Krakow Poland

We arrived in Krakow early afternoon on Saturday, it was raining at the time and we spent some time trying to find the rental office for our 3 bedroom apartment we rented...it was quite nice and the cost was really reasonable, no more than a mid priced hotel in the states, but we had everything you would need...it's a good way to go. You can see our apartment with the new windows on the second floor over the medical clinic. We went out after we got settled, and the rain had stopped so went got some food at McDonald's - the boys idea...and then cruised around the largest square in Europe, we toured St. Mary's church...and then headed back to the apartment. We were just about 2 blocks away from the square, so the location was perfect.





This is one of the Monasteries within Krakow...



The desire of the Polish people is to see Pope John given Sainthood...all over Krakow you would see these large signs...on Sunday the city was celebrating a holiday that Pope John had instituted and there were tons of people out as well as a lot nuns and groups of priests from different areas that had come out to celebrate the official last day of the Easter season.




The last evening in Krakow we went out to take pictures in the square, we saw many people out for a Sunday evening and there was a group there who were dancing with drums and twirling fire...it looked really neat and many were out watching...




Earlier in the day we went up to the castle and viewed the grounds and had coffee and dessert, we have seen many castles but this was quite large and impressive.



This gold dome was on the catherdral attached to the castle grounds and was really beautiful..




A group of priests were gathered taking a tour we assumed that this again had something to do with the holiday that John Paul had started and his sainthood...



While we were in the square, a family came with two little boys dressed like knights, their mom and dad had made the costumes for them, they were play fighting each taking a blow and then putting his shield up...they took the show for the day even the priests stopped their tour and enjoyed these guys for about 15 minutes....too cute



This church that is connected to where the castle is located is John Paul's Chapel and was a place where he worshiped while he was the Bishop of Krakow...



An eastern view of the castle




While we were walking through Krakow this man and his wife were dressed in traditional clothes and playing traditional music...




Patrick and Gabriel "discussing"



This is the entrance to the castle through it's gates...glad we didn't get caught in this one...



Patrick, Ivetka, Gabriel & Grammie on the Castle Wall



The Castle grounds




On our first day in Krakow, we toured St. Mary's church...this altar is different in that with all the gold present in this place the crucifix is made of oak..it is a beautiful church and active currently.



On Sunday we took a Jewish History tour and Steve and I were the only participants...it was great we spent about 3 hrs with our guide and then continued walking through the city for about 5 more hours...it was a good day and there was so much history you could have spent another 2 days reviewing all the places.




This synagogue that we toured is no longer used for services but is used for concerts and cultural events...it has been done in the Byzantine style and we saw a similar synagogue in Prague when we took the synagogue tour there. The actual woodwork within is quite beautiful...it was used mostly for the Reformed or Tradition branches of Judaism.





This synagogue is the only one that is currently having services and is for the Orthodox branch, while we were there where a couple of Hasidim (Ultra - Orthodox branch) who showed up and were requesting some information from the couple who where admitting people in to view...This particular synagogue has been in use for over 300 yrs., it's very small and definitely very old.







Krakow's main square...






St. Mary's Church is the main church on the square...



This picture is of the Flower Market within the square,it's actually quite larger than what you see here



The picture above and below is on our first day in Krakow and as you can see is the rain stopped just long enough for us to explore a bit...Steve and I are in front of St. Mary's church before we went on our tour...



A statue in courtyard of St. Mary's