| Visit to Krakow 15 - 19 June 2005 |
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| A report by Julia Maynard |
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We left the pouring rain of South East England to reach a pleasantly warm Krakow in the late afternoon. The weather remained kind, and we mostly managed to dodge the showers (and thunderstorms).
We had five-star luxury at the Krakow Sheraton – wonderful buffet breakfasts with even champagne on offer – just outside the old town on the Vistula, the Queen of Polish Rivers. We had time to acclimatise ourselves and then enjoyed a welcome drink in the hotel before dinner. |
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| On Thursday morning we walked round the old town. Timing was all – we reached the Collegium Maius, the earliest extant college of the Jagiellonian University, just in time to see the 11 o’clock parade of little figures from the University’s history trundle their way round under the clock to the sound of the student hymn Gaudeamus Igitur. |
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| Then we enjoyed a guided tour of the Museum, including the Copernicus room. Next a short walk across Rynek Główny, the main market square, to Kościół Mariacki, the Marian church, in time for the opening of the wonderful altar screen, and then, quickly outside again, to hear the Bugler at the Gates of Dawn. Every hour, on the hour, a bugler high up in the taller of the church towers opens a little window and plays a bugle call. He then repeats the awkward melody from three more windows. This commemorates the events of 1241, when the watchman on the church saw the invading Tartars approaching, and blew his trumpet to sound the alarm. The bugler stops at the point where the watchman was shot with an arrow. |
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In the afternoon, we moved outside the town to visit the Benedictine Abbey at Tyniec, on a limestone outcrop on the Vistula river. After attending Vespers, and being shown round by one of the monks, we went back to Krakow for a short break before dinner in the market square at Restaurant Tetmajerowska. The mushroom soup was served in a hollowed-out loaf that had been baked in a flowerpot! |
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We began Friday’s programme with a coach trip to the Ojców National Park. We had a short stroll along the Prądnik river to a small wooden chapel, dedicated to St Joseph the Worker and built in 1901. Then back in the coach to drive past Maczuga Herkulesa, Hercules’ club, a tower of rock precariously balanced with the wide end up and the narrow end down, to Pieskowa Skała, a fourteenth century castle, extensively remodelled in the Renaissance, and housing a fine collection of European art where a very knowledgeable curator gave us an excellent guided tour.
After lunch in the castle café, we returned to Krakow to visit the Czartoryski Museum – including Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Lady with an Ermine, and the Galeria w Sukiennicach (the Cloth Hall Gallery), which houses a fine collection of 19th century Polish paintings. The Cloth Hall also contains an extensive range of souvenir shops, with amber jewellery and wooden figures. Then – an extra treat – a boat trip along the river, and the day ended with dinner at the idiosyncratic Restaurant Villa Decjusza.
Saturday was another packed day, beginning with Wawel Castle and Cathedral, an impressive complex of Gothic and Renaissance buildings on a steep promontory right next to the Hotel. Then on to the former Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, for a walking tour ending at the Old Synagogue, now a museum. After lunch in the square, about half our number made the sobering visit to Auschwitz where the guide, a young student with excellent English, made the message even more heart rending by her matter-of-fact telling of the dreadful happenings there.
Dinner in the evening was in another interesting restaurant on the main square, Restaurant Wentzl.
Our last morning saw a visit to the amazing Wieliczka Salt Mine, the oldest salt mine in Europe, with a frightening descent by mine cage in the dark and revelations of salt sculptures of unbelievable size and complexity. We then had a final lunch at Restaurant Halit, before our flight back to sweltering Gatwick. |
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