Day 13: Krakow
We woke up this morning in our Krakow hotel and after breakfast met our guide for our "Panoramic Tour" of Krakow. We spent the first part on the bus to travel to the Jewish Ghetto section of the city and saw several buildings and synagogues that were once behind the walled-in ghetto area under the Nazi control. The most significant stop was at the Ghetto Hero's Square where there were 68 chairs, each representing 1,000 Polish Jews that were sent to the concentration/death camps by the Nazi's. We returned to the hotel for a brief break then walked up to the Krakow Castle and toured around that massive facility. Then back down and walked to the old market square, which is the largest medieval square in Europe! We concluded the morning's activities by going inside the enormous basilica. The most amazing part of this stop was the alter which was originally built in the mid-1300's. Then....our guide had timed it....we were there shortly before noon when a nun came in and using only a long metal rod was able to open the massive, 500 kilo - 46 foot high doors to reveal the inner alter. Just stunning. Afterwards we stood outside when precisely at noon a local firefighter had climbed the 272 steps to the top of the tower and played the trumpet alert at the top of the hour. A great morning. We asked for a restaurant recommendation and went to the "No. 7" restaurant for some traditional Polish food for lunch. By the time we returned to the hotel we welcomed the afternoon off!
That's especially so because tomorrow we LEAVE the hotel at 6:10am for our appointment at Auschwitz & Birkenau Nazi concentration/death camps. And tomorrow evening we have a traditional folk music and dinner to attend, so tomorrow will be a long day.
Note - chairs were used because the square was used to pile up furniture from the Jews shipped off to the camps
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