Wawel Castle and More Churches in Krakow, Poland

After two weeks of traveling and visiting Christmas markets, we finally reached the end of our journey. Today was a bit of a hodge podge of activities as we tried to finish up some things we wanted to do. In the process we saw a number of areas of Krakow.

We began the day in a rather unexpected way. If you remember back in Berlin, Andrea’s friend, Jacob, took us out on a tour of some street art. One of the street artists he like is Banksy. When we were walking around Krakow, we saw ads all over for a Banksy Museum in Krakow. We decided we would go to the museum and see if we could buy a poster for Jacob’s upcoming birthday. We didn’t actually go through the museum, but they let us go to the gift shop where we bought two posters. The neighborhood around the museum had its own “street art” area.

It was then on to one of the biggest tourist spots in Krakow, the Wawel Castle. This is a very historic place on a hill above the Vistula River. We walked over to the area, but before we headed up to the castle area we went into a nearby church, Church of St. Bernardine of Siena. I think visitors usually overlook the church as they focus on Wawel Castle, but it is worth taking time to stop by.

The church is free to enter although they do request donations. The inside is very richly decorated with a lot of gold much like the St. Mary’s Basilica we saw the night before. The altar area is particularly ornate.

From the church we then went over to the Wawel Castle area. There is a long walkway that goes up the side. One enters next to a tall watch tower. From this area visitors have a nice view of the Vistula River and the area around it. We could see a number of boats on the river. This is another common visitor activity, taking a boat tour of the area.

We then headed into the central courtyard area which is pretty large. In the center they were doing some excavation work. From what I could understand it seemed they were digging up some older structures that had been buried there. The most standout building in this area is the church which has beautiful domes and spires on it. The church was used for a variety of official events attended by Polish Kings. The official name of the church is the Wawel Royal Cathedral of St. Stanislaus and St. Wenceslaus.

The actual castle area is behind some other areas. I have to say it was not as ornate and interesting from an architectural standpoint as I had anticipated. The thing about visiting Wawel Castle is that there are a number of different places to check out. One can see the jewels of royalty. One can visit the church. Additionally, one can check out the armor that soldiers wore. However, each of these costs a separate amount which can add up pretty quickly.

I considered going into the church as it looked pretty interesting, but I have seen a lot of churches as my loyal readers can attest, and it cost around $5 to go in. Silvette wasn’t interested so I decided against it. In the end we simply enjoyed looking at the exterior architecture and didn’t go inside anything. We left the castle from a different exit and saw it from a different angle.

From the castle we walked down a very nice park-like area with lots of trees. This park is really the boundary of the old town and pretty much encircles it. It is really a nice area, and I think in summer it would offer a great place to sit and relax in the shade of the trees. There are also plenty of benches along the path.

We passed by what looked like a church but it turned out to be a seminary. Later on we did come to another church so I had to check it out. This was the Basilica of St. Francis of Assissi. The facade of the church was not as elaborate as other churches. In fact it was pretty simple.

Inside the church was also more simple than some other churches, but it was still fairly elaborate. There were some statues of St. Francis around. However, I found that the level of gold in the decor was still more than I think St. Francis would like. He really focused on poverty as an element of faith. I have to wonder how he would feel about such an ornate structure being built with his name on it,

It was now time for our Starbucks break. One of the reasons we go to Starbucks is to be able to use the bathroom. Even at the Wawel Castle, one has to pay to use the bathroom. One could even pay by credit card. It cost over a dollar. However, Starbucks has a bathroom to use. Interestingly, there is almost always a line. Other people seem to have the same idea of saving money. In Dresden, one had to use a code to get into the bathroom, but here it seemed anyone could use it.

After our Starbucks break we had a few things to do. First I took some photos of the structures in the Market Square. I didn’t do that early enough yesterday, and the darkness and fog caught up to me. St. Mary’s Basilica was much clearer today. We also made a final walk through the Christmas market to buy a few things. Then I needed to find an Orthodox Church.

Yes, I did find an Orthodox church to visit. The Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary is Polish Orthodox. It is not in some imposing structure like I saw in Warclaw. In fact I think the church is fairly new. The sanctuary was upstairs. We went in and were greeted by a fairly open room with just a few chairs around the wall. I had read that in Orthodox churches the congregation stands during the service. Around the sanctuary were a number of icons which are typical of the Orthodox. During our visit, two people were there lighting candles. It was definitely an interesting space, and I was glad I had a chance to see it.

With that goal accomplished, it was time to make our way back to our hotel. We wanted to get back early as we had a 6:10 am flight time the next morning so we wanted to get everything packed up and ready to go for the morning. We expected the day to be a long one.

When we got up, we received an unexpected message saying our flight from Poland was going to be delayed by about four hours. That was not going to work as we were to get a connection in Frankfurt which would be our flight to Seattle. Shortly after that we received another message saying we had been rebooked. Now we were flying to Istanbul, Turkey and from there to Seattle. The flight left a little later but we headed to the airport anyway to make sure all was well.

Going through Istanbul made for an even longer day. However, we found the Istanbul airport was very large and very modern. It was also quite expensive. We wandered all over the airport looking for a Starbucks, but when we found it, the price for the coffee was so expensive we didn’t buy any. That was a first. Our flight to Seattle was unremarkable, and it was good to be home.

Has anyone else had a chance to visit Poland? I feel we didn’t do Krakow justice. It seemed like we could have used another day to see more of what the city has to offer. Unfortunately it is doubtful we will return.