Poland!!!

As promised...Poland (and pierogi and potato dumplings and...)

Poland has been at the top of my list of places to visit, so we decided if we were going, we were going full out and made stops in both Krakow and Warsaw.  We set off on Saturday, March 31 and arrived in Warsaw where we met our driver who was taking us to the train station to head to Krakow for the first part of the week. He was so sweet and knew we had several hours before our train, so he offered to drive us around Warsaw for a little bit.  We, of course took him up on the offer and he took us around for about 30 minutes pointing out various buildings and sights.  He was very excited to show us the new stadium that was just been built for the European Football Championship (soccer) - very cool!

He then dropped us off at the train station and we made a quick stop to eat before we caught our train.  We thought we were so prepared and all we had to do was hop on the train, but we realized just shortly before that although we had tickets for the train, we did not have seat assignments, so we jumped in line and were able to secure our seats.  We made it down to the platform and wouldn't you know, two trains pulled up at the same time, so we had a moment of panic trying to figure out which train was the correct one, but managed to hop on and were on our way!

We arrived in Krakow and were greeted with...snow falling.  Ha!  Later in the week when we were having a particularly interesting weather day, we heard a tour guide comment that only in Poland could you get all 4 seasons in one day!  Spencer and I had to laugh - sometimes Stavanger is like that too!  We checked into our hotel - the Novatel, very nice :) - and took in our fantastic view from our window!  We had a perfect view of Wawel Castle!

We then set off in search of dinner and lucky for us, the Hard Rock Cafe Krakow wasn't too far away :)  After a good, American-themed dinner, we turned in for the night because our guided city tour was the next morning!

Our first tour was the city tour and it happened to also be Palm Sunday.  We started our tour in the Jewish Quarter and made our way through various sections of the city, made a stop at Wawel Castle, and then headed toward the main square called Rynek, the heart of the city.  Here, we heard about St. Mary's Basilica and got a quick peak inside.  Due to Palm Sunday services, it was a bit harder to see the insides of the cathedrals and take photos, but let me say, the glimpses we had were spectacular!  We also noticed that the people did not carry palm branches, but instead these (see the photo) in all sizes and designs.  They were being sold all over the market square as well.

Our tour guide was this older woman and obviously loved doing the tours.  She had no qualms about parading our little group through mass services and telling other groups to move out of her way so she could show us something or another.  She had a pocket full of little candies and kept giving the kids treats and at the end of the tour, I think she emptied her pockets and gave them the rest!
Here are some photos from our city tour.

Jewish Quarter

Memorial in Jewish Quarter to Polish Jew victims of Holocaust

Jewish cemetery and various plaques and memorials

Wawel Castle area - gold domes building is the private cathedral

The fire-breathing dragon that protects the castle

Candy!

In the Jagiellonian University area - Krakow is home to about 285,000 students

St. Mary's Basilica

Once our tour ended, we stayed in the market square to enjoy lunch and wander around a bit.  We enjoyed the big Easter market!  We had our first taste of pierogi (and fell in love!)  Later, we found Cupcake Corner (thanks for the tip, Deb!) and ended up there 3 times in 3 days!

Lunch time :)

Pottery in the market - yes, I bought a small piece!

Kids' favorite statue..."the huge head" :)  

Decorations in the square for Palm Sunday and Easter

The old city walls - Barbican just past Florians Gate.  Interesting to note that Krakow was a closed city and the walls would open each morning and close each night with the signal being the chimes from St. Mary's

Cupcake Corner = heavenly

My handsome guy with his cappuccino.  Look at that smile...

I took so many pictures, it is hard to only include a few!

So, that was Day 1 in Krakow...next stop, our day at Auschwitz and Birkenau.  I will save that for the next blog.