Our first morning in Krakow. We set out to explore and before we even reached the town square the rain began. Good thing we came prepared!
It started to pour and everyone ran for cover under the Cloth Hall — a long building that is open in the center with shops and stalls. We wandered through looking at the various handicrafts and then headed across to the other side of the square to St. Mary’s church.
We were there at the opening and grabbed seats near the front to wait for the main event to be unveiled. This piece is a famous work of art by a woodcarver from way back when (too lazy to google) and his triptych is opened by a nun every morning.
They charged tickets for admission and then wanted people to pay a separate charge to take photographs. That annoyed me so I just snapped a quick freebie photo.
Ta dah! I was surprised to see that the sculpture was multi-colored, with tons of gold. I pictured natural wooden figures, but I should have known from the style of the church that they’d be over the top.
The theme for today was rain. Every time I was inside, the rain would stop. As soon as I’d step outside, I’d feel drops start up again. I guess I’ve been a little too vocal about my love of rain. Nature was listening and decided to deliver it all today.
Since the rain had gotten pretty heavy and it was about time for lunch, we brought Josh’s parents to the place we ate the night before. Hearty, homestyle Polish food: spicy goulash (an ugly name for beef stew), fried cabbage, and the biggest pork cutlet in town. Literally. It hung over both sides of my giant dinner plate. It was like the loaves and fishes — as much as we ate, there was still more. We finally packed it up and brought the rest home to eat later.
Time to walk off all that food — she’s leading the way.
Let’s go!
Next up on the schedule was St. Francis church with its special stained glass windows that Mom wanted to see.
As we sat and looked at the altar and the windows we noticed that the people coming to visit the church looked extra dressed up and some were carrying flowers. Carter came up with big eyes and said, “We need to get out of here before the service starts.” On his second church of the day, I’m sure he thought that once it started we’d be stuck for its entirety. Great thinking, kid.
Carter and I booked it out of there and retreated to the back of the church while the more religious in our party were reluctant to leave. From the back we could watch the entrance to the church and saw that most of those entering (coming out of the heavy rain) looked dressed for a wedding.
And here comes the bride!
Once the bride walked down the aisle we were desperate to leave (they were way up front and we could barely see them) so in between texts to Josh: “We aren’t staying for the entire service, are we?!?” we took selfies as a form of entertainment.
After leaving St. Francis we headed toward Wawel Castle where they happened to be having a renaissance fair this weekend.
Races on the grass below the castle tower.
It was a pretty miserable day for a renaissance fair. The rain was coming down pretty steadily and everything was wet, dark and cold. I figured it was a pretty accurate representation of how things were in the real Middle Ages. Less flutes and harps and more standing around under thin tents, shivering, coughing and dying. If it had been nice out, we would have stopped to make flower crowns, but I wanted to keep moving.
But my kids are suckers for weapons of any kind. The wooden bows, arrows and swords were too much to resist.
My little warriors.
From there we headed up into the castle and bought tickets to climb the tower. Inside was warm and dry.
Krakow is a gorgeous city
All the wet revelers below. Hope their mead is keeping them warm!
A view of the cathedral from the tower
After the tower we left the castle (by way of the Dragon’s Lair, an underground tunnel that goes under the old wall) and headed back up toward the main square.
It may be rainy, but there’s never a bad time for gelato. Pear, brazil nut, coconut, cherry and coffee. All fantastic.
After drying off and warming up we walked to get dinner at Chata (meaning cottage in Polish). More amazing food. Sauerkraut soup with ribs, potato pancakes with gravy, pierogi, fried cabbage with kielbasa, and hot spiced wine.
Perfect for a rainy night!