Replies

Day 10

June 20, 2006

Krakow

Continuing to stay in Krakow, we visited the Wawel Castle. I guess I got maxed out on castles because I have nothing in my notes about it! LOL! The Royal Residence was near a courtyard, but I didn't walk through it.

The nearby Cathedral was the seat of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla before he became our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. It contained the tombs of saints, Polish aristocracy, national heroes and many bishops. We did not hear the hourly trumpet tap,Hejnal Mariacki however. We descended to the catacombs of the cathedral to an altar where Pope John Paul II said his first two Masses. Being in the exact room where the Pope had said his first Masses was one of the most moving encounters on the entire trip for me.

It rained during the morning and we sought shelter in a little cafe and had coffee, iced coffee, etc. So charming. My friend Willie Jane and I took a 30 minute carriage ride behind two beautiful dapple grays. Wonderful expressions on the faces of the people as we passed by waving. We returned to the main square and walked to our bus about two blocks away.

We dressed for dinner at a (black-tie restaurant) in the heart of Krakow and enjoyed Polish music, polkas, singing and dancing as well as the cabbage rolls, mushroom soup, green salad and ice cream.

Wawel Hill: http://www.krakow-info.com/wawel.htm

Wawel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawel

Wawel Castle: http://www.wawel.krakow.pl/emenu.htm

http://www.krakow-info.com/castle.htm

Wawel Cathedral: http://www.krakow-info.com/katedra.htm

Wawel1.jpg‎ (79KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

I think I got my days mixed up because our itnerary changed.

Now for Day 10
June 21, 2006

We left Krakow today and started our long trek south. I know that during the entire pilgrimage we drove 2000 kilometers. And it seemed as though this day we covered 1000 of them!!!

Even though we started out early we were delayed at the Poland/Slovakia border when one person could not find his/her passport. The border people let us through and we had to park while the passport was found. Some of us stood around the person hunting for the passport and prayed. It was finally found in her regular luggage -- it was not on their person as we were instructed that morning at breakfast.

By the way, the breakfasts at the motels were fabulous (other than the half-cooked scrambled eggs) LOL! We always had several kinds of sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs -- one morning we even had individual omelets! Lots of juice and fruit as well as hard-boiled eggs, cereal, yogurt and plentiful supplies of 100% milk and fresh cream. Coffee was always served in the morning, but if we wanted coffee with our evening meal we usually had to pay extra for it, just like a cocktail or other kind of beverage. Bottled water was always available at all the breakfast buffets. A thing that was astonishing to me was the fact that offered were also a complete bread, cold cuts, cheese, etc. for making a sandwich if we so desired. We got smart along the way when our dinner was delayed until 8:00 pm and we had no lunch stop and started making sandwiches to take along the way. Whole fruit was also available. In other words, we ate our way through Eastern Europe!!

We continued across the flat and green plains of Slovakia and entered Hungary. Driving into Budapest was a wonderful experience -- it seemed so romantic for the couples. The Buda part of Budapest is a flat plain. It united with the Pest part that is located all up a steep hill. What divides these two parts of Budapest? The Danube River!! Now you can see why I thought it was so romantic.

Our motel was only two blocks from a huge town square. But more about that tomorrow.

President Bush was also in Budapest at the same time we were so some of the sight-seeing routes were blocked out. However, our driver, being a native of Germany, knew his way around the back streets of Budapest and we got to where we were going -- eventually. I didn't see that having Bush in the town made that much of a difference, but I guess to the natives, it was noticeable.

Dinner that night was on our own and it was finally here that I was able to use my credit card and get some more cash -- euros. The dollar is weaker than the euro, so each euro was worth $1.35. The exchange rate seemed to change day by day. In Czech Republic and Poland the dollar was stronger so it seemed like we got more money. )If only that was the truth!!)