Krakow in a day

The next day I went to explore Krakow Old Town and the Jewish Quarter. I started in the Old Town which was very near my hotel.

Old Town Main Square

There is a central building in the Main Square called the Cloth Hall. It is packed with stalls from one end to the other selling souvenirs, jewellery, leather goods, hats and scarves, and lots and lots of amber. Apparently amber is the national gemstone of Poland and has been a trading commodity for centuries.

I didn't buy anything. Most of it is stuff you can buy in any shop in Krakow and I'm not here for souvenirs. Experiences and photos are enough for me.

Cloth Hall

Town Hall Tower

Then I was off to wander the streets. I found an old Dominican Church that was pretty fabulous... I always give a small donation when I go into these churches to take photos because I feel like such a heathen! I don't touch the holy water, or cross myself, or light candles. I don't sit and pray or 'take a moment'. I just think they look gorgeous and they are very peaceful places, but I do feel like an intruder...

Unfortunately the next group of photos also won't let me access them so you'll just have to take my word for it. I went into a Franciscan church directly opposite this one, and even more beautiful. Then I took a tram across the Vistula River that runs through Krakow and into the area that was known as 'the ghetto', where the Jewish people were housed and persecuted. There is a square called 'Place Bohaterów Getta' (or Ghetto Heroes Square) which played a big part in the lives of the people of the time. As I can't post photos, here is a link to a site with some. It has many empty chairs places across it to signify the empty spaces left by those who were taken away or killed.

After that I went to the Under the Eagle Pharmacy Museum. This is the site of a pharmacy in the ghetto that was allowed to keep trading supposedly to provide for the few remaining wealthy citizens and some of the gestapo, but actually helped many of the needy locals by supplying otherwise unavailable medicines and treatments free of charge. The website is here. But there is much more to the pharmacy than just looking at old tinctures and bandages. When you open the drawers and the cupboards there are displays within of life in the ghetto. You can pick up the phone on the pharmacist's desk and hear the pharmacy staff being interviewed after the war about the atrocities that they witnessed, and there are many other interactive exhibits.

My next stop was the museum that has been set up in Oskar Schindler's old enamel factory (of Schindler's List fame). This is possibly the best museum that I have ever been to and I am so disappointed that I have lost the photos of this place more than any others. The museum isn't so much focused on the work that Mr Schindler did in helping many Jewish people escape a fate in the concentration camps, but in the lives of the people during the Nazi occupation of Poland in general. It starts in 1939 and follows the general timeline of the war.

I really wish that I had seen this before I went to Auschwitz. It put a really human face on the daily lives of the people before they ended up in the concentration camps. It was fantastic and I could have gone a lot slower and taken more time, but I only had the one day to explore the rest of Krakow. I am gutted that I have lost these pics... but Google 'Oskar Schindler Museum Krakow' and click on 'images' and you might get an idea.

It was getting late in the afternoon, so my last stop for the day was St. Mary's Basilica back in the Main Square because it hadn't opened yet when I was there earlier.

I love churches and cathedrals! (In a completely non-religious way). Why can't we lay-people have somewhere this lovely to sit and contemplate our navels?