Sunny, cool day.  Breakfast at the hotel was another wonderful European breakfast of hearty breads, eggs, cheeses, meat, yogurt and fruit.  Oh yes, freshly baked croissants and pastries that melt in your mouth. 9 am we start the walking tour of Krakow.  Along the way, we  found a currency exchange office, via Anna, our tour guide.  ATM’s apparently are not good to use here due to high fees, even at a regular bank. Every country has its own currency and exchanging money at each stop was common place and part of the trip.  Most places accept credit cards, but when at a market or street vendor, cash maybe necessary.   I found it handy to have cash.  Many restrooms require a coin or two to  to use them.  

 

We walked to Wawel castle.  Major amazing cathedral.  No pictures allowed inside.  I barely was able to see the famous dragon that is part of Krakow history. There is a vantage point overlooking the Vistula River.  Local "artists" intentionally set up their stands at the exact place where you could get a good look at the dragon.  I squeezed my way through and snapped a quick picture.  I was not able to find the way down to the river and I could only see the dragon from above.   The dragon statue certainly is popular and located on a tree lined walkway along the river.  

 

From the Castle,  we went to another church, the St. Francis Basilica.  This church contains beautiful Art Nouveau stain glass windows.  One of which, "God the Father Let It Be" is considered a masterpiece by Stanislaw Wyspianski.  This church was Pope John Paul II's church before he became a Pope. To think this was the place where he led mass for many years was special.   Krakow is very proud of Pope John Paul ll and tributes abound to him around this area of the city.  

 

We walked through the Jagiellonian University. This is where the Nazi's hauled away professors and students to concentration camps in 1939.  This was the start of an attempt to destroy those who could out the Nazi's and their evil philosophy.   Anna goes into a lot of detail about architecture and dates.   It's incredible to stand in the same place where so much history has happened. 

​

We continued walking back to the then went to St Mary’s and heard the bugler.   Beautiful church.  This church is ornate on steroids.  Woodcarvings, stain glass, paintings, St. Mary's is a must to see.  A scene from Schindler’s list was filmed here, too.  

​

It was now time for our afternoon free time and we had a 13:10 tour time at the Oskar Schindler enamel factory.  Wow.  This converted factory to museum really puts the 1939 Nazi invasion into perspective.  We can read books, see movies, but when you see ephemera, momentos, pictures and newspapers from this time, the enormity and reality of what took place is really driven home.  The Nazi’s originally came after the Poles, then the Jews.  Obliterating anything Jewish and Polish and replacing it with Nazi propaganda.  Awful.  

​

While walking through Krakow and seeing where so much awful history transpired, I couldn't help but think of Steven Spielberg’s "Schindler’s List." In my opinion, this is one of the best and brilliant films of all time.  Spielberg totally nailed this part of history factually, dramatically, and in less than 4 hours.   

 

We walked to where the Jewish getto once existed.  It’s all gone and there is no perimeter foot print to mark the area where over 17,000 people were crammed into a small area.  The getto is memorialized today in a small square containing empty chairs to represent those taken away by the Nazi's.  

 

We were starving after walking  20,000 Fitbit steps around Krakow.  Uber and cabs are available in Krakow, but we like to walk and see places along the way.  Every street can be an opportunity for a unique experience.   While we were walking through a neighborhood in the Jewish Quarter, we found a fun and excellent local restuarant, Kuchnia y Doroty.  Yum!  $26 for a huge meal and 2 glasses of wine each.  I had Kielbasa, stuffed cabbage, fries and wine.  It was the best! The Jewish Quarter of Krakow was very cool.  A neat foot bridge connects old town to the Jewish quarter.  Light rain began to fall.  We found a pottery store loaded with unique and hand crafted pottery.  We bought a few things.   They will ship our purchase home.  (Note:  it took two months to arrive, but it was well worth the wait.  I enjoy using my handpainted and glazed Polish coffee cup almost every day). 

 

We went through the market located in the Main Market Square.  This is a good place to buy Polish momentos to take home.  Walked down the bustling Florianska street.   Along the way  I bought an amber necklace at one of the local jewelry stores along the way.   I liked it and it did not require much space in my bag.  Even better!   It began to rain harder and we just went back to the hotel to relax.  

​