September 28, 2014: Arrival and First Day in Krakow

September 28, 2014

As we approached Frankfurt at 6:30 am, the sun was beginning to rise, which created a beautiful sky.  

 

Approaching Frankfurt, Germany

We landed at 7:00 am and to my surprise, in transiting from concourse Z to A, I never had to leave the secure zone.  The flight from Frankfurt to Krakow left right on time and landed 10 minutes early.  After collecting my bag, I was met in the arrival hall by the ChemSource driver who took my to our hotel (Pod Wawel) at the base of the Wawel Hill.  Being too early for check-in, I left my luggage and set out to tour some of the city – Wawel Castle/Cathedral complex and the Old City. 

About three blocks from the hotel was the entrance ramp to Wawel Castle.  My first stop was the ticket booth for the Wawel Castle/Cathedral complex where I purchased tickets to see the da Vinci painting, The Lady with an Ermine, and visit the Royal Apartments (at 14:40).  The painting is located on the first floor of the castle and was very beautiful.  You can visit the URL and gain information about the history and mystery surrounding the painting.  The next stop was the Wawel Cathedral where the Polish kings had their coronations.  Because it was not open for tours until 12:30 pm, it was very crowded.  I will probably return tomorrow after obtaining a ticket to see the Sigsmund Bell and the royal crypts/museum.

Because the time was now well past lunchtime and I had the apartments’ ticket for 14:40, I headed to the Old Town for lunch (Caesar salad) in an outdoor restaurant located on Rynek Square.  Walking there via Kanonicza Street gave a view of an old medieval street.  Because Rynek Square is a huge open air market square, dating from medieval times, and there was a music festival taking place, it was filled with a lot of people and had continual musical entertainment.  Much of the entertainment consisted of people in regional dress performing regional music.  The market area was filled with stalls containing crafts that ranged from cooked goods, to handmade linens, wood-working, jewelry, etc.  It was a very lively area.  After lunch, I wandered among the stalls.   There were a number of stands where Polish food was being cooked in huge “woks” and it looked absolutely delicious.  Hopefully, this will also occur during the week and I can sample some of this for lunch. 

Rynek Square contains the huge Cloth Market building with its multitude of souvenir stalls, St. Mary’s Basilica, and the Clock Tower.  At 14:00, as occurs on each full hour, the trumpeter appears in the small west window below the highest spire of St. Mary’s and blows the trumpet.   This is a practice from medieval times that continues today.

After a hurried walk back to the Wawel Castle, I lined up for the guided tour through the Royal Apartments.  The tour through the royal apartments was in English and gave a good impression of the extent of space in the castle occupied by the king.  Although all the furnishings and original period items were long gone due to the numerous partitions and occupations of Poland, some of the tapestries ordered by Sigsmund II Augustus have been reacquired and were hanging in several of the rooms.  Very little silver and porcelain have survived from the time the castle was used by the Polish kings.  The tour was about an hour long.  After leaving the tour, I ran into several people from our group -- Mary Virginia, Jan, Sandy, Terry, Carolyn, and Karen -- and we agreed to meet later and walk to the Old Town section.  Because it was 15:30, i returned to the hotel to check-in and shower.

At 17:45 we met in the lobby and walked to Rynek Square, which was just as lively as when I left it earlier.  First, we climbed to the observation deck of the Cloth Hall Building to view the square as the sun was setting.  There is a beautiful crescent moon above the buildings to the west.  We then inquired about the Rynek Museum tour that occurs underground of the Cloth Hall Building and obtained tickets for 10:15 tomorrow at the Tourist Information Center.  This permitted the group to hear the St. Mary's trumpeter at 10:00.  Then we wandered through the lively stall area to see all the food preparations before walking back to our hotel and having dinner at the rooftop restaurant.  The temperature was in the mid 50's when we started dinner and 48 when we left at 9:30 pm.  A long, but fun day.