High on Krakow
A bird’s eye view of Krakow
‘Up, up and away in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon‘
The 5th Dimension
It’s rare that I get a real bird’s eye view of a city, but I was thrilled to get exactly that when the Oldies took me up in a tethered balloon over beautiful Krakow. What fantastic views and what a lovely town! From my perch 150m high, I noticed what a colourful city it is too. From the red brick and green and gold cupolas of the older buildings, to the vibrant hues of the modern structures, the whole centre interspersed with the autumnal shades of the countless parks and tree-lined avenues.
Wawel Castle had looked quite dinky from the air, but back down on terra firma, I got the full impact of the scale of the complex. It’s huge! I’m sure it would take days to get around to every part of it. I was thankful that the Oldies were happy enough to stroll around the grounds and take in most of it from the outside, while I was able to take in more panoramic views of the city from the ramparts.
I was not overly happy however, when we later strolled past the sculpture of the famous Wawel Dragon outside its den below the castle. I got an unmerciful fright when the metal beast started spitting fire! The groups of kids posing for photos with this frightful creature appeared to be highly amused, but for goodness sake, visitors should be given due warning. Especially wooden ones like me!
In spite of its size, Krakow seems to be a very relaxed city. Traffic isn’t even an issue for us, as the Oldies have found a very centrally located apartment and we have been been able to do most of our exploring on foot. All that walking has certainly whetted our appetites for the wonderful international cuisine on offer. In the first few days alone, we got to sample Vietnamese, Georgian, Jewish/Israeli… not forgetting Polish cuisine, of course. Yes, there’s no danger of going hungry round here. On top of all those inviting restaurants, there’s no shortage of great street food such as Zapiekanki – Polish pizza to you and me – and the famous Obwarzanki Krakowski, Krakow pretzels, which are for sale on almost every corner.
Her Ladyship was particularly delighted with the wonderful pastries from local bakeries that she’s been sending Himself out to buy every morning. Muggins here could only stand back and watch as she tackled a walnut-filled croissant that was as big as her head. She gallantly worked her way through it alone, declining all offers of help. It took her three days, mind, but somehow she managed.
The Dynamic Duo visited many more of the major sights of course, and I’d be hard pushed to pick a favourite. I did especially like the Barbican, imagining myself perched high on one of those turrets, master of all I surveyed. We returned again and again to the wonderful Rynek Główny, Krakow’s main square, enjoying the buzz around the magnificent ‘Cloth Hall’ market hall and the landmark church, St. Mary’s Basilica.
As a masterpiece of carved wood myself, I was most impressed with the altarpiece by Veit Stoss in St. Mary’s Basilica. It was very reminiscent of the stunning altar by Master Pavel that we had seen in Levoca, Slovakia. I found this one particularly interesting as it has recently been restored, and the videos on view in the church showing various stages of the restoration were fascinating to watch. I wonder if they could do a job on me. I’m afraid I am showing a little wear and tear after all my recent travels and could do with a bit of a facelift.
One thing bugged me though: whenever we were on the Rynek Główny, I heard a trumpeter playing out a window in one of the towers of St. Mary’s every hour on the hour, infuriatingly stopping mid-way every time. ‘What is wrong with this chap?’ I thought. ‘Why can’t he just finish that tune for once?’ It turns out that this unfinished melody is played in honour of a 13th century trumpeter. The story goes that he was shot in the neck with an arrow just as he was sounding a warning that the city was under attack by the Tartars. Poor guy. He got it in the neck and was forced to change his tune, all in one fell swoop!
