Poland To Czech Republic

Another day...another country! We have moved on to the Czrech Republic! I will keep this post brief as it was mostly a travel day and nothing of note happened. Our minibus was regulated by strict laws with maximum speeds and driver breaks. So it did make the drive longer than it would have been by private car. Martin took the opportunity to give us the low down on Czech history. The information was all begining to get fuzzy...

We arrived in Prague just before dinner. As per usual, Martin gave us a brief orientation talk and restaurant recommendations. We suffered from the "been on the bus for too long" phenomenon whereby tiredness was disproportionate to exertion levels...

Our hotel, Hotel Elite, was in a renovated building dating back to the 14th century. It was conveniently located at the border between the "Old" town and the "new" town. However, the call of the modern shopping mall across the road was too powerful for us to resist. You would have thought the children had never seen a shopping centre before...we had a quick dinner and I slept, still unwell, while Mal went out to explore the bars in the area.

Our first meal in the Czech Republic...Indian 😂

Ceiling in our hotel.

Stairs going to second floor

So happy to be in a mall...

Dinner time!

Krakow

Our driver had the day off today so Martin organised a small fleet of taxis that were all prepaid and given instructions. Given that only one of us had converted any Euro to Polish Zloty this was very handy. Even more handy was the jar at the front of the bus that was full of coins in various currencies for use on toilet stops en route! We found that we could use credit cards almost everywhere else in Krakow so two days without cash was better than ending up with a stack of useless change. The Oskar Schindler Factory was our first stop. We had a prebooked tour. I'm not sure if you can do it without one, but even if you can, arrive early because when we were leaving we saw the entrance line stretched out through the door, onto the street and around the corner - and it was freezing! Our tour guide was an extremely friendly, eager to please lady with a bubbly disposition that was in stark contrast to the sombre reminders of the past. The tour took about 90 minutes. It was highly informative, and just let the story and primary resources tell the story without any hyperbole or propaganda. It has been fascinating to hear how individual cities and countries dealt with the pressures placed on them by the developing Third Reich and the rise of Stalin. It has also been fascinating to observe how each of these countries survived until the 1989 wave of change and have played a game of catch up with the west ever since. It occured to us after the tour that the focus was not really on Oskar Schindler despite the many references. It was on the people of Krakow.

A tribute to the Spielberg film "Schindler's List" at the administrative building of the factory where the museum is

Someone we know who was at the Jewish getto in Krakow

A translation of his writing. He escaped just before the liquidation of the getto

The actual factory building is now the museum of contemporary art

Faces of the jews on "Schindler's list"

Niusia was one of the youngest factory workers in Schindler's factory and her story was used in Spieldberg's film

Jonah has always been a non ficiton buff. It was encouraging to see him download a Netflix series concerning WWII. Hopefully he doesn't just fast forward to the bits with tanks and planes! He can be quite sensitive, so coming here rather than taking the trip to Auschwitz was a wise move.

The weather was bitterly cold in Krakow. It was only in the single minus digits, but to a bunch of Australians the "feels like" factor was significant. Fingers and toes were aching and exposed skin was stinging. Fortunately, Martin reads a crowd well and he had good subject matter. He took us on a walking tour of the castle and rest of the Old Town that was perfect for the occasion. He kept us interested with snippets of myths and legends, kept us moving to keep us from freezing and deposited us into a lovely warm restaurant when our spirits and attention span was starting to wane. We preserved sufficient cerebral blood flow to recall the tales of dragons, brotherly betrayal, murder and the concept of a Polish nation which has teetered between independence and subservience over the centuries. Kraków served as the royal capital from the 14th century to the very end of the 16th century with Wawel Castle being its centrepiece. We climbed the stairs to the castle before exploring the royal route towards the Floriańska Gate where we would  eventually end our tour.

The Wawel dragon

Wawel castle complex with St Stanislaus Cathedral in the background

The stunning renaissance courtyard

11th Century St Andrew. The only church to survive the Mongol attacks

Lunchtime! The famous Polish sour soup

Pierogi lucky dip...

Lunch was at the Wesele Restaurant in the main square. The food was delightful and before we'd even ordered we were given large amounts of bread and butter which were replenished multiple times. The kids had and enormous shared platter of pierogi (dumplings) and were having fun playing lucky dip with the flavours since they all looked the same. Potato dumplings were the losers and were met with laughter from the two who didn't choose poorly.

After lunch we walked through the largest medieval square in Europe ending up at a university funded by a dead queens treasure. The university was funded by the treasure because it was the queens final will. Too bad for the children!

Cloth Hall

Inside the Cloth Hall

Ornate pillars

Town Hall bell tower

Something that is NOT old in the city...

Jagiellonian University, Poland's oldest

The inner courtyard where students would stand while the teachers stood on the balcony and delivered their lectures

Apparently people come to Krakow to buy these!

So many of these around! They are not cheap!

Largest medieval square in Europe

Pretty streets everywhere

Florianska Gate

The gate from the inside

Break time!

Donut anyone?!?

14th Century St Mary's Basilica

After a long day walking we all rested up for a bit at the hotel before embarking on a mini-tour of the Jewish Quarter that ended at our dinner reservation. This was a concert/dinner that was certainly memorable. The concert was a three piece ensemble of violin, accordian and double bass that performed their own arrangements of classic Polish Jewish folk songs. They played with plenty of emotion with closed eyes and gently swaying bodies. Together with the 1930s Jewish grandma chic decor and various artworks, framed newspaper clippings and old photographs lining the wall it was quite dramatic. For an older generation of Jewish heritage people it must be quite emotional.

The food was probably not to our tastes on the whole. Some meals were lovely, such as the broth with matsa ball. Others were well cooked and nice to try, but would be unlikely to ever appear on our weekly meal lists. We walked home exhausted, but well fed ready for our long journey to Prague the next day.

Jewish quarter. Facade made to recreate what it was like pre-war

Second oldest synagogue in Krakow (16th century). Now a bookstore

Jewish dinner

It was a former home for a wealthy jewish family

Soup with matza ball

A VERY large duck

Magakiki! A very thin and crisp chocolate and nut mixture

Jewish music

Slovakia to Poland

It was meant to be a quick stop to Poland but there wasn't anything quick about today. The snow that had been falling since our arrival at Stary Smokovec continued to fall with a vengence. It was as if the snow knew it had some catching up to do. Unfortunately for us, that meant difficult driving conditions. Combined with holiday traffic, it turned our 3 hour drive to Krakow across the Tatras into a 6 hour drive with the bus often not moving at all. Martin used this time to school us on all things Poland...and then all things Krakow, before moving on to Polish architecture and economics. When he finished, we were still nowhere near Krakow!

Snowy scenes

Never ending snow...

Mal had his entertainment sorted

By this time, strict driving regulations also meant our driver was required to have a 45 minute break. We had a traditional Polish meal booked for lunch at Krakow which we had to cancel. Martin, our guide, did well to find an alternative. A cosy and rustic restaurant seemingly in the middle of nowhere! The waitresses even wore traditional dress and shoes. The family braved Barszcz czerwony (beetroot soup with dumpling), zurec (sour soup with sausage, egg and potato) and pierogi (the polish version of the Slovak dumplings with meat). The meals were heavy, hearty but delicious. Best of all, the total for all 11 of us including alcohol and tip came to AUD90! We were hoping that the traffic would have eased during lunch but it was not to be. The van crawled its way towards Krakow and we finally arrived at 4:30pm. By now, it was dark and wet. We unanimoulsy decided to can our Old Town walking tour. Martin will instead try to squeeze one it tomorrow.

Look at the decor!

Let's move from sitting on the bus to sitting in a restaurant!

Zurek!

Our hotel was in Kazimierz, the historical Jewish Quarter. We explored the surrounding restaurants but settled for Chinese. We didn't even bother to make a token protest. The food was not authentic but was "chinese" enough. It was quick, it was hot and it was cheap. Win!!

It always stumps me how being in a car or a bus all day can be tiring. I mean, I'm not physically exerting myself...how does that translate to exhaustion?!? Having my asthma play up probably didn't help. My chest wall hurt and I've had enough of nocturnal coughing. Darn you Sydney smoke, what have you done to my lungs!?! I'm hoping this will resolve quickly...

Boutique hotel in a newly renovated old building

we had a large room

Spacious bathroom

Funky food trucks all closed because we were too early!

Chinese it is!