Krakow’s Royal Way Walk

June 23rd—The route we walked today is known as the “Royal Way” because the king used to follow this same path when he returned to Krakow after a journey. The only difference is we did the walk backwards because it was more convenient for us to start at Wawel Castle. But, before starting our walk, we stopped off at the bakery for some breakfast and hot chocolate. After eating, we decided that it was just as close to walk to the Castle grounds than to get on a tram. Let me point out that it was raining again today and we looked so funny with 2 broken umbrellas. There was one in the apartment, but it didn’t open up all the way. However, it still worked enough to cover Austin. So, we walked pretty quickly to the Wawel Hill. This is the most important piece of ground in all of Poland. We walked up the ramp to the castle entry and continued up towards the Wawel Cathedral. This Cathedral houses the tomb of the Great One, Kazimierz. Kazimierz the Great encouraged Jews to come to Poland by granting them special privileges. This is how the Jewish Quarter got its name Kazimierz. Also, one of Krakow’s archbishops was Karol Wojtyla who served at this cathedral for 14 years before becoming pope. From the cathedral, we walked around the castle grounds and the inner courtyard, but were more excited about making our way down to the riverbank to see the fire-belching monument to the dragon that was instrumental in the founding of Krakow. It was pretty cool to see the dragon in action and of course, the kids got a real kick out of it. We left the coolness of the castle and its dragon to walk the streets of Krakow. Along the way, we saw many churches and the house Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) once lived. We also decided on a milk bar for lunch. We enjoyed the “Hunter’s Delight”, potato pancake with sausage, beef, melted cheese, and spicy sauce. It was good and filling. After lunch, we saw the Archbishop’s Palace which is where Pope John Paul II lived when he was archbishop of Krakow. Across the street from the palace is St. Francis’ Basilica which was Pope John Paul II’s home church while he was archbishop of Krakow. After leaving the church, we continued our walk, but first had to detour to find a bathroom. We finally found a McDonald’s. Who would have thought that McD’s would become our favorite spot to use the bathroom? Anyway, after our short detour, we saw the Town Hall Tower and St. Mary’s Church which are both located within the main market square. After our walk was complete, we made our way to the Cloth Hall where we did a little shopping before enjoying a nice ice cream snack in the square. While sitting in the square, we saw a bunch of guys singing and making a lot of noise. Apparently, one of the guys just returned from fighting in the war. We thought it was very neat how they celebrated his safe return. It was especially neat because our brother-in-law is currently serving in Afghanistan and is stationed at the Polish base. After we finished our ice cream, we headed to the tram stop where we went to the Jewish Quarter and visited the old cemetery and Remu’h Synagogue. It was so cute to see Austin wearing a yamaka. He certainly didn’t understand why he had to put that thing on his head. From here, we made the short walk back to our apartment after a long day of exploring Krakow.