The Adventures of Wickse, Eric & Sharon: Krakow

Here we are again in another city that we have long been keen to visit, yay!

After a lengthy drive from Spis Castle and through the Dukla Pass, we crossed the border for our first visit to Poland and headed towards Krakow. Quite a round about way to get from the Slovakian High Tatras to Krakow it must be said, and the very poor conditions of the Polish roads made it even more tenuous. But well worth it once we got there.

Parking up and getting ready to explore!

Cloth Hall, focal point of Rynek Glowny - the main square

Krakow was once the royal capital of Poland, and is crammed with medieval buildings, cobbled alleyways and Europe's largest medieval market square measuring something like 200m x 200m. It is filled with all sorts of interesting legends and remnants of history, quite nicely intertwined with modern day life. My favourite would have to be the hourly bugle call played from the highest tower of the very large St Mary's Church in the main square. The melody, which was played in olden times as a warning call, breaks off abruptly to symbolise the moment (according to legend) when the throat of a 13th century trumpeter was pierced by the arrow of an invading Tatar (Mongol). Nice touch in the 21st century huh.

St Mary's, with the trumpeting tower top left

Town Hall Tower

Poland is also the home of the famous composer Chopin, and so his legacy can be seen, heard and tasted throughout the city. Seen and tasted in the form of a commemorative vodka displayed in many a liquor store window, and heard wafting from many a street performer. We spent a very enjoyable evening sampling some of his aural legacy, along with a smattering of Mozart and Bach by a string quintet in St Peter and St Paul, one of the many glorious churches in the old town. In fact music was something that seemed to punctuate our visit to Krakow. Following the classical concert we ambled out into the main square to be greeted by the sight and sound that is the Polish Beatles, rockin' and rollin'and head shaking their way through such classics aas 'Hard Day's Night', 'She Loves You' and 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand'. I was quite transfixed by the hair actually. I couldn't work out if it was truly real or just wigs. Pretty impressive either way. One thing about the Beatles though, it's amazing just how easily their music cuts right across the generations, evidenced by the sight of children and their parents, young lovers and oldies all getting jiggy together, right there in the main square of Old Krakow town. Amen.

Church of St Peter & St Paul

Free live music, although of a completely different calibre, had been on offer the previous night too. We happened to be in Krakow on midsummer's night, and in accordance with tradition, the city was gearing up for the Festival of Wianki, where young maidens were going to prance around wearing a circlet of flowers before throwing them into the river (or at least that's the understanding I got from the waitress at the bar in the Sheraton where we had seeked refuge to watch an America's Cup race). And in order to get the maidens and everyone else in the midsummer mood the city fathers threw a giant outdoor 80's concert. The young chap at the information centre had very proudly shown me the set list and I was absolutely overwhelmed to see my own personal 80s favourites Bananarama on the play list!! Unfortunately though, the songs they had chosen to play for their two song set were more than a little before my time, and once we were back at the camping and safely sheltering from the cold in Wickse, nothing could get me out into the city again...not even a (potentially lipsynched version of 'Cruel Summer'.

Art for sale in the Old Town

Another highlight of the city was visit out to the salt mine of Wieliczka. Now normally a mine of any sort isn't such a massive drawcard for me, but Eric was chomping at the bit, and given my enthusiasm for the mockup at the Deutches Museum in Munich, I thought I should give it the benefit of the doubt - especially since it was going to be financed from the 'culture budget' and not the entertainment one. Once we and the 30 others on the English tour had manually descended the 135 odd metres into the bowels of the operation - or at least as far as they allow you access too - it was a different story, it was thoroughly amazing! They have been mining here since the middle ages, if not earlier, and we must have walked for at least 2km through this fascinating subterranean world. In almost every chamber there were superbly carved culptures hewn out of the salty rock, and even more compelling were the chapels (the miners over time had become devoutly religious, working as they did in such a dangerous environment). The largest and most glorious of them all measuring 54m by 17m and 12m high, complete with incredibly large chandeliers, crafted out of salt crystals. The chapel is regularly used for Sunday services and they also hold weddings here - can you just imagine!