Arriving in Poland, we did not visit her capital city of Warsaw, instead, the tour itinary brought us to Krakow which had most of the attractions. Krakow is one of the most culturally significant cities in Poland and it was also the central site of the Nazi Government during the WWII.
Our city tour in Krakow...
It was particularly wet and cold that morning, and the winds were strong.
I wondered where Spring went?!
Brrr... it was freezing, could hardly smile!!
Our city tour in Krakow...
It was particularly wet and cold that morning, and the winds were strong.
I wondered where Spring went?!
Brrr... it was freezing, could hardly smile!!
We visited the Wawel cathedral which is Poland's most important national sanctuary, housing many objects of art from the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Classicist periods. The cathedral is also the resting place of Polish royalty, national heroes, famous Polish poets and countless bishops of Krakow. These were not the most memorable thing for me in Krakow, it was this...
This is apparently the remain of a dragon bone, as legend told in the "Kadlubek" from the turn of the 13th century. The chronicle indicated that a dragon did indeed live on the Wawel Hill. Finally some evidence of the existence of fantastical creatures! I love it!
Our city tour continued into the city square of Krakow where St Mary's Church stood.
The highlight of the church is its interior featuring the magnificent wooden altar piece and the walls has more than 200 carved and painted figures and panels which depict medieval life in detail.
The rich colours got me in awe.
(take note that picture taking in the cathedral is chargeable by the church. A church guard goes around issuing photo-passes at 1 euro each)
What is interesting about this cathedral is also the lone trumpeter in the high tower who plays the trumpet hourly in the four directions of North, South , East, West to mark each hour. This is to commemorate an unknown bugler who was struck in the throat by an arrow when he tried to warn the city of invaders centuries ago.
It was time for lunch which the tour provided that afternoon.
It was really cold in Krawkow that day and it was just comforting being treated to a bowl of hot soup!
And surprise!!! There was rice in the soup!
Interesting combi... tomato soup and rice!
Felt very Japanese..
Opting for the vegetarian menu, we were also treated to the Polish version of a dumpling.
filled with potato stuffings.
An interesting treat we tried in Krakow was also the bagel...
We saw many locals eating it for lunch and decided to give it a try.
It might look plain, but there is actually a slightly salty flavour to it which makes the bagel enjoyable on a really cold day.
Besides, the bagel, the Placki, somewhat like a rosti, with your choice of gravy and fillings also makes a really great afternoon tea snack or a light lunch!
and of course i got my mandatory gelato fix for the day... :-p
In Krakow, we also opted for an optional tour to the salt mine which is a UNESCO world heritage site.
Excited like a little kid because it was my first time visiting a mine!
Taking a lift down saved us some walking distance, but we still had to take several flights of stairs down.
The mine was a huge maze and we were 130 metres deep into the ground!
It felt like being in another world without sunlight! Surreal!
Salt everywhere! I couldn't resist and decided to taste the wall and it was really salty!
The ceiling above... the stalagmites looked like they were to fall anytime! But it was quite safe actually!
The most interesting parts of the mine were the chapels that were built by the miners when the salt mine was still open.
This was the nicest one, where wedding functions are often being held here.
Everything was made out of salt! Including the chandeliers! Really pretty!!
Another chapel built by miners...
Miners feared for their lives working in such harsh conditions in the mine so naturally they built many chapels.
It was an eventful visit to the mine and we were happy as we finally purchased our salt lamps at half the price of those in Singapore!
There are so many benefits to using salt lamps in homes that you can google online, and this was just such a great investment to make! (Do note though that one salt lamp is approximately 3-4kg so do check your baggage weight if you intend to buy one!)
At the end of the day, we were brought back to the really modern Novotel hotel, with free WIFI in the lobby! (which is so very important being such an internet addict i am!)
So far the tour has been great, everything was just taken care of so well by our tour leader from Singapore.
This comfort and arrangement of the tour really changed my perspective about going on group tours which i will share more in my upcoming posts!
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