For The Love of Travel

 Early morning rise on Sunday to get to see Wawel Castle without queuing for hours! It worked. Yay. The Castle is a symbol of national pride, hope, self-rule, and fierce patriotism. It’s Buckingham Palace and Westminister Abbey rolled into one.

Evidence shows that Wawel Hill was being used as a fortified castle before Poland’s first ruler, Mieszko 1 (circa 962- 992), chose it as his residence! Romanesque, Renaissance and Gothic architecture dating from about 14thC. I visited the State Rooms and Kings/Queens apartments as part of the complex…superb furnishings, 136 huge tapestries woven in silver and gold silk,  that are rotated on display, embossed leather wallpaper (Cordoban), Italian Renaissance paintings, Meissen porcelain….a good 3 hours wander.  And the complex is used as a backdrop for photography projects….

Then caught an Uber to the spectacular Benedictine abbey in Tyniec upon the riverbank on the western outskirts of today’s Krakow, some twelve kilometers upstream from the Wawel Royal Castle, boasts glorious and dramatic history of nearly 1000 years rich in eventful episodes.   Founded in 1044 by Duke Casimir I the Restorer, then Poland’s ruler, the Tyniec abbey used to command the approach to the country’s capital city through the Wisla (Vistula) river valley. The fortified monastery on a steep hill was a hard nut to crack for the enemy –  but still, Mongols burnt it down in the 12th century, Swedes in the 17th century, and Russians in the 18th when the Tyniec Abbey was a crucial stronghold of the first Polish national uprising.  Otherwise Benedictine monks have lived and worked here peacefully for nearly a millennium.   The era of Poland’s partition (1795-1918) was particularly daunting, and featured time periods where the monastic order largely abandoned their location. Ironically, it was in 1939 that the order rebounded for good in tandem with the Nazi invasion and annexation of most of Poland, including the Kraków region. The monks believe it was due to divine intervention that they avoided the lethal wrath of the Nazi authorities during the years of German occupation and emerged relatively unscathed from the Second World War.   The order then thrived, even under forty years of a Communist regime that was clearly uncomfortable with  organised religion in general and the Roman Catholic Church in particular.  A wedding with a musician dressed in traditonal Krakowski costume was a lovely plus for the afternoon. 

Having come to the Monastery by Uber, I went down to the river hoping to get a boat back to Krakow. I noticed a boat pulling longside and people getting off. Asked the Captain if this was a private charter and who I needed to speak to to get on board…he looked at me for what seemed like ages, and then said…”we leave in an hour, you owe me 20 Polish zloty”. Wow, I thought, I’m on board and its a bargain. Introduced myself as a ‘hitchhiker’, to the 20 males (2 of whom had wives with them), were basically from Glasgow and in the construction industry, with some architect clients.  We had a great time floating down the Vistula for over an hour, 1980’s and 1990’s hits blaring in the sound system, reflecting the onboard demographic (New Order, Madonna, Phil Collins) 🙂  And I got a pic of Wawel Castle from the river. 

Looming over the Vistula river is Cricoteka, a centre created to preserve the work of radical artisit Tadeusz Kantor – new architecture to attract visitors to the neglected post-industrial neighbourhoods on Krakow’s right bank.

 Dinner at Klezmer Hois, a restaurant that is unique and evokes the ambience of the pre World War tradition of Jewish Kazimierz. Culinary delicacies combined with a concert of Klezmer music (drawn from the tradition of Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe). 

And then a short walk after dinner to see the gravity defying Bernatek Footbridge Acrobactic sculptures by Jerzy Kedziora.

Jan Matejko was a 19thC Polish painter known for painting notable historical political and miltary events, for example, “the Battle of Grunwald”.

This next incredible statue is in memory of those who died in the Battle of Grunwald (Poland and Lithuania united in fighting the Teutonic Knights in 1410).    Random photos of performance artists;  kids enjoying adults being silly;  the vibrancy and scale of the Market Square.

I signed up for a Royal Chamber Orchestra concert in the tiny 11thC St Adalbert’s Church (one the oldest stone churches in Poland. It was a very important “house of god” for the traders from all over Europe that came to the Cloth trading hall, Sukiennice, in the Market Square).

The quartet of 2 violins (lead – Kamil Skicki), viola and cello had a broad program offering – Vivaldi, Pachabel, Gerschwin, Bizet, Morricone – the acoustics were fanastic and performance enjoyed by 70 of us, tightly packed in, audience.

Some night views of the Market Square, on exiting the concert performance. A long but greatly enjoyable day!

Delicious lunch at Fiorentina Restaurant, sea bass with lentils and corn mash..and a Polish white wine ressembling Riesling.