Krakow

This has been a great trip so far.  So far I’ve been to  Warsaw, Szrensk, Troszyn, Ostrołęka, Płock, Bochnia, Wielicka, Wadowice and Krakow.  Of these cities so far, Krakow is my favorite.  It’s a city where men were crowned kings, a dragon was slain, …and even a woman was crowned king for a time.  After she died, hubby took over.  A fave thing  of mine is walking thru a city and just can’t stop staring at all the architecture.  The houses, churches, castles…  Just so much, it' was a feast for the eyes., 

We arrived on a Tuesday as soon as we checked in we headed right out the door to start a whole lotta walking that we would end up doing that week.  I felt like by the end of it that I had worn my feet out.  And now have to check out a clicky left ankle.  It used to start clicking a while after I’ve been walking, but now I take a few steps and it starts right away.  Anyways…  We found our way over to the Castle Wawel which was a good mile from our hostel, but we arrived pretty late and most exhibits were already off the menu for the evening.  We decided to hit it another day and take time looking at everything.  From there we strolled over to the Jewish quarter.  Mom felt that it was a bit scraggly and said that we shouldn’t be in the area after dark, she thought it might be a dangerous area.   We walked a bit more and ran into a few popular streets where there were  tons of tourists.  We ended up at a restaurant/pub called Stajnia.  There was also a hostel called by the same name.  Mom and I had an amazing dinner.  just see for yourself

 

I had the steak and mom some ribs.  Both were so lip smacking good. 

 

Day 2   the 25th

Mom and I traveled by bus to a town called Bochnia.  There I went to visit the grave of my best friend Simon Karecki.  He past away 10yrs ago on the 13th of May.

There was one of those moments where you know someone is looking out for you and I do believe it was Simon.  I had a picture of what the site looked like and I knew we were headed in the right direction based on the trees I saw in the picture which was odd enough. I picked out trees from an entire cemetery.  ???  My mom was saying to herself under her breath, Simon please help us find the way over to where you are,  no sooner did we come across 2 ladies attending to a grave and mother stopped to ask them where the area of his grave might be.  We had the area, row and plot but didn’t know where the markers were.  Just as my mom asked them, I looked at the grave they were attending and I said “Mom, we’re here. Here is Simon.”  The women are old family friends of Simon’s family.  My mom was a little shocked by this.  No sooner did she ask him for help we came right up to him.  We placed flowers and candles at his grave and spoke with ladies.  They knew I was coming but had no idea as to when, so it was a big coincidence that we arrived when we did.  We told them that after we wanted to visit the salt mines in town. It is one of the biggest in the world and oldest as well.  They were going to give us a lift,  They left us and told us they would meet us at the entrance of the cemetery and gave me some alone time with Simon.

We met up with them but changed plans, we instead took them out to lunch and chatted up a bit to learn a bit about the town and Simon’s mom when she was younger.  They all knew Simon as a kid growing up and always kept tabs on his growing up and his success.  I opted not to go to the mines so we instead could grab a bus and go to the town of Wadowice where Pope John Paul II grew up.  here is some info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadowice  We got there a bit late to see the museum and his house was under renovations, but we were able to attend a mass that started just as soon as we walked into the church.  Mom was really happy about that.  She intends on going to Poland again soon and will revisit that town earlier in the day and hopes the renovations to his family home will be done by then.

I will continue this later………