Today I set off for Wawel Hill. I had little idea of what to expect. In the blurb it is described as what the Acropolis was to ancient Athens so I prepared for some serious hiking with trepidation. I strapped up my feet, put on my hiking boots (sneekers actually) and took my hiking stick to protect my niggling hip. I couldn’t believe it when I walked off down the street and there it was. No fuss at all. But having the hiking stick turned out to be a winner, everywhere I went they immediately sat me down and offered me the lift!!
I was there fairly early (read 10am) which was good because there was already a queue for tickets. You had to get a timed ticket and a separate ticket for each area. I wasn’t too clued up on where to go but did some quick LPG research in the queue. They had the number of places left at each site up on a board and you could see it going down rapidly. A clue to the hot spots!!
I went to The Lost Wawel (I don’t think I’ll even try to describe that one), the Crown Treasury and Armoury, the State Rooms and the definite favourite according to the board, The Royal Private Apartments. Between these visits I had to fit in the Cathedral. All in all it took about 6 hrs. It was interesting and there was some lovely stuff. Particularly some amazing tapestries…god knows how they did that stuff. I learnt today that one person did about a sq M a year…and these tapestries were HUGE.
I set out to plod back to my room but it took a while because I was pretty tired. Regular stops were the order of the day…a drink here, a bite to eat there and a sit by the fountain and watch the world go by in between. I had my evening meal at a vaguely respectable 6pm in a restaurant on the way home that all the writers used to go to over the past century, called Jama Michalika, before taking myself back here with my last bit of energy.
A bit about the weather. Every afternoon since I’ve been in Poland it has rained at about 4pm. It is hot and humid so a bit of rain doesn’t cause any angst and beside in the main part I’ve dodged it. Today though, it didn’t happen as scheduled but it looks as if it will happen albeit a little later than usual. The days are in the 30s but the problem is that it’s awfully humid.
Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow but there is loads to do. Saturday it’s off to the Salt Mines. I just hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew with that one!!!