Up early and out the door by 8:30 am so we could walk to St.
Mary’s Basilica for 9 am Mass. Beautiful
service and we were out before ten and headed for the Castle; about a fifteen
minute walk from the square.
The walk to the Wawel Castle was not bad but then it was a
rather steep walk up the hill to the top for the entrance. There we found a long ticket line and when it
was our turn we found out that we didn’t have time to see the Royal Apartments
today as the tickets were sold out until 2:30 pm. But we did purchase tickets for the State
Apartments and one to view the Leonard Da Vinci painting entitled “Lady with
the Ermine”. Years ago, Jim, Jennifer
and Kelly all flew to San Francisco for the day just to see this painting. It is rarely out of Poland.
Ate our lunch in the square of the Castle under the shade of
a tree with pigeons at our feet; waiting for the ticket booth to open for the Cathedral
Museum in the Castle at 12:30 pm. As
soon as it did; we purchased tickets for tomorrow…it is closed on Sunday…and
then walked back to the Market Square and our Management Office. Checked in about our afternoon tour,
downloaded some morning photos on Facebook as we have WiFi service while we are
there.
Then we walked to find some of “Milk Bars”… cafeterias that
were set up by the Soviets and still function today offering inexpensive good
food that the locals love. Soon it was
time to get back to the office and our tour.
At 3 pm we left for about half an hour ride out of town to
the Salt Mines. Today there were only
six of us in a van for the trip….more leg room! We were a couple from Palmero, Sicily; a
single guy from Naples, Italy; and another single guy from Barcelona,
Spain. A very international group.
We arrived and they split us up into groups
of different languages; Mathew, our guide spoke excellent English for the tour
and we each had a head phone so we could easily hear him. The tour began by walking down over 300 steps
to the beginning of the tour. Every once
in a while we went down more steps…never up…always down, down, down. Along the way there were statues of various
famous people carved out of Salt by workers over the Centuries. The mines go back 1600’s. The most famous is the large sanctuary that
has large chandeliers that are decorated with salt crystals instead of glass. One of the best was a carving of the Last
Supper in the wall. Many scenes and even
a statue of Pope John Paul II. It was
two hours of walking in a very There were several lakes that are so salty
that you can only float…impossible to dive into the water. It was
a very interesting tour and they did bring us up by elevator from our lowest
level at 135 meters. We were only on
Level 3…the mine actually goes down nine levels.
Today we also visited the Archbishop’s House across from St.
Francis Church where Pope John Paul lived for many years before becoming Pope. A very nice priest talked to us for a while
and gave us some literature about the Pope and his years in Krakow. Tomorrow we will see more when we visit the
Cathedral Museum.
Tonight we arrived home at 7:30 pm…ate a late dinner in our
rooms…remember we have a kitchenette.
Now we’re doing the Internet and making our calls while we watch “Wilson”
on television with Polish subtitles and voice over. The same man does all the voices: male, female, children, etc. We hear him on every show that needs
translating! Really funny. Fortunately you can still hear the English
underneath!
Hope you enjoy the slideshow link below:
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