Today's Agenda Item 2: the Kosciuszko Mound

 

They built a giant mound of dirt to honor a Polish hero of the American Revolution

The skies cleared and the sun was out when I crawled out of the salt mine (actually, it was a ride out of an antiquated elevator). So that allowed me to visit another site (or is it sight? I'm not sure which is more appropriate) on my agenda: the Kosciuszko Mound.

For reasons I do not know, they built a series of earthen mounds around Krakow. And the mound that is the shortest walk from where I am staying on the outer edge of Old Town Krakow is the Kosciuszko Mound, which would have been the one I wanted to visit anyway.

It is a little less than a two-mile walk, the first third being along the Vistula River heading west. The river had climbed ever so slightly out of its banks from the huge rainstorm the day before.

The walk was nice. Here's a church that I passed along the way:

I was going on map-memory to find the Mound, since it is not well-marked. But when I found the street named for George Washington, I knew I was heading in the right direction.

And, soon, enough, there it was. Kopiec Kościuszki, in Polish. The Kosciuszko Mound in my native tongue.

Kosciuszko was a brilliant military engineer. His military career was stymied in Poland (around the time of the Partition of Poland), so he decided to bring his freedom-fighting, liberty-loving ideals across the Atlantic to support the American Revolution.

He's a military hero on both sides of the Atlantic. One of the ways he has been honored in Poland is by the building of this large earthen mound, fortified by museums and walls, because why not. It kind of reminds me of the mound-building culture among the Plains Indians in the United States, although I guess the association is only in my brain.

And here's the man of the hour:

Tadeuz Kosciusszko.

Having walked the two miles from my hotel, and having walked around the base of the mound to find the official entrance, the climb up the mound was easy. Soon I was near the summit:

And from the summit you are treated to a nice view of Krakow. Wawel Castle and the nearby giant Ferris Wheel -- which seems to be a thing in cities everywhere nowadays I am not sure why I'm not getting up in one of those things -- are clearly visible from the summit.

And ... that was it. There was a museum that I toured about the life of Kosciuszko but (get this) it emphasized his military career in Poland and gave very short shrift to his heroics in the American Revolution. Imagine that! In Poland, they care more about Polish history than the fact that Tadeuz Kosciuszko was good personal friends with Mr. Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson, himself.

I came. I climbed. I walked back to my hotel.

I did work up an appetite walking all that walk. I decided to try a burger restaurant not far from my hotel that had lots and lots of stars in its on-line ratings.

The Tasty Beast. Which was more of a takeout counter with a couple of tables and chairs, rather than an actual restaurant. I ordered the "spicy" burger with a side order of onion rings because I like living on the edge and, out there on the edge, French fries sometimes just won't do.

Washed it down with a black currant soda because, again, living on the edge and all that where cola or orange or Sprite just won't do. The beast was tasty, however.