My Poland Trip ( part 2 )

My Poland trip had so much going on in such a short period of time I decided to do two posts on it! This post will not be as depressing as the first one. Instead, this one will focus on the city tours my group went on and the wonderful experiences we had in Warsaw and Krakow. Krakow was the first city we stopped at after our visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. As we approached the city center by foot, we were again surrounded by the old streets and buildings associated with any old town portion of a city in Europe. The beauty of these streets captivate me every time I see them.

As we navigated through the narrow streets with buildings lining the entire length, we arrived to a grand opening. Like coming into a large field after a hike through a dense forest, we arrived in the city square of Krakow Poland. People were everywhere,and the hustle and bustle of the place consumed us as we were absorbed into the crowd. Towering above the city square was the beautiful St. Mary's Basilica. This church was built 700 years ago in the 14th century.

As we navigated our way through the labyrinth of humanity in the square, I couldn't help but be amazed at the antiquity and beauty of this place. We finally got to where our tour began. Our guide was quite funny and very informative... ( along with seemingly every other tour guide you hear reviews about ). We began our tour outside the 800 year old city gate of Krakow along the only piece that remains of the gate.

We learned more about the history of Poland and of Krakow. As we walked around I learned some fascinating things...

1. Poland only has had true independence as a democracy since 1999

2. For a span of about 100 years Poland was not even on the map of Europe (this was sometime within the last three hundred years, not sure when)

3. From 1038-1596 Krakow was the Capitol of Poland

4. Poland had kings but they were elected

So those are just a few fun facts that I learned while in Krakow. I also learned that Krakow was a very wealthy city in its golden days, making most of its money from copper. They were so wealthy that they paid the current day equivalent of 650 million euros ( 772 million US dollars) on the alter of St. Mary's Basilica alone; that does not include the construction of the rest of the church. Unfortunately we ran out of time to go inside and look at it, but I got a picture from the internet to show you.....

The tour wrapped up and we had some free time to explore the city on our own. As the sun was setting we went to go eat dinner at a cheap, but good restaurant. As we came out of the restaurant, the city was transformed by the absence of the sun. It seemed there were even more people in the city square now. We sat down to just take it in. The warm breeze filled with the sound of horse drawn carriages moving along the street and street performers playing their instruments wrapped us in its arms as we sat there. It was just a really cool experience. After walking 13.1 miles that day, I was pretty tired.

The last place we went was Warsaw. A city that looked old, but wasnt. Almost no building in the city is more than 70 years old because Warsaw was essentially completely destroyed by the Nazis in WWII. The devastation was thorough and complete. Before the war, 1.1 million people lived in Warsaw, after the war only about 1,000 remained. The people of the city did a wonderful job of restoring it to how it looked before the war. Warsaw was another beautiful European city. Here are some pictures...

a cute little alley way

A restored part of the old city gate

Part of the royal castle in Castle Square

On this church you can see bullet holes in the stone from fighting in WWII

A memorial to the Polish Uprising.