In to Town We Go!

Thursday, July 2, 2015

It sure is hard to get back on a schedule!  Still awake at 3:30 this morning, which makes about 48 hours awake!  Anyway, I’m up now and have fed the cat and the rats and changed their water and done the litter box and am ready to face the world!  Marilyn is drinking her breakfast and I’ve got my oatmeal, so we can chomp while we plan the day.

My biggest victory so far is that the cat has let me pet and scratch him to the point of purring!  Now I can do battle with the forces of evil!  We’re having breakfast and getting organized for our first foray into Krakow!  As we’re leaving we notice that the horses are out!  Earlier Marilyn had heard clip-clopping and go to the window in time to see a horse-drawn carriage go by!  They must leave near us and are heading to work in the town square!

More neigh-bors!

Since both of us bought the international plan from Verizon for the duration of our trip, we are mightily annoyed that neither phone is working!!  Marilyn is finally successful at getting an on-line chat started and we both spend some time with Traci working on our problems.  It turns out that Marilyn’s problem is that her iPhone 4 is too old to work with the networks over here.  She’ll be getting nearly all of her money refunded.  My problem was simpler and kind of entertaining!  Traci asked me if I’d received instructions on how to activate the plan.  I told her that my chat agent had told me that he had activated it, effective the 30^th, and that all I had to do was deactivate it when I get home.  She told me that my chat agent was crazy!  I told her I had suspected as much and she proceeded to get me all set up!

The plan is working perfectly!  We’ve driven to the “ladybug” store and parked the car, so we can take the number 20 tram into town!  We get on and validate our tickets just like we know what we are doing!  Less than twenty minutes later we are right in the heart of town, near Market Square, and ready to see what there is to see.

There are breathtaking flowers everywhere!

When we get off the tram we wonder how to get across the busy street and then we notice that people are disappearing underground!  There is a wide boulevard that leads under the main road and straight to the Market Square and the King’s Way, a long boulevard that leads from the Barbikan Tower at one end to the Wawel Castle and Cathedral, one of holiest sites in Poland.  We’ll only do part of the Way today because we want to follow Rick Steves’ walking tour and Ricky is in Marilyn’s suitcase.  Sure hope that beastie shows up today!

Sidewalk artists and craftmen and musicians!  I love it!

The gorgeous old buildings have so many architectural embellishments that I hardly know where to look first, much less where to point the camera!  The building which occupies the center of the square is called the Cloth Hall.  It reminds me of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul in that there are many little stalls side-by-side, selling Polish souvenirs.  The hot ticket is amber, since Krakow is on the amber trail.

We had hoped to get down town in time to see the Gothic altar doors at St. Mary’s Cathedral opened to reveal a hand-carved wooden altar piece.  Well, it’s easy to find the church but we sure didn’t make it by noon.  They are only opened once each day and only on Monday through Friday, so we’ll have to retool our calendar a bit to catch this.

Outside the cathedral we find Gandolf the Gray!  He is doing a wonderful job of being a living statue and lights up when we drop money in his bucket.  How could we not?  After all, we know how hard that is!  There are also lots of talented street musicians and we even see a dance(?) troupe rehearsing!  Weddings must be popular on the square, too, since we see not just one but two brides in their finery!

We go lucking for a place to buy tickets for an Underground Exhibition that is build under one of the churches and happen upon a gorgeous little chapel where the Royal Chamber Orchestra performs several times a day!  Maybe we’ll be able to catch one of those performances.

The underground exhibit is not the one we had read about which sounded spectacular.  This one if quite tiny and consists of about two dozen photos and two grave sites!  It is amazing to realize, however, just how much history lies underneath our feet!

The underground exhibit is right under this church!

There are lots of carriages for people to ride around the square and Marilyn thinks she spots our neighbor!  All the horses are lovely and many sport tall plumes on their heads.

There is a ginormous bronze head lying on it’s side in the square.  It’s hollow and people think it’s a blast to climb inside and peer out at the world!  It is quite impressive!

 Shudder!  There’s a McDonalds!  It is fun to see what the locals do with a foreign brand.

This one's for my guys!

 Marilyn is on the hunt for a treat that her grandmother used to make.  It’s called paczki and sounds to me like “punchski”.  That makes me think of Punch and Judy and now I’ll never forget its name!  It’s a lot like a jelly-filled donut but the taste is subtly different.  Maybe there’s more yeast?  Maybe the “rosa” marmalade with which it’s filled?  We can’t decide but Marilyn is thrilled because when she finds hem, they taste just like her busia’s!  We’d been told to go to the Cukiernia Michalek because theirs were the best in town!  A customer in there agrees and we buy four, two for dessert and two for breakfast!  We have to thank Monika;  she’s been so very helpful!!

Marilyn’s other quest for today it for some authentic pierogies.  Monika – again! – had told us that the restaurant for real Polish food is called Miod I Wino, or Honey and Wine.  I guess that works since mead is a honey wine!!  

As we're walking we see this terrific sign on the side of a building it faces a very cool theatre with this amazing metal sculpture on it's wall!

The outside of Honey and Mead is covered with similar drawings!

On our way to Honey and Mead we decide to walk through part of the two and a half mile long park that encloses the city center.  It is also where the old wall used to be, although now most of it is gone. It's called the Planty.  (Hush!!)

This little guy still doesn't know what he's supposed to eat!
His mom was having quite a time with him!

Her directions for both places were flawless and we sit outside to people watch and have dinner.  Marilyn has mixed pierogies, half stuffed with meat and the other half stuffed with spinach.  I have an appetizer plate called Glutton’s Fancy!  It includes olives and plums wrapped in bacon and fried sheeps’ milk cheese!  We both have salads so we can feel virtuous!

Marilyn has been chatting with our adorable waitress about various dishes Marilyn remembers from her childhood, one of which is reminds our young lady of a soup the restaurant serves.  She actually brings us each a cup to sample!!  It’s a traditional Polish sour wheat soup served with sausage and horseradish!  I can’t believe how good it is!

We make our way back to the tram stop, figure out how to get our Number 20 going in the opposite direction and make it back to the car at the “ladybug” just like we’ve used public transportation all our lives!

Now that my phone works, we contact Monika to check on Marilyn’s suitcase.  IT’S HERE!  Well, not exactly here;  it’s at Paulina’s mother’s house.  Monika gives Marilyn the directions and we set out to fetch it.

I won’t go into all the details; but a trip that should have taken about fifteen minutes lasted about two hours and we got home without the suitcase!  Monika and her sister wound up fetching it and bringing it over for us.  Communication is a wonderful thing!  We sure got to see some interesting parts of Krakow! We also got to meet Monika’s sister and she’s as cool as Monika!  We’ve made a date for dinner next Wednesday.

By the time we’ve taken care of all the evening duties it is LATE and we have to be up early tomorrow.  Hence – no blog posting tonight!! This business of only sleeping three or four hours is getting old!  Sure glad I'm not!!