29.07.2011 – 29.07.2011  23 °C

Spent a lot of today in an internet café organising more of my holiday/ skype-ing people on the phone.

I did do some site seeing early in the morning and later in the evening, so here goes. Started the morning by renting an iPod DIY see Krakow audio guide. This enabled me to ramble at will throughout the old town learning about the sites of Krakow.

Started my ramble at the Old Town wall. Unlike Warsaw, most of Krakow is original and was not damaged during either war. Most of the Old Town wall was pulled down in the 1800s and the moat was filled in. This area surrounding the Old Town has been converted to a park. There is just one remaining piece of the wall, St Florian’s Gate and the Barbican. St Florian’s gate is the original entry into the town of Krakow. It was originally joined to an outside Barbican (round fortification) by a draw bridge. Now this area is filled in and a cobblestoned street joins the two areas.

The Barbican itself is quite interesting, you can go inside the fortification and pretend you a soldier on duty.. you need to be both a skinny and short soldier to work comfortably in the barbican as it is built for small people! When you exit the Barbican you can then enter the battlements of St Florian’s gate and take a good view of Florian’s way down to the main town square. Similar to Warsaw the original town walls were manned by members of each of the working guilds so there was a tower dedicated to the cloth makers, the fishermen, the soap makers and some other random guilds! All in all the Old Town Wall had more than 25 towers protecting the city. Now only 2 towers remain and the Barbican. I’m glad some of it remains because it makes the town feel quite medieval.

Spent the remainder of my touring day wandering down to the Wavell castle. Wavell was built in the late 1400s and is what I would call a true mediaeval castle. For starters it is pretty big and takes up at least 4 city blocks! It is the hereditary home of the Polish Kings and Queens and is also home for the Bishops of Krakow (the most famous of which is John Paul II- who was bishop just after WWII). Wavell was also home for a big bad mean dragon, who legend says ate all of the town’s virgins and livestock. It wasn’t until a shoe maker (didn’t catch his name on the iPod) slayed the dragon by staking a sheep out in front of his lair. The sheep had been killed and was filled with sulphur (because apparently sulphur would make the dragon thirsty). The dragon ate the sheep and was instantly thirsty, he went down to the river and drank so much water that he exploded! The shoe maker was an instant hero and for his reward he was able to marry the princess of Krakow and later became king of Krakow and the townsfolk of Krakow lived happily ever after (of course). Anyway the dragon’s grotto still exists today at the foot of Wavell castle. The symbol for Krakow is therefore a mighty dragon!

I didn’t get a chance to venture into Wavell because it had closed by the time I got down to that end of town but I’m sure I’ll get a better chance later in the week.

Turned in early tonight as I’m off to Auschwitz tomorrow and therefore have an early start.