A day in Krakow

Once again on waking today it was raining, well only a light drizzle really, but still wet. I had already decided that I would go into Krakow today, so, after a cup of tea, it was umbrella up and a short walk to the bus stop. One very short bus ride, and a change to a tram for 4 stops, and I was in the centre of Krakow at the base of Wawel Hill, the castle.
Climbing to the castle, I joined a short queue to buy tickets for the various sections of the castle, the ones I chose were The State Rooms, The Royal Private Apartments and The Crown Treasury and Armoury. After parting with a suprisingly small amount of cash I was given a ticket with the times that I had to be at the various locations. The most important one being the Royal Private Apartments at 12 o'clock as this was for a guided tour in English.
They sell only a set number of tickets per day to the various attractions and it does say that at busy times of the year you may not be able to buy a ticket in the afternoon as they will have all gone during the morning.
The castle and apartments were really stunning and well worth seeing and my photos would not have done them justice, it was a good job because the taking of photos was not allowed! Inthe arcaded courtyard of the castle. The castle was built in the early 1600's and was the home of the Royal family, when Poland was a monarchy and when Krakow was the capital. When the capital was moved to Warsaw the castle was still used to crown the king or queen. When Poland ceased to be a monarchy the castle was turned into a museum that you see today.

Following the various tours I had a walk into the old town and one of the first things I saw was this old couple in national dress selling bird whistles.

The photo below is in the old Cloth Hall in the old city square. It is lined both sides by stalls selling various items for the tourist, but in the main they sell Amber which is fozzilized tree resin from the pine tree. It is found all over the Baltic and is polished and made into jewelry.Another stall was selling chess sets and boards and I was very suprised to see that a basic wooden set housed in a wooden box opening into a board, cost only 25zl. The most expensive set I saw was a set depicting knights in armour, again in a wooden box that opened into the board, was only 140zl, with about 4zl to the pound it made it only £35.00, a bargain.

One way of seeing Krakow is in one of these beutiful carriages which do a tour of the old city together with a commentry. They really looked the business.

Not too sure about the fancy footwear for the horses though, not see anything like these before.

This in is just for Cuth, see what you are missing mate! Free beer it says on the sign AND look at the size, Ha Ha.