We had our day planned, firstly to go inside St Mary’s Basilica. In the square there was a tour guide leading walking tours of the city and so we decided to join her. We then found out it was free but you give donations at the end of the walk. This was well worth the three hours walking as during that time she told us that the famous altar in St Mary’s Bassilica is only opened up after midday, so we would have paid to go in and not seen it.
We had a very lengthy history lesson of the city walls, St Mary’s Basilica, with the bugler who you can hear in the square. There are 3 firemen who take it in turns as it is about 300+ steps to get up to the tower, so they obviously stay up there for their 8 hour shift. We discovered that Krakow has the largest and oldest of a lot of things! I guess if you are interested you can look in the tour guides as there is far too much to write here.
We saw the houses Pope John Paul II lived in, the church he prayed in, the theatre, the Poets statue in the square, the state University. She even explained the pictures over doorways, going back this was how they had their addresses eg “under the lion”, which is one of the photos but no one at that stage had ever seen a lion, so the stone mason made it a bit more dog like! Then back to Wawel Castle where our guide actually explained which the free parts were and what paying parts were not worth going to. But the most stunning of all was the open altar at St Mary’s Basilica. You can find out more about the Veit Stoss Altar. The twelve pictures that make up the altar are all of Mary. This is a must if you visit Krakow.
By the end of the tour we were shattered and so went and had some cold Borscht, a drink or two and then back to the hotel. It was a hot day and still humid, having had a storm the previous night but very little rain.
In the evening we decided to return to Chata as the food was good home cooked Polish food and the staff a delight. I had the Hunter’s Pork and then we had a few more beers (mine raspberry) followed by flavoured vodkas! Mal thought about having their speciality The Polish Pan but I think it would have fed four people, so he resisted!
