On the train again, this time a very slow one from Krakow to Zakopane. The scenic route. Good time to catch up on a few notes telling you where we’ve been.
The day before yesterday, we went first to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a vast underground salt mine 700 years old. When salt was worth about half its weight in gold, this was the source of Krakow’s wealth. In addition to excavation chambers and passageways, there are sculptures and dioramas carved in salt, many of them religious. The most impressive room is St. Kinga’s chapel, which includes chandeliers, sculptures, and floor tiles carved from salt and polished to a shine. (Including, as one tour guide intoned, the only sculpture of Pope John Paul II carved in salt. I giggled when I heard this—which got me a nasty stare from one gentleman. But honestly, where else are they going to be making statues carved in salt?) Wielizcka was one of the first monuments put on Unesco’s list.
(more pictures here)
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| Diorama showing the dwarves working in the salt mine when they discovered the egg from which the Krakow dragon was hatched. Honest, that's what our guide said. |
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| Emma in St. Kinga's Chapel |
After returning to Krakow, we got some lunch at Momo Café (vegan!) and walked around the former Jewish district in Kazimierz. This was originally a town outside of Krakow and had both Christian and Jewish sections, but now it’s just a neighborhood. Since Schindler’s List, there’s been quite a bit of tourism, which some people regard as exploitation and others regard as tribute. We arrived during the Jewish Cultural Festival, but we didn’t experience much of it except a little bit of klezmer music in the background. We did visit the Remuh Synagogue and the Remuh Cemetery, right next to it.
(more pictures here)
And we saw our friends the Warstadts!
In the evening, we saw this very cool exhibit about what they’ve found during archeological excavations on the main square in Krakow. We went down under the Cloth Hall and could see paving stones and artefacts from centuries ago … along with some really cool multimedia exhibits.
Yesterday was a bit of a mixed bag. We drove to Dunajec Castle in Niedzica, which has an interesting Peruvian connection. The castle definitely has a Dracula feel to it, and although it’s very old, it’s not in ruins. There were some interesting rooms all fitted up as they would have been in previous centuries, and great views of the countryside.
(more pictures here)
And then to our river rafting trip on the Dunajec River. This is a very popular tourist attraction, and the rafts are of a traditional sort, with greenery tied in the front and the boatmen using long poles to guide us downstream. The scenery as we wound our way through the mountains was spectacular, and although we occasionally hit a bit of white water, it was mostly placid. It would have been a lovely way to spend a sunny, warm day. Unfortunately, it was raining. Sometimes only a bit of a drizzle, but sometimes a true downpour. Emma and I both discovered that our raincoats weren’t as waterproof as we thought … Fortunately, it wasn’t too cold. But it felt SO good to get back into our driver’s car when we were done!
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| Our guide, who told delightfully amusing stories about the scenery that we couldn't understand because we don't speak Polish. |
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