Cracow

So we drove on from Oswiecim to Cracow, taking the blue highways, as we often do. The secondary roads we saw in Poland are pretty much as advertised: paved, wide enough, but very rough and heavily-trafficked. The one-hour drive to Cracow took two hours, but we got to see some "real" Poland that you don't see from the super-highway.

We spent a couple days in Cracow. The campground was near Borek, in the western outskirts, with the tram station and a huge shopping center a few hundred feet beyond the park. This campground also had free wifi, in the reception area only, however. Riding into the old city was a breeze. And cheap.

Cracow is the historic, cultural, and intellectual capital of Poland. Somehow, it avoided the ravages of two world wars. The modern capital, Warsaw, was pretty much destroyed in WWII. Old Cracow is beautiful, interesting, studded with fascinating architecture, some of it quite old. Of course, newer Cracow is old eastern bloc, neither beautiful nor interesting.... But then, most all cities are like this, everywhere.

The St. Mary Church, 14th century,

dominates the old city market square

Its best known feature is the large wood-carving alterpiece

by Veit Stoss of Nuremburg

Up closer; larger than life-size

Stained-glass window; extremely ornate

throughout; memorials of one sort or

another occupy just about every square

inch, sort of like Westminster Abbey

Ceiling

Front of another church, down the street

Many beautiful buildings

And my personal favorite, the statue of

Copernicus, in the university area; he

was a student there; the U of Cracow is

one of Europe's very oldest

Typical Cracow tram