It was interesting there were a few local people there. Most all ordered soup and a roll.
Addie gave it a try for breakfast. Her's had a large sausage with it.
We ordered scrambled eggs with ham and cheese with a roll. We also ordered apple pancakes (crepes with apples inside. ) We also ordered pirogi with a strawberry inside. The total was about $10 USD. There was a lot of food.
Planty
The old city originally had a mote of water around the city. They filled it in and made a park around the city. Kind of a grassy green space surrounding the city.
The Planty also had some kids toys
Wahel Castle
The Wahel Castle is a series of buildings.

Kind of a cool big Segway that the police ride around
River next to the castle
Wawel Chakra Wall
There is a wall in the castle court yard that is believed to emit powerful spiritual energy. We saw some people leaning against it and putting their foreheads on it.
We all tried it with not too much success.
Wawel Dragon Legend
There is a legend of a dragon that was once in mid-evil time in Krakow. the dragon would demand livestock from the towns people. Many great Knights tried to slay the dragon with no avail. Once a simple shoe maker said he would slay the dragon. He filled a lamb skin with sulfur and in the morning he put it before the dragon. The dragon swallowed it. It began to burn his insides, so he drank great gulps of water from the river and exploded.
Dragon Den
Today for a fee, you can go into the dragon's den. You take some stairs down a long narrow cork screw type stairs. I think the kids informed me there are 171 steps. As you go down it gets colder and colder. You finally end up in a large cave
As you come out of the cave you end up at the dragon statue.
Bryson and Hudson bought some toy dragons.
Every little while flames shoot out the dragon's mouth.
I am guessing this is where Universal Studios got the idea for the dragon in the Harry Potter World for their dragon to have flames come out it's mouth.
Heading into Old Town
Around town they have these cool misters to cool off with.
This is a musical bench. You push a button and it play music.
A guy set up a little archery range on the side of the sidewalk
Not only do they have horse and carriage rides for the tourists. I have seen a few of these golf carts they take the tourists around
Periodically you see these cool chairs the city puts out in various places to relax.
In the Old Town there is a big market place,
It is a long haul with lots of vendor selling all kinds of things.
Karen bought me a new leather coin purse for Father's Day to replace the one that got pick-pocketed in Paris.
Hudson displays his dragon on a replica of the castle
Underground Museum
Under the Market they were excavating about 25 or so years ago and they found a lot of old archlogical artifacts. The decided to put an underground museum with a lot of these old artifact along with some cool modern displays telling about Krakow's past history.
Krakow was invaded in the 1200's and burned down. Most of the houses then were wood. They rebuilt the city with brick and laid it out in an organized fashion. The underground museum tells this story with a variety of different ways.
Puppet story of dragon
Interactive games
Original cobblestone sidewalk
Hologram type movies
Addie and Gracie just watched Twilight. We read about in old Krakow they would charge people with being vampires and execute and torture them. Here are some remains of one of the victims .
Interactive maps and displays
Mock-up of old water wheel.
Pigeons and the church There are a ton of pigeons in the town square by the church.
The church has a very ornate interior
Lunch at Raspberry Grandmothers
There is a cute little restaurant across from the theater house. The food was pretty good. We tried chicken steak with cheese and a jam sauce, pork cooked like a chicken fried steak, fried pierogis (last time we tried them steamed), and spagetti .
On the walk home I noticed a blue Ferrari. I saw an red one yesterday. It is interesting that my grandson , Elliot Swift loves to check out high end sports cars. He said he saw 3 Ferraris in Prague and one Lamborghini.
I guess some people here must have some money.
I was kind of impressed when I saw this automatic sander and washer. With the cobblestone roads looking so good, I wondered how they maintained them. This machine looked like it would put new sand down and also wash the road. It seems like they try to keep the Old Town looking nice. I saw a drunk on a bench and soon a couple police guys ushered him off. Tourism must bring in quite a bit of revenue. They seem to try to keep the tourist areas nice here.
I saw this old style bike on the street. It had a lock on it. I am curious if someone actually rode it or if it was just for looks. Looked in rideable condition.
Breakfast at the Open Market
We decided to go to the Open Market for breakfast. The Open Market has all kind of vegetable stands, fruit, cheese shops, meat shop, bakery shops , and other shops you can buy all kinds of things. Luckily even though it is open it has a roof on it. Just as we were walking to the Open Market it started to rain.
The Open Market
Gracie with her new umbrella. (Luckily she bought one, since later in the day she needed it.)
Bakery
Shop that made some beans wrapped up in a thick tortilla type thing then deep fried. We also bought some balls that were kind of like spicy cornbread, and a flat seasoned bread.
Entering Old Town through one of the gates.
Biking around Krakow Planty (or Tour de Planty)
The Old Town did have a wall around it and a mote surrounding the city. They filled in the mote with a walking path, trees, and grass. We decided to rent some bikes and bike around the city.
The race is on . . .
The bike path was pretty nice. Once in a while you needed to watch out for pedestrians or intersections coming into Old Town.
The path goes all the way around Old Town
Dropped by our friend Wahel Dragon
Wahel Castle behind us
Grabbed a crepe before going to our tour to Auschwitz
Auschwitz is a DEPRESSING place
We took a tour to Auschwitz. Personally I don't like big tours so I think I may have been a little grumpy. We took a tour bus with about 50 people in it. The ride out to Auschwitz was actually quite pleasant. The tour bus was comfortable. Once we got out of town we went along a two lane highway. There were a lot of trees and farmland. Periodically we would come through a little town. Most of the houses, once out of the city were single family homes. Most were block homes with stucko on them and had textured metal roof. Most had nice lawn areas and were well maintained. There were some brick homes. The trip took about 1.5 hours on the bus.
Typical country Polish homes.


Auschwitz was DEPRESSING from the beginning
As you enter Auschwitz there is a gate and a fence around the perimeter of the compound. Upon entering you need to show them your passport and go through security. They caught me with my knife in my backpack and took it away.
I kind of felt like I was being enlisted into the Prison Camp. They gave you some headphones and a transmitter. The guide did not have very good English and would not let anyone talk. It was kind of awful.
You went past some large iron gates and down a long hallway with cement walls on each side. You were instructed not to talk. I felt like we were being made to march down this long corridor.
The Compound was made of a series of brick building
Apparently the Nazi's took great records and lot of photographs. We saw photos of masses of Jewish people coming in. One hallway had pictures when they entered and when they died.
Pictures on display
Mock up of gas chambers
Canisters of gas
Holding areas
Bathrooms
Bunk beds areas
Wall where they would shoot people
It is estimated that about 1.3 Million Jews entered Auschwitz and only about 10% survived. They mass killed people - mostly by gas and incineration. But many by hanging, shooting, suffocation chambers, and torture. They performed sterilization experiment on women. Men , women and children alike were all mass killed.
Auschwitz II - the Sequel
We left Auschwitz pretty depressed. They loaded us back in the bus and took us to Auschwitz II. The first camp was mainly brick buildings that were mostly all preserved. Auschwitz II was made of wood barricks and were mostly destroyed. They rebuilt some to give an idea of what they were like.
To make bad things even worse, when we arrived they had time constraints because of the many tours, so we had to walk down this long road and it started to rain like CRAZY. We all got soaked. Luckily Monica bought some umbrellas earlier that morning .
They would bring loads of Jews in by railcar
Rebuilt barracks
Remains of the incineration chambers that were partially destroyed
Even the monument they put up is very UGLY
We made it home with wet socks and a depressed mood.
Tomorrow we are off to Budapest Hungary. We have a 7 hour train ride and just found out our AIRBNB got flooded and they relocated it in another place. The only problem is that it is much farther from the train station than the other. At least we have reserved seats on the train.