Saturday is a Sunny Day in Krakow

Birds flying right at me on the Market Square

Today was a beautiful sunny day in Krakow. I booked no excursions or side trips because the #1 agenda item for the day was to get my COVID test so I could get back into the United States. So no Auschwitz for me this trip.

A lot of these pictures of Old Town are of the same things I shot two days, in the pouring rain.

Everything looks better in the bright sun, including you, Old Town Hall Tower.

And you clearly see the face of a live human child in the left eye hole of the giant disembodied head lying there in the Market Square.

I waited in line one hour for the COVID test. Then I waited another 15 minutes for the results. The result? Negative! The good news is that I get to go back home. The bad news is that I have to go back home.

So I spent the afternoon shooting the Old Town, and the nearby neighborhood of Kazimierz, in the sunny sun of sunny Krakow.

Which meant a lot of aimless wandering down streets.

Here is a bagel cart:

No less an authority than wikipedia states that the bagel originated in the Jewish community in Krakow in 1610. Only they don't call them "bagels" here. Those Polish Jews of New York may have called them "bagels" after they brought this snack from the homeland stateside. But here they are "obwarzanek," I believe. Could be wrong. It's been known to happen.

And we swing back to Catholicism with a Catholic church. This is, I believe, Holy Trinity Church. Quick peek inside the interior:

Then it's back in the sun and more walking.

Hansom cab alert:

I don't know why I am still photographing the hansom cabs (or, to be more precise, carriages). I know why! They are so gosh-darn photographable.

As are trams.

John Paul II sighting:

And here is the ultimate. A hansom cab and a tram in one shot.

If only this were alongside a statue of John Paul II, I would have the definitive Krakow photo shot.

Out of the Old Town and alongside the river. As you can see, the Vistula has graciously returned to inside its banks.

My feet were so tired and sore I almost was tempted to take a boat cruise. But that would have required me to double-back to where they were selling tickets. So onward into Kazimierz.

Kazimierz is the old Jewish quarter from back when Krakow had a large and thriving Jewish community.

Then, of course, World War Two happened. (By the way, if you saw the movie and are interested, Oscar Schindler's factory is located just across the river from Kazimierz. It can be toured. I've not yet seen the movie.)

There are now multiple Catholic churches in the old Jewish quarter.

And public spaces. This is in front of the ethnography museum.

I left Kazimierz and had me a bagel. Or obwarzanek.

Here is an artsy photo for you. The cart where I bought my bagel as seen through the hole in my bagel.

Yes, as you can see, I opted for the sesame. It was very tasty but, man oh man oh man, was it ever chewy. It could've used a half ton of cream cheese, but that doesn't seem to be a thing here. Neither is schmear.

Back in the Old Town for a Katyn memorial.

The Katyn Forest represents twin tragedies in Polish history. The more significant is the mass execution -- on a massive scale -- of around 22,000 Polish military officials by the Soviet Union (NKVD, the precursor to the KGB) in April and May 1940. At the time, the Soviets blamed the Nazis, but the USSR officially acknowledged guilt in 1980, long after when the incident had been forgotten everywhere in the world but Poland. The second tragedy occurred on April 10, 2010, when a plane carrying 87 Polish dignitaries, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński with his wife, crashed en route to a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Forest massacres.

There are a lot of dark chapters in Polish history.

This is Saints Peter and Paul church. A look inside:

And then back out into more sun:

This is looking outward from the church entrance, with the statuary at the gate looking out onto ulica Grodzka.

At this point, my mind fried from the unexpected pleasure of a hot Krakow sun, I'm just wandering aimlessly around the Old Town. And what do I see?

More hansom cabs! Or maybe the same one, only with new passengers. I'm not taking a census.

Then it was down the notable and historic Kanonicza.

Which leads to ... more hansom cabs! And, more precisely, Wawel Castle.

Then it was off the other end of Old Town and Plac Szczepański.

It has a giant bell on wheels.

And a fountain that shoots water straight up.

And, most importantly, right there on Plac Szczepański, is an ice cream shop.

There are an uncountable number of ice cream shops in the Old Town. Almost as many as there are hansom cabs or even John Paul II statues, posters, and paintings. But this one, Tiffany, is special. It had one of my absolute most favorite flavors of ice cream I've only ever seen one time before in life. Brazil nut. Yes, the bane of the Planter's mixed nuts can makes an amazingly delicious ice cream I've only ever seen once before (in, of all places, Brazil!). They also had -- as an ice cream flavor -- I kid you not -- saffron. I do want to try it. But not on this day. I did not want the saffron to destroy my brazil nut infused reverie.