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or at least some of it. we have 2 more days, so...
arrived late saturday night (cause of cancelled train) and had to take a taxi to the hostel. but krakow is super cheap, so that's okay. sunday we went to kamierz (sp?), the jewish district, and explored synagogues and graveyards and a fabulous market that fills with fruit, etc. most days but has lots of 2nd hand clothes on sundays. greatly fabulous. synagogues were quite cool, and neat change from all the churches we usually visit. subtle differences in decoration. stylisticly, not just the obvious statues of jesus not being present. not good at explaining. i did notice the stained glass having rather more geometric shapes and not so much with people but that doesn't explain much. but lovely. and we found a fabulous graveyard which has tombs all tumbling down and built haphazardly all over each other. it's still in use, though there's not really space and the seem to just squeeze new graves in whereever they can find an inch. big trees over the whole thing. fabulous. after that found some gorgeous churches. not so many windows and light as the ones we saw in western europe in december but stunning decoration. saw the shroud of turin, which was neat. i love the smell of incense in catholic churches.
today, monday, we went to wawel, a big rambly castle on a hill. saw the state rooms, which were appropriately elegant and sumptuous, and the royal armoury and treasury, with some neat blades, and the cathedral. there's a lot of cathedrals in krakow. this one had lots of tombs under it (saw the royal crypt) pluse some kings in big stone coffins right in the main room. including queen jadwiga, who's also called king, and became a saint in 1997. she's terribly important in poland. donated lots of money, married a lithuanian who then converted his whole kingdom, etc. after this we went to the collegium maius, poland's oldest university (established by jadwiga) and toured they're museum. more neat random objects plus loads of scientific instruments i didn't understand much. i liked the old globes and a lot of the lovely rooms in the main exhibit--the old professors' dining hall was very elegant. after that we wandered aimlessly, explored the main square, with its little shops (called krams, apparently) and went to st. mary's church. once again, gorgeous, lots of gold, stunning paintings and statues. it's getting to be a bit of a theme.
tomorrow we go to the salt mine. which should be cool and quite different.
wednesday we're going to auchwitz. i'm not looking forward to it particularly or dreading it particularly. i think it's a place we should go but i think it will be very difficult to see.
arrived late saturday night (cause of cancelled train) and had to take a taxi to the hostel. but krakow is super cheap, so that's okay. sunday we went to kamierz (sp?), the jewish district, and explored synagogues and graveyards and a fabulous market that fills with fruit, etc. most days but has lots of 2nd hand clothes on sundays. greatly fabulous. synagogues were quite cool, and neat change from all the churches we usually visit. subtle differences in decoration. stylisticly, not just the obvious statues of jesus not being present. not good at explaining. i did notice the stained glass having rather more geometric shapes and not so much with people but that doesn't explain much. but lovely. and we found a fabulous graveyard which has tombs all tumbling down and built haphazardly all over each other. it's still in use, though there's not really space and the seem to just squeeze new graves in whereever they can find an inch. big trees over the whole thing. fabulous. after that found some gorgeous churches. not so many windows and light as the ones we saw in western europe in december but stunning decoration. saw the shroud of turin, which was neat. i love the smell of incense in catholic churches.
today, monday, we went to wawel, a big rambly castle on a hill. saw the state rooms, which were appropriately elegant and sumptuous, and the royal armoury and treasury, with some neat blades, and the cathedral. there's a lot of cathedrals in krakow. this one had lots of tombs under it (saw the royal crypt) pluse some kings in big stone coffins right in the main room. including queen jadwiga, who's also called king, and became a saint in 1997. she's terribly important in poland. donated lots of money, married a lithuanian who then converted his whole kingdom, etc. after this we went to the collegium maius, poland's oldest university (established by jadwiga) and toured they're museum. more neat random objects plus loads of scientific instruments i didn't understand much. i liked the old globes and a lot of the lovely rooms in the main exhibit--the old professors' dining hall was very elegant. after that we wandered aimlessly, explored the main square, with its little shops (called krams, apparently) and went to st. mary's church. once again, gorgeous, lots of gold, stunning paintings and statues. it's getting to be a bit of a theme.
tomorrow we go to the salt mine. which should be cool and quite different.
wednesday we're going to auchwitz. i'm not looking forward to it particularly or dreading it particularly. i think it's a place we should go but i think it will be very difficult to see.
