Poland Day 3- Old Town, Krakow

Day 3- Polish love color and it's very evident in their churches and pottery. We did not take pictures inside of the churches, as it wasn't allowed, but I did include some links to beautiful images I found online.

First we walked through the gate, then through the Cloth Hall. Nothing too exciting even though this is aparently a very popular destination. Lots of stalls of vendors selling junk we didn't need or want.
St. Francis Basillia (?)  Included a 10 min audio guide for free that was really well done and told a lot about the church. The kids all got one as well, and really enjoyed it and it helped them. This church was beautiful. No pictures inside, but you can see an image of how colorful and gorgeous it is here. Then we got to go to adoration with the exposed Blessed Sacrament.

Then we went to St. Mary's in the square. Walked in and Mass was still going on. Therefore, we went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Then we went back to St. Mary's. There's an entrance to the church to pray, then there's an entrance for tourists who have to pay. We went in to pray. We got to walk through Holy Doors while here. During the year of Mercy, if you walk through Holy Doors, say the Creed, think about the Lord's Mercy, pray for the Pope's intentions, and receive the Eucharist, you get a plenary indulgence. We were able to do all but receive Communion. This Church was beautiful from what we could see. We stayed in the prayer area and prayed and looked around while praying. We weren't that interested in paying to see the rest. We also got to go to adoration here. There is a famous altar piece that is beautiful and I believe was lost/stolen during WWII, but we did not pay to go see it up close. Again, as you can tell, lots of color.

Afterwards, we sat in the square for a while and heard the trumpeteer of Krakow. Legend has it that the firemen would climb the tower and blow the bugle to sound a fire alarm, or if an enemy was attacking. Once, when the city was under attack, a man sounded the alarm, and was either shot by an arrow, or had his throat slit mid-melody. So to this day, they stop in the middle of the tune.  The kids loved listening to it. It plays in each direction.

Then we headed to Wawel castle, with a stop in St. Peter's and St. Paul's. We got to pray in the Blessed Sacrament chapel while here. As we were exiting, they had some very graphic anti-abortion pictures. We ended up having a long discussion about abortion. We weren't exactly ready, but it opened up the door.

We finally arrived at Wawel Castle. We were too late to visit the treasury and other things (That are free on Monday, but only until 1pm), but we were fine with this. We then went in Wawel Cathedral, where yet again, we got to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. It was just after 3pm, the time of our Lord's Death, so we lead the kids in a decade of the Divine Mercy Chaplet (Their attention spans were done at this point in the day, and we were lucky to get one decade!) We could have paid to see the crypt and bell tower, but we decided not to. We later regretted this when we found out John Paul II said his first mass in the crypt. We also could have paid for an audio guide, but realized it after the fact. I love audio guides, so was a bit disappointed. Truth is, by this point in the day, we were pretty tired and warn out.

Afterwards, we walked out of the castle and down to the Vistula (the river). There is a legend of a dragon in the dragon's cave that Hannah knew all about and wanted to tell us about, so we went down to find the cave. It was closed up, but there were some awesome rocks to climb. The kids spent a good 45 min climbing them and having a blast, while I sat with our stuff and people-watched. Then we headed back, grabbing ice cream on our walk to keep the kids walking without complaining. Eggy burritos for dinner with discussion of concentration camps, Oscar Shindler, and how everyone is important and God made everyone for a reason (The kids' conclusion after discussing more about the camps). Then baths and bed for exhausted kids.

A daddy and his girls

The Cloth House in the background

St. Mary's Basilica. The tower on the left is where the trumpeteer still plays every hour.

Wawel Castle

How Beka rolls on vacation.

Wawel Cathedral. So many different styles for one church!

Yes, she just had surgery two weeks ago. She looks so grown up with the side ponytail!

Our family with St. Pope John Paul II

Climbing on the rocks of the cave of the fire-breathing dragon

It breathes fire about every 5 minutes. 

Day 1: Reservations and Day 1
Day 2: Bastei Bridge
Day 3: Old Town, Krakow
Day 4: Salt Mines and Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
Day 5: Shindler's Factory and Shrine of Divine Mercy
Day 6: Auschwitz Memorial

Poland-Day 2 Bastei Bridge

Day 2- We left Dresden, and went to the Bastei Bridge- a rock formation that towers 194m over the Elbe River. There was a bridge built in 1824 to link all the rocks together. It was about an hour from Dresden, then Krakow was 5 hours from there. We had all intentions of just seeing the bridge, then leaving, and making it to the 7pm Mass at the Shrine of Divine Mercy for the Divine Mercy Mass (It was Divine Mercy Sunday). However, we had gone to Mass the night before in Dresden just in case we didn't make it. This was wise, as the bridge was so amazing we spent longer than we thought, and did not make the mass.

We all LOVED the bridge and rock formation. It was a great start to the day, taking a good 3 hours walking through the rocks. The rock formations are breathtaking. It is said that it use to all be under a large sea bed and this is what is left behind. The other great thing was that it gave all of us something "fun" to do for the day instead of 5 hours of driving, and it made the kids a bit tired for the 5 hour drive. After visiting the rocks, we got some ice cream for the kids, a coffee for Jon and a cake (due to low sugars) for Aimee.

We were able to make the long drive to Krakow with only one stop to stretch legs and use the bathroom. We found our apartment and parking, which was a struggle to some degree. I said in my last post it was not a place I would recommend. We made the reservation through booking.com. I normally have great experience through the rentals. This one said all children 6 and under stay free. When I entered our numbers, booking charged me for the two under six, so I booked for 4 and immediately sent the owner a message verifying that we had 6, and was this ok. He said not a problem, let him know a few days in advance. I let him know 5 days in advance, then again 2 days in advance when I heard no reply. He replied to that message telling me parking was available. Also, it said that our card would be charged prior to arrival, and the fee of parking was included in the total.

When we checked in, he had his friend show us the apartment. NOT what we were expecting. There was a bed made up, and blankets laying out for another. He said they did not know we were a party of 6, so only had 4 pillows. We said that was fine, as we brought our own. After he left, we realized there was a set of sheets for one pull out couch, but those sheets 1- did not fit that couch, and 2- there was none for the other couch. We made due, using duvet covers to cover the beds, and the duvets as blankets themselves. When we pulled one of the couches out, it was so incredibly gross I about gagged. They had three gross mattress in a balcony area that we used one of to make the nasty, sagging couch a bit better. There was also only 4 bath towels and 1 kitchen towel for our 5 night stay. I put fresh socks on one morning, and by the time we left, the bottom of my feet were b;ack. The rug was covered in spots. The apartment had the potential to be really nice, but they didn't try very hard. Broken pieces were just laying in corners. Good thing was it was super cheap (you get what you pay for!) and it was super close to the downtown area. Also, we were asked for cash when we arrived. Thankfully I had read a review from 3 days before we left that said they expected cash and didn't charge the card like it said, so I was prepared. Parking was in a guarded lot a block away, and we had to pay them, so it was not part of the rent. The apartment met our needs, but I was very excited to go to our next hotel that was spotless and clean.

Day 1: Reservations and Day 1
Day 2: Bastei Bridge
Day 3: Old Town, Krakow
Day 4: Salt Mines and Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
Day 5: Shindler's Factory and Shrine of Divine Mercy
Day 6: Auschwitz Memorial

The bridge that was built in 1824 from the other side of the rocks.

From the bridge looking down at the rocks you can walk through.

Looking how far down it goes.

Stretching their legs at the rest stop.

Poland-Reservations and Day 1

Knowing that our time in Germany and Europe is ending pretty soon, I set out in January to plan one trip we'd been wanting to make-Poland. I wanted to get to Krakow before World Youth Day, so I planned for April. I knew it'd be rough, because I had a personal trip planned for the end of April, but we went for it anyway.

Things we did before we left-made reservations at Auschwitz and at Shindler's Factory, an apartment in Krakow, and hotels in Dresden and Boleslawiec. I will not share the Krakow apartment, as I would not recommend it. But I will share hotels.

Dresden apartment was wonderful. Easy parking behind the hotel that was suppose to be €6, but we were not charged. It had an optional kitchen, but we did not know this when we booked the hotel. Their website does have information about it though. We had this booked for 5, and asked for a cot for the 2yo. There wasn't a cot, but the bed was plenty big for the 3 girls to share, and our son had a single bed alone. There was also a couch that looked like it could fold out. Apparently breakfast may have been included, but again, did not know this, so we had cereal in our room for breakfast.

The Boleslawiec hotel, Hotel Ambasada, was a fancy hotel with a huge super king bed, and 4 single beds. We really enjoyed it. It included a nice huge breakfast.

Important things we packed, that I'm sharing because it's good info if you stay in apartments-kitchen scrubbies and soap, kitchen towels and washcloths (because they always seem to give ONE kitchen towel for you to use all week!) and a few regular washcloths because Europeans don't use them apparently. I wish we had packed a few extra blankets and towels, as our apartment was crap and lacked on linens (not even really enough for the beds, but we made do) and only gave us 4 towels for 5 days. Note to self, you get what you pay for. I don't recommend the apartment where we stayed.

Day 1-We got on the road by 10am, which was my goal. We drove to Dresden and checked in to our hotel. It had great parking behind the building and was very nice and cozy. The ONLY complaint was there was no coffee in the room. :) We drove in to the downtown area, parked in a garage and attended Mass in the Cathedral in Dresden. It was Divine Mercy Sunday, the day that 8 years ago, I entered the church. Mass was in German, but we understood enough of it to follow along. Jon had downloaded the readings on his ipod, so we all shared the ipod to know what the readings were. Afterwards, we walked around until we found somewhere to eat dinner- an american style restaurant called "Alex". It was decent, but took forever and our food was not made the way we ordered, We left after 9pm to head back and get some sleep for the next day of driving.

We did not get to see much of Dresden, but what we did see was very beautiful. If we have the chance, I would love to go back and see more of it, and would easily stay in the same hotel.

Here are all of the other blog posts:

Day 2: Bastei Bridge
Day 3: Old Town, Krakow
Day 4: Salt Mines and Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
Day 5: Shindler's Factory and Shrine of Divine Mercy
Day 6: Auschwitz Memorial