With a little help and asking around, Jess and I went online and reserved a room at the Blue Hostel, and our train tickets to and from Kraków.  After we stocked up on food supplies for Jess, and got a good night’s sleep, our journey began! 

Our room at the Blue Hostel.

The Hostel was just outside, or maybe on the edge of, Old Town.

There was a little bar next door where we had a drink at the end of the day on Saturday, before retiring.

The Planty Garden

On your way in to Old Town you pass through this garden, which encircles the entire Medieval center.

It was built over the old moat, which was filled using the rubble from the devensive walls when they were torn down at the turn of the 18th century.

Nice Church

I’m not sure which church this is, but we saw it and it was empty, so we decided to poke our heads in.  It was very beautiful, but we were locked out of the main structure.

There was a woman praying next to us, as it seemed many came to do.  The sun was coming in and it made for a nice photo.

On our way to the Central Square

We passed a few large, ornate buildings, like this Theater.

There were also a few small, but beautiful gardens.

We wound our way through the narrow, cobbled brick streets and found an information booth, where we picked up a tourist guide and a small map.

Wawel Castle

Now with some direction, we went south and climbed Wawel hill to pay a visit to Wawel Castle.

The castle is set atop a hill, overlooking the Vistula river and the Old Town.

In the castle, there is a Cathedral where many of the Polish Kings were crowned and entombed.

Wawel Cathedral

We weren’t allowed to take photos inside of the cathedral, which is a shame because it was amazing.  I did get a few photos of the mismatched building from the outside.

Part of the tour included climbing the bell tower.  I’m not sure if photographs were allowed, but everyone was taking them, so why should we be different?

Sigismund Tower

There were several bells along the way up this tower.  All of them were huge.

To get up the tower, you had to squeeze between the posts, and clamber up some sturdy, but narrow, stairs.

It felt like we were climbing up a wooden spiderweb.

The bells (at least the topmost one) have been announcing important events and religious holidays since 1521!

Dragon’s Den

We didn’t pay for tickets to see the rest of the castle, so we bypassed the castle interior and went under it instead!

The Dragon’s Den is a cave that leads out under the castle.

The rock was full of small holes, almost as if the dragon dug out little holes for himself.

Vistula River

After emerging from the dark depths, we took a moment to sit on the banks of the Vistula and admire the view. 

The sun was lowering, leaving a sparkling trail in it’s wake.  A lot of other people shared our sentiment and sat for a bit, and took some photos.

Shopping

After our castle and cave exploration, we roamed around the town to see what the shops had to offer.

There were many street performers and artists.  We picked up a few of the drawings, but sadly, this bear couldn’t come with us.

Saint Mary’s Basilica

On Sunday, we had a little time to kill before our train left, so we saw a few of the other gems in Old Town.

The Basilica is far from the least of these!  It is a beautiful 14th century gothic church, built before the central square was even established.

The Basilica has two tall towers at it’s front.  A bugler plays a tune on the trumpet there every hour since the 16th century.  Before that, the trumpet wasy played at the opening and closing of the city gates, and as a signal in the event of invasion or other important event.

The Barbicon

Of course, with my love of castles, we couldn’t leave without exploring this.

The Barbicon is best preserved of the few remaining such devensive structures in all of Europe.

Before the walls were demolished, and the moat filled, this was the main entry into the city.

 

That’s the brief summary of our self-guided tour.  Next time we go, we plan to stay longer and take a guided tour of both the Salt Mines, and Auschwitz.  Not the most uplifting of places to visit, I’ll admit, but still an important piece of history, which will no doubt be very informative.

You can see all of the photos from our trip in my Kraków Photo Album

 

Oh yeah…  I got a hat…