Day 18 - 14 April 2019 Sunday - Krakow

Ok, hands up all those who knew that today is Palm Sunday????

I didn't but I do now.  I was having a slightly aimless wander around the market and the market square when I noticed a lot of people wearing Polish national dress and I twigged that there must be something going on here today.

At little later there was a procession around the market square of various groups from what appeared to be different diocese or towns dressed in variations of national dress and accompanied by small bands or men playing piano accordions.  Some were carrying palm leaves and that is when I made the connection with Palm Sunday, (doesn't take long for me to catch on).  They call Adelaide the city of churches, I tell you now Krakow leaves Adelaide for dead in the number of churches stakes.  There are cathedrals, churches, monasteries, convents, abbeys and any other religious building you can think of everywhere.  Of course Poland is strongly Roman Catholic and I think Krakow would be at the top of the list of the devout.  Obviously the Reformation didn't make it this far north.

And now for the parable of Jesus and the Australian with a cold.  A little later I came across a stage set up in the market square and each village group got to do a little musical number which appeared to be being judged by Jesus.  A sort of heavenly X Factor.  Anyway as this finished Jesus was coming down off the stage and I went up to him and said 'I have a bit of cold do you think you could do something to help cure it',  anyway he looked at me and said something in Polish that sounded a bit like 'Fuck Off' or he could have been giving me a blessing.  Anyway, as I still have the cold I don't think that he was giving me a blessing.  (Photo of Jesus follows, although his donkey looks a little stuffed)

After my religious experience I decided it was time for a beer and then headed 

off on the walk to the Oskar Schindler Museum.  On the way I bought a bread bagel/pretzel from a street vendor for my lunch.  I'm becoming almost European.

It was about a 3k walk but very pleasant in the almost warm sunshine.  After negotiating the usual bun fight at the entrance.  (Now this was supposed to be a ticketed admission by time, and I went to some trouble to get the appropriate ticket for the appropriate time, I am not sure why I bothered, I could have got in with a jam jar label). Anyway the museum is the building where Oskar Schindler had his factory and sheltered his Jewish workers during the German occupation of Krakow in WW2.  It was very well done and told the story of Krakow from the beginning of the occupation in 1939 until the German defeat in 1945 and the subsequent occupation by the Soviets.  The poor old Poles had a tough trot off it for a while there. 

After the visit to the museum I got a cab back to my hotel, it was getting late and eating into my pre dinner drinky time.

Dinner was a nice veal dish with potato pancakes and a mushroom sauce accompanied by a dark beer (porter) at 9.5% and a glass of local red wine.  (Although I did give them a bit of a rev as I was leaving for ignoring the single diner sitting in the corner, me, and told them that they would be getting a bad review on trip adviser, that put the wind up em).

Fun Fact: Pedestrian crossings are advisory, not obligatory.

Step Count: 7,475

Observation: The sounds of Europe - The clickety clack of trolley suitcases being dragged across cobblestones.