Day 4 – Krakow/Warsaw
The next day was our last in Krakow, so we decided to do some souvenir shopping and take a city tour. They have these covered golf carts that are used to provide the equivalent of a 3 hour walking tour in about ½ hour. We decided to do the 1.5 hour tour, which covered the Old Town and the Jewish Quarter. We learned the following on this tour:
Kraków is one of the oldest cities in Poland, with evidence showing settlements there since 20,000 BC. Legend has it that it was built on the cave of a dragon whom the mythical King Krak had slain. However, the first official mention of the name was in 966 by a Jewish merchant from Spain, who described it as an important centre of trade in Slavonic Europe.
Through trade with the various rulers of Europe, it grew from a small settlement in 1000AD to a large wealthy city, belonging to the Vistulans. However, through the 9th and 10th centuries, it fell under the influence of the Great Moravians, then the Bohemians, before being captured by the Piast Dynasty of Poland. In 1038, Kazimierz the Restorer made Krakow the capital of Poland.
In 1241, the city was almost entirely destroyed by Tatars. It was rebuilt to a design that remains largely unchanged to the present day. However, after more successful attacks by the Mongols in the late 13th century, Kazimierz the Great set about defending the city. Walls, fortifications, and the original Wawel Castle were added. The University was also established. King Kazimierz established the district of Kazimierz for Jews to live in free from persecution. This area remained mainly Jewish for centuries until the Nazi occupation.
The 16th century was Krakow's golden age. Under the influence of the joint Polish-Lithuanian Jagiellonian dynasty, Krakow became a centre of science and the arts. In 1569, Poland was officially united with Lithuania and as a result government activity started to move to Warsaw. King Zygmunt III officially moved the capital in 1609.
However, the 17th century was a return to troubled times for Krakow and Poland. After being invaded by Russians, Prussians, Austrians, Transylvanians, Swedes, and the French, it went through a phase of various forms of political control. These included being part of the Duchy of Warsaw, established by Napoleon, and becoming an "independent city". However, it mostly fell under the sphere of influence of the Austrian Habsburg Empire, in the province of Galicia.
In the First World War, Józef Pilsudski set out to liberate Poland and the Treaty of Versailles (1919) established an independent sovereign Polish state for the first time in more than 100 years. This lasted until the Second World War, when Germany and the USSR partitioned the country, with German forces entering Krakow in September 1939. Many academics were killed and historic relics and monuments were destroyed or looted. Concentration camps were established near Krakow, including Plaszow and Auschwitz. After German withdrawal, the city escaped complete destruction and many buildings were saved.
In the Communist period, a large steel works was established in the suburb of Nowa Huta. This was seen as an attempt to lessen the influence of the anti-Communist intellegentsia and religious communities in Krakow. In 1978, UNESCO placed Krakow on the World Heritage Sites list. In the same year, the Archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, was made Pope John Paul II.
The Communist Government collapsed in 1989 and Krakow is now undergoing another period of regeneration, with historic buildings being restored.
Within the old town, in addition to some of the sights mentioned already, we saw:
• Town Hall Tower was once a part of the big 13th-Century Gothic-Renaissance Town Hall on the Main Marketplace. The town hall was destroyed by the Austrians in the 19th century after they took control of Krakow. Currently a museum is in the tower. You have a nice view of the city from upstairs.
• Barbakan was built in the 15th century as the biggest European defense building of its kind. The Gothic Barbakan was meant to defend the Florian Gate from attacks of the Osman, which were thought to attack Central Europe after conquering Constantinople and the Balkans in the late Middle Age.
• Florian Gate is the only part of the town where ancient walls have survived. It consists of four towers and the arsenal and gives you a good idea of what the five kilometers of walls around the Old City looked like in the Middle Ages.
Within the Jewish quarter, we saw the main marketplace with a unique circular building in the middle, the Ghetto where Jews were rounded up and forced to live, remnants of the walls around the Ghetto, a monument consisting of empty chairs, representing the empty homes of Jews who were taken to concentration camps, and Shindler’s factory. Shindler employed about 1,000 Jews and when they were captured and taken to the concentration camps, he managed to get them all back.
We ate lunch at another traditional polish basement restaurant. We had another great meal with a sampler platter and a pork knuckle. After lunch, we picked up our bags back at the apartment and went to the train station. We caught the 2.30 train to Warsaw. After getting in around 6PM, we took a taxi to the hotel, dropped off our things, and had dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel. This was a very popular place and we were lucky to get a table. By the time we left, people were lined up to get in. The atmosphere and hospitality were great. We ate in a covered heated patio outside. We liked the sampler platter that we had for lunch in Krakow, so we decided to get another one at this restaurant. We laughed and wished the table next to us “good luck” with the massive pork knuckle that was just delivered. They returned the gesture when our sampler platter was delivered. The menu said it was for two, but it could have easily fed 5 or 6. There was pork knuckle, liver, steak, breaded pork, beacon, and a huge wall of fried onion. It was a good effort, but we probably left a good quarter of it behind. We ate so much that we were too full to sleep. We got a complementary drink at the end and then headed back to the room.
Day 5 - Warsaw
In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel. It was a great spread, but we were still full from the night before. We checked out of the hotel and left our bags behind. We got information on a hop on hop off tour wandered down to the pick-up point. We did the tour which covered all the high points of Warsaw and gave us also the following history:
The medieval capital of Poland was the southern city of Krakow, but Warsaw has been the capital of the country since 1596, and has grown to become Poland's largest city and the nation's urban and commercial center. Completely destroyed by the Nazis during World War II, the city managed to lift itself from the ashes. Today, almost every building in Warsaw dates to the postwar era - with what little remains of the old structures being confined largely to the restored districts of Stare Miasto (the 'old city') and Nowe Miasto ('new city'), as well as selected monuments and cemeteries.
Warsaw was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1939, and was the scene of two major uprisings during the war - the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The former involved the remaining Jewish inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto, which had already largely been emptied by the Nazi extermination policies of the Holocaust, and was ended by the annihilation of the Ghetto by Nazi forces. The latter involved the Polish resistance forces, known as the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, or AK), rising up against the Nazi occupation of the city in hopes that the city could be liberated by Polish forces instead of the facing dubious Soviet 'liberation' from the east. The Soviet Union had cooperated with Nazi Germany in the invasion and occupation of Poland in 1939.
After the surrender, the German army, despite its agreements under the surrender treaty, systematically destroyed over 85% of Warsaw in retaliation for the uprising, including the historic "Old Town" which was rebuilt after the war. Of 987 historically important buildings, only 64 were left untouched by the Germans. Polish soldiers were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Warsaw's civilian population was "evacuated" with some being sent to concentration camps, or sent to Germany for forced labor. Others were sent to different Polish cities.
In the first days of the fighting, Nazi forces indiscriminately murdered about 60,000 civilians, including women and children, in the district of Wola. In the end, the Uprising cost 180,000 civilians their lives, the lives of an additional 18,000 insurgents, the capital its glory, and the Polish nation its long-desired independence. The only thing that persevered was the Polish spirit.
Most of the sites are within the district of Śródmieście, which means inner city. On the tour, we saw the following highlights:
• Palace of Culture and Science – this is Warsaw's most recognizable building. Built in the 1950s as a "gift" to the Polish people by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The building elicits mixed feelings from Poles - on one hand, the building has a controversially beautiful architectural style, however, the building was built by the man who helped Hitler rape the Polish countryside, then continued a campaign of senseless murders of the Poles when the Soviet-Nazi Germany relations soured. Today, the building is home to a movie theater, museum, restaurant, and college. Visitors can take an elevator to an observation deck, which provides a great view of Warsaw.
• The Parliament - Sejm is the name for the lower chamber of the Polish parliament (the name has also been adopted by Lithuania and Latvia).
• Umschlagplatz - A contender for the most sinister place in Warsaw the Umschlagplatz was the location Nazi officials herded Jews into cattle cars to be murdered at the Treblinka extermination camp. Estimates place the total number of persons transported from the Umschlagplatz at 300,000 or more.
• Tomb of The Unknown Soldier - Built in 1925, the tomb holds the remains of a Polish soldier who died in battle at Lwów, now Lviv, Ukraine. It also holds soil from 38 battlegrounds fought at by Poles. During the communist period, the authorities removed references to battles Poles fought against the Soviets. After Poland regained its independence in 1990, the references to the Polish-Soviet War were again added to the memorial. The tomb is located in Victory Square, which is where Pope John Paul II addressed his countryman for the first time after election to the Papacy.
• The Royal Castle - is a castle residency and was the official residence of the Polish monarchs. It is located in the Castle Square, at the entrance to the Warsaw Old Town. The personal offices of the king and the administrative offices of the Royal Court of Poland were located there from the 16th century until the Partitions of Poland. In its long history the Royal Castle was repeatedly devastated and plundered by Swedish, Brandenburgian, German, and Russian armies. The Constitution of 3 May 1791 was drafted here by the Four-Year Sejm
• Saski Garden - a lovely park in central Warsaw. It's small in comparison to Łazienki, but nonetheless relaxing with its forested landscape. Prior to WWII, it housed the Saski Palace, which like the rest of Warsaw was destroyed in the insane Nazi vengeance for the Warsaw Uprising. Plans to rebuild the palace have failed to materialize due to funding. Nowadays, one of the draws aside from the escape of the city is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is on the park grounds. edit
• Lazienki Park - was built and designed for a Polish politician, but became King Stanisław Poniatowski's, the last king of Poland, residence for much of later half of the 18th century. During Poniatowski's reign, much of the buildings on the park grounds were built. The most interesting buildings are the Łazienki Palace, Roman theater, and the so called Little White House, where the King sought the worldly comfort of mistresses. The park is a wonderful escape from hustle and bustle of the city streets that surround the park and can be the setting for a picnic or a wedding.
• Monument to the Warsaw uprising.
The old town is the area around the castle. We walked around and had a nice lunch in a local restaurant. We wanted to eat in one of the communist era milk bars, but could not find one in the old town. Milk bars were originally created in the sixties to serve cheap meals based on milk products. After the fall of communism, most of them closed down but some survived and still bear the climate from the old days. Afterwards, we went to tour the castle, but found that it was closed. So we went to the Frederick Chopin Museum, who is Poland’s most famous composer/musician. The museum was highly interactive so the kids really enjoyed it.
We only had about an hour, so we did the express tour, and then took a taxi back to the hotel for our bags, and then to the airport.
