I had an Old Town Tour in the morning. It started at 10 am so it was an unrushed morning. I walked to old town which was about 30 minutes away. Nothing was open yet so the streets were quiet.
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| They make a big thing about pigeons in Krakow and to be honest, they don't have nothing on other cities with pigeons. I mean, has no one been to Trafalgar Square in London... |
We were meeting in the main square. I got there a bit early to the sounds of a trumpet coming from somewhere. But it kept moving. I learned from some random man in the street that every hour, 24/7/365, a trumpeter plays the same tune, from the clock tower, out of four different windows, in four different directions. It sounds like it is coming from everywhere.
The weather was fine when I left the apartment. The weather was fine when I went into the market (where I bought another pendant, amber is a big thing here, who an I to say no to an amber trinket and maybe a t-shirt).
About one minute before the tour started, we were all gathered at the base of the church, the heavens just opened! I was wearing my 'rain jacket' which quickly revealed itself as water resistant and not water proof.
Sorry, sideways pictures until I can fix them at home. Especially annoying that they are facing opposite directions!!
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| It's raining... |
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| Really raining... |
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I had to buy this gorgeous, super expensive umbrella from a tourist shop in the market. Which I lost before I even made it home. I loved it. :( |
(back again after a break of two days I think - I am now four days, two cities and one country behind!)
The rain let up enough for us to start our tour. I don't remember much at this point but here are some pictures.
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This has a real name, something like Love Blinded? But everyone calls it 'the head' for obvious reasons. |
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Copernicus went to university here. They are very proud of the fact. Pope John Paul II |
I think I must have eaten and gone back to my room until the next tour that evening. Let's see if I took any pictures on my way home.
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| Still had my umbrella when it started raining again. |
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| Ah yes, the pretzel. This is where I think I left my umbrella |
The next walking tour was Ghosts and Crimes, Macabre Krakow. After so much WWII depressing murder, it was nice to have an evening of fun murder (apparently Krakow only has murder on the menu, so one has to mix it up). The guide was very good at spinning a good murder tale. I didn't take many pictures.
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Each gate to the city was guarded by a guild. This one was the responsibility of the Hangman's guild. |
Next day I was heading to Warsaw at around 3 pm. So, I booked a tour, paid!, to visit Schindler's Factory at 9:30. I had to leave my bag at the hotel desk the night before because they don't open until 9 and it was a 45 minute walk away.
Schindler's Factory. Not worth it, to be honest. They have converted the building, which was not even the factory, into a WWII museum. Barely anything about Schindler. The movie was more informative. Plus, I did not need to pay for the tour. It was all pretty standard info.
But I have photos and you are going to see them.
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The 'factory'. Schindler did work here, but it was more administrative offices from what I can tell. |
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A letter from Roman Polanski from when he was eight, explaining his experience in the Ghetto. He had escaped when they were clearing the Ghetto and was hidden by a Polish family for the rest of the war. |
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Schindler's actual office. Not his real desk, but the wall map is original. |
After that, I had a bit of time so I went to the Contemporary Art Museum behind Schindler's Factory. They had free entrance that day which was nice. After I took a stroll through, I was glad it was free. I think it is safe to say, I'm not a fan of Contemporary Art, at least not this stuff.
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| 'random souvenir cart' |
There was this random souvenir cart in the middle of the gallery. So I had a look. It had some truly tasteless stuff for sale, from Nazi propaganda. As I was spinning the key chain holder, trying to figure out who would buy this stuff, a docent came rushing over and told me to stop touching the art! Oh, it's art! Maybe they should label that. She pointed to the tiniest white card 5 feet away, it's there she says. Oh...
And then the trek back to the hotel to retrieve my backpack. It started to sprinkle a bit.
At some point on my way back, my E-Sim card stopped working. And then I couldn't get into the hotel wifi. And I could barely get into the only open wifi available, the cafe below. I couldn't get get into Google maps, I couldn't get into Booking.com to access the info on how to get into my key-pad room. I couldn't order an Uber...
So, I walked. It would have been fine but it was pouring rain by then. Valerie had told me to bring a backpack cover. I forgot. She told me to skip the umbrella, I could buy one (two as it turns out) there. So, we are up to about $50 for umbrellas and my bag was soaked. I had to use dirty laundry to soak up all of the water in the top pocket. Luckily, I didn't have anything important in there. I had to buy another umbrella at the first available store.
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| Terrible photo but I was having a terrible day by this point My next umbrella, also too expensive but very boring blue :( |
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| The train station. Oh wait, not the train station. It used to be the train station, it still has the sign. So, I wandered around, in the torrential rain, looking for the current train station. |
I eventually found the station. I sat down to wait, in the dungenous basement waiting area of the station, s
still no available wifi. Aaaaaaaaaand, the power went out. Bloody hell. Backup generators kicked in pretty quickly so we weren't in complete blackness for long.
Plus, at some point, I sat in gum. It was not my favourite day.
It all worked out of course. Once I was on the train, I had access to wifi, so I was able to contact the E-Sim helpbot. It/they? got me sorted eventually. And onto Warsaw, in the next post.
I really loved Krakow for all of it's terrible history. It is a beautiful, historical city. Highly recommend.
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