Our Day in Krakow

Friday Mar. 28, 2014

We landed in Krakow and spent the rest of the day seeing sites around Krakow.

First we went to Nowa Huta which was a communist city. The buildings and apartments are pretty much the communist block type of structures. Now they are painted various colors and fixed up a bit. The Polish folks wanted a church and the then archbishop pushed to have a church built in this city. That archbishop was the future Pope John Paul II. The city of Krakow has statues and pictures all over the city in his memory. The church that was built to look like an ark.




The stark communist buildings now have a little color, but still very blah shaped.



The exterior of the church that looks like an ark.




The lovely stained glass windows inside the church.



A statue in memory of John Paul II as well as billboards promoting an opera commemorating his life.







The small elevator leaving the salt mine outside of Krakow. This 2 layer elevator was extremely cramped. :-( We walked down 374 steps and checked numerous chambers and continued to walk more steps and hallways. We did take this little elevator back to the top. Numerous chambers had carved figures from salt as well as a huge religious chamber where weddings and masses are actually held. Even the chandeliers were made out of crystallized salt. It was really quite neat, since the miners actually carved these things on their own time after working hours.




This is the outside of the salt mine. You would never know that it goes stories and stories beneath the earth.


A walk around the town square of Krakow at night was pleasant but busy. Folks tend to hang around the town square on weekends.


There are even horse and buggy rides to enhance your enjoyment of the area around the square.