficient tourist handling – no surprise with only one cashier. Anyway we are early for our 11:00am viewing so we head down to the Jewish area and inspect the Synagogue and cemetery and this was exceptionally rewarding with many broken gravestones reconstituted into a wall around the cemetery accompanying the Renaissance style of the Synagogue.
A brief stop at the Lody (ice-cream) shop which we had carefully marked on our map.
Back to the castle and a fascinating tour of the treasury and armoury with beautiful silverware, armour worn by the knights, muskets, swords, canons, crossbows, knives and other interesting historical items.
At 12:00 we go on the English tour of the staterooms of the Palace. These are incredibly rich with Flemish tapestries, Baroque and Renaissance Italian artworks and German, Austrian and Spanish furniture. I would rate this as one of the better curated examples of 15th 16th and 17th century history of a country.
Back to the hotel via a supermarket where we buy assorted ‘delicacies’ or as best we could figure they were this, for a homemade lunch with which to watch the Olympics opening ceremony.
The opening ceremony as could be imagined was spectacular and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Around 18:00 we decided on some retail therapy and went to a huge shopping Galleria and managed to buy nil, nothing, nada, niente which will testify to the high prices of almost everything there.
In keeping with our desire to savour the local cuisine we opt for a Tex Mex meal at a restaurant in the shopping centre and quite good it was too.
We head for the casino for want of something to do. We sign in and Danielle and I get free drink vouchers. I start playing blackjack while the guy next to me is betting 100 zlotys ($A55) a box on three boxes. Nothing wrong with that you say except the way he played was truly a-m-a-z-i-n-g! He had A-5 and sat, he bought on 16 against dealer’s 6 and then rested on 14 against dealer’s face card – anyway he got what he deserved as he kept reaching into what was obviously a printing press in his pocket pulling out a continual supply of 100 zloty notes. I shouldn’t really complain however as everything dopey he did worked well for me and I won 800 zlotys ($A440).
Back to the hotel for some Olympic highlights and a good night’s sleep.
Next morning the weather was sheit. We had decided to have a relaxing day mooching around the old city and watching some Olympics but with the weather so bad I took an executive decision to have a quick walk around the old city and head off for Prague via Auschwitz and Bielsko-Biala the birthplace of my father.
We arrive at Auschwitz only to find the whole thing an exercise in demonstrating just how fearless and kind and generous the Polish people were. Anyway enough of that – I leave each to make his own decision on these matters.
We head for B-B only to find a large country town. Couldn’t find a restaurant despite it being quite a big town so we stop at a shopping centre for a quick meal and to change all our Zlotys into Czech Crowns. Onwards towards Prague.
We arrive at 20:30 and were glad to find that the hotel could accommodate us – but only in a smoking room. How we forget how acceptable this would have been 20 years ago and how disgusting we find it today. No problem they will change rooms for us tomorrow. We are in the old part of town which is nice but which also allows the hotel to charge us $A50 a night to park the car. I pick myself up from the floor and head to the room to check my emails and turn in for the night after a long day of driving intermixed with the anguish of Auschwitz.
Congrats to Ari and Andrina on their baby daughter.
Some photos in my next post
Regards to all
David
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment