If this is Tuesday, it must be Kraków

Difficulties in moving trains.
The difficulty in movement of trains on the route Kraków Plaszow - Kraków Bieżanów due to cable theft. Expected delay trains from 5 to 10 minutes.


We'd planned on taking the bus anyway. The above is from the train scheduling website that I use all the time. The fare's gone up from 3 to 4 zł and for the first time, we see what happens when you don't buy a ticket. About 10 minutes into the trip, two fairly shabbily dressed men suddenly turn into ticket inspectors. After questioning two people, the ticket police escort them off at the next stop. I believe the fine is 200 zł!

Kraków is a treat. The core of the city is surrounded by a park with the cheapest public toilets in the country. 1 zł if you have to sit down and .5 zł if you can stand up. My guess is that it cuts down on people peeing in the park. About half-way around, at the south end, is Wawel or Dragon Hill.

Here he is suffering from a little indigestion

And his offspring

Here's the video http://youtu.be/W84eVE1Vi8w

The hill is dominated by a huge cathedral and an equally huge castle, neither of which we cared too see. Just as well as there were huge lineups and separate admissions for each section of each of them.

Wawel Hill Cathedral

Wawel Hill Castle

Wawel Hill Castle

Detail of building next to Wawel Hill Cathedral

A view of Wawel Hill, Cathedral, and Castle with Wisła River

Kraków Building Detail

View from the park around the old city

Another view from the park

Detail of a museum seen from the park

Modern sculpture in the park

Before lunch, we make a detour to see the Japanese Museum of Art and Technology and get a nice surprise. It's free on Tuesdays. There's no sign of any technology but there is some nice art on display. One of the exhibits is designed to be walked on and through making us feel like part of the display. Lunch is at Endzior's, a little place in Plac Nowy in the Jewish quarter. We have two excellent zapiekanka, long pieces of bread with melted cheese, and your choice of toppings such as garlic sauce, more cheese, salami etc. It's the Polish version of pizza. We finish up just as the rain starts.

Street view close to the park

Commemorative statue of Grunwald near the Wieliczka bus stop in Kraków

Florian Gate at the north end of the park

Building detail close to the Rynek

A too common sight in any big city

Graffitus

In the Rynek (Old Market Square)

For the other kind of tourists

I can has oats - nom nom nom

More sights in the Rynek

Rynek Building

Then it's off to the Pharmacy Museum, an amazing collection of entire Apothecaries and thousand of artifacts. Here's a sampling:

Part of the Pharmacy Museum

This is a section of a complete pharmacy in the 5-storey museum

Worth reading

Barrels, retorts, and other paraphenalia

Stained-glass window dedicated to pharmacists

Wanna get weighed? This is a scale for weighing people.

By now, we've been walking for eight hours. We make a side trip to the huge shopping mall to pick up more batteries for the little cell-sucking camera. And while we're in Carrefour, I find a nice bottle of Madiran for about 21 zł. Then it's back on the 304 bus to Wieliczka for another nice dinner at the Va Banque.

This time, I have the salmon steak, Clarisse has pork filet with cheese and mushrooms, and we share some apple cake for dessert. With only two beers tonight, it's about 70 zł.