Krakow trip

Our friends Jim and Mabelle called us last Monday and asked if we wanted to take a quick trip to Krakow, Poland. Never ones to turn down an opportunity to travel, we of course accepted and headed out early Tuesday AM. Our drive took a little longer than planned due to construction and heavy rains, so when we hit the city limits we were all on the lookout for our hotel.

Tom spotted this sign ... (if you can't read it, it says KRAK Motel). Perhaps someone should let them know that's not a great choice for a name?

We actually stayed at the Hotel Chopin, which was a very nice, reasonably -priced hotel. The staff were great, and the young lady on reception even promised to do her best to make it stop raining. She must have had some influence somewhere, because the rain did stop immediately after our check-in, and we went out to explore the town.

Street scene.....

The Market Square in the evening, featuring the Adam Mickiewicz Monument. Old Adam apparently was a poet, and his statue makes a convenient meetingplace in the square. If you look closely, you can see rows of little market stalls behind the statue. It appears that they were setting up the stalls in preparation for some major festivities (we didn't find out what) and we were disappointed that they were not open while we were there.

We did find the permanent shopping area known as Cloth Hall which is now full of stalls that market souvenirs ranging from cheap touristy items to very expensive pottery, amber, gold & silver jewelry, and crystal. We found the prices in Krakow to be more reasonable than in Prague.

A typical stall...

The market square pigeons... these guys are used to being fed by the passers-by, and some are fairly tame. We watched as a young girl grabbed one, showed it to her little brother, then tucked it under her arm and strolled away with it. Instant pet?? I wanted one too, but Jim said I couldn't take it in the car :-(

These young ladies were a troop of Girl Guides singing to raise money for their programs...

We did walk past the Wawel Castle, which is a much smaller version of Prague's landmark. We didn't even go inside the walls or take a photo!!

Hunger finally called us into a nearby restaurant, Pod Wawelem Kompania Kuflowa, where the Warka beer was served in litre mugs, (normal is 0.5l) and all the meals appeared to be super-sized. Mabelle ordered the chicken skewer, thinking it might be a lighter meal.

This is how it was served.....

The meal ended with a complimentary shot of cherry vodka - great place!

On Wednesday morning, we went back to the markets and made our selections- earrings for me, and a bracelet for Mabelle. We also stocked up on cherry vodka :-)