POLAND, KRAKOW: ST. MARY'S BASILICA

June 25, 2019

We had tried to get inside St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow's Old Town several times but had not been successful. On our very last evening in Krakow, we were finally successful, and it was definitely worth the effort.

But first, some background. That's the Basilica on the right. Can you tell what the building on the left is?

It's that bastion of European culture, a Hard Rock Cafe, the perfect companion for a basilica. And what is that in between Hard Rock and St. Mary's that everyone is sitting on?

It's called The Student Statue. Yeah, he looks about as awake as most of my students on a Monday morning.

POLAND: CZĘSTOCHOWA

June 25, 2019

We were picked up at our hotel at abut 8:00 AM for a 2 1/2 hour drive to Częstochowa, home of Poland's most famous icon, the Black Madonna.

The icon is housed in a chapel within the basilica anchoring the Jasna Gora Monastery, which was founded in 1382 by Pauline monks from Hungary. Because of her presence in the monastery, Częstochowa is the third largest Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.

A 350-foot-tall bell tower dominates the approach.

"Totus tuus" is Latin for "All yours." Pope John Paul II's motto was "All yours, Mary!"

Side chapels protrude from the side of the basilica.

We were herded into a waiting room where we were assigned to a group of four other English-speaking tourists and to Father Foster Muir, one of the Pauline monks. He was Scottish and had a delightful accent. We found him to be very knowledgeable and often quite funny. He pointed out that we were lucky not to have come on a day like the one shown in this photograph that was hanging on the wall. That's a lot of people. Father Muir said that many poles walk to Częstochowa from Warsaw or Krakow, the two cities Częstochowa lies more or less half-way between. (Krakow is about 92 miles away, and Warsaw is about 135 miles away.) It is typically a nine-day journey.

POLAND: ZAKOPANE

June 24, 2019

One of the great things about Krakow is that there are so many nearby places that make good day trips.  One such destination is Zakopane, a resort town sometimes called "the winter capital of Poland" that lies about 70 miles south of Krakow on the Slovakian border.

The drive there was at least as fun and interesting as Zakopane itself. 

Our first stop was Chochołów, a 16th-century village of wooden cottages built by the highlanders living in the region. The homes are still occupied today.

And some of the high points are occupied by storks.

POLAND: EATING IN KRAKOW

June 22-25, 2019

We ate so much good food in Krakow that our restaurant rambles are worth their own post.

WELICZKA SALT MINE
To begin with, there was this rich chocolate ice cream cone that we bought while we were waiting for our tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mine to begin. It was not the first nor the last of an embarrassing number of ice cream cones we would have on this trip.

KUCHNIA U DOROTY
On our first evening in Krakow, we took a recommendation from our guide and planned to eat at Love Pierogi, Krakow's five-star pierogi spot, but when we got there it was closed. We were so disappointed! We were on a relatively busy street near Old Town, and we figured there had to be lots of good restaurants around us.

POLAND, KRAKOW: OSKAR SCHINDLER MUSEUM

June 23, 2019

I have to throw in one picture of a building that is next door to the Oskar Schindler Museum. Any guesses what "MOCAK" stands for? 

MOCAK = Museum Of Contemporary Art Krakow. That was easy, right? It was built in 2011 on a piece of land where part of Oskar Schindler's factory once stood.

The Schindler Museum is actually not a museum about Oskar Schindler and his personally dangerous attempt to save as many Jews as possible. Rather, it is a museum about World War II, including the Holocaust and with a little bit of Schindler. Our guide told us that many people are really disappointed by that fact, but I thought it was one of the best WWII museums I've seen.

I'm pretty sure most people today know who Oskar Schindler was, due largely to the 1993 Steven Spielberg movie Schindler's List. Much of the movie was shot in the Jewish Quarter of Krakow, with some of it filmed in Schindler's factory itself. The factory manufactured enamelware--dishes made of metal covered with a porcelain-like material.

POLAND, KRAKOW: JEWISH QUARTER

June 23 2019

Our next stop was the Jewish Quarter of Krakow, known locally as Kazimierz because it was founded in the 14th century by King Kasimir as a gathering place for Jews. By 1939, the Jewish population of Krakow was 70,000, about 25% of the population.  In less than 18 months, the Jewish population was about 15,000, and in March 1941, the Krakow Ghetto was established to house what was left of the Jews. More about that later. By the end of the war, the Jewish population of Krakow had been essentially decimated.

After the war, this neighborhood was largely neglected in rebuilding efforts. It was a poor area with a high crime rate. In 1988 a Jewish Cultural Festival was started, and the neighborhood began to turn around. Then the movie Schindler's List was filmed here in 1993, and the place became a tourist attraction.

Today, the Jewish Quarter is the second-largest tourist attraction in Krakow after Old Town. It's a busy, famous part of the city, but the Jewish population remains quite small.

When we were there, a flea market was drawing a lot of people to the square around what was once the kosher slaughterhouse: