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| A long-distance view of a tower and part of the castle |
After the sobering experience of Auschwitz and the tears that were shed by many, we were left almost entirely free (except for a planned dinner) the next day. I woke up a bit later in the day after catching up on sleep but still set off in the morning for Wawel Castle. This big castle up on a hill in the middle of downtown Krakow was not part of our city tour the previous day because it would have taken so much time to see the whole thing and the tour had so much else to see. I knew it was a place I had to come back to on my own.
As I remarked about the cities in general in my first post on my Krakow experiences, Wawel Castle also is more accessible, if slightly less impressively imposing, than Prague Castle. I really felt like I could live in Wawel Castle, and I endeavor to purchase it in the near future as a summer residence. The castle is very beautiful, possessing several towers with turrets, secure walls, a great view of the surrounding town, and a beautiful cathedral within.
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| A model of the Wawel Castle complex |
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| Inside the bell |
I simply walked around the castle grounds for a while, looking at the building and exploring the nooks and crannies. I didn't feel I had enough time really to do as much of this as I wanted to (better come back to Krakow... Sometime...). After this though, I headed over to take a look inside the beautiful cathedral that is in the center of the castle. It's not as large as the cathedral in Prague Castle, nor as colorful as the one in Krakow's Market Square, but it did have a rich, dark splendor with black and red marble inside. I couldn't really get pictures but I did take some video of the inside, since photos weren't really allowed. One of the unique aspects of this cathedral was being able to visit the royal crypts and also go up the bell tower to see the Sigmund Bell that is rung at the top - it is huge! After coming back down from the bell tower I went out to the museum, to which my ticket gave me access. It was really cool to see religious artifacts of Catholicism and particularly Poland and Polish Catholicism dating back almost a thousand years. It was especially neat to see clothes worn by and items used by Pope John Paul II, especially having seen his Polish residency/palace from before he was Pope the day before on the tour.
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| View from the bell tower! |
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| From the central square of Wawel Castle |
After making my way through the Cathedral, I bought a ticket for some of the inside of the Castle and made my way to the Castle's central square. It was a very impressive central square, which furthered my conviction that I should purchase the estate. Unfortunately I didn't have the time or the understanding of how best to tour each and every available inside area. Instead I went through the state rooms, which were very impressive! Unfortuantely I don't have too many photos because it was forbidden, but I will add a few more of the castle before going on to talk about the salt mines.
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Dad, I was hoping
you could build that piece for me... |
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| A big turret |
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| The gate in |
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| More evidence I should live here... |
Before the salt mines I returned to the cathedral in downtown Krakow in the Market Square. I went back to take photos of this unique cathedral. Though we toured it the previous day, I had not taken photos because I did not have a pass. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and thus not as impressive inside. Still, the amazing
wooden tableaux behind the altar and the bright, highly unusual colors of the interior made this a unique, must see location.
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| From the outside |
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| A view inside |
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| A view to the back with the colorful walls, ceiling, and the organ |
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| The famous wooden tableaux |
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| The supports hopefully holding this chamber up |
Now - the salt mines. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to do all of the fine-tuning necessary to carefully edited photos taken in such a low-light situation. That said, I will post a representative selection of photos here from the salt mines. Perhaps when I get back I will put up a photo gallery online. Internet in any of the countries I'm visiting, and even in Austria, is unfortunately not good enough to upload while I'm here. The salt mine tour was an amazing tour of the 700 year old salt mines that thrived outside Krakow and were one of Poland's biggest resources for many years. The mine has nine levels, 3000 chambers, and countless corridors and shafts. We were down there for two hours and apparently saw less than 1% of the mine despite venturing 135 meters under ground, down thousands of steps (we took a lift up). Even the oldest miners have not seen it all. Most amazing however, was seeing the chambers inside the mine. This included various chapels (and the one massive chapel) and some lakes. There are also many very impressive salt sculptures carved by the miners.
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