Main Attractions

8.20.10 - 8.21.10

My mom had found a great two bedroom apartment on Vacation Rentals By Owner with a view of Wawel Castle, so after breakfast on Friday in our cozy kitchen, we walked up to the main square to meet up with Max's family for a walking tour of Krakow. They had found a great guide who was a Jewish history major and had lots of information about Jewish life in Krakow before, during and after World War II. The three hour tour led us through Kazimierz and Podgordz and ended at the newly created museum in Schindler's Factory. The museum covered the Nazi occupation of Krakow from 1939 through 1945 through immersive exhibits that creatively used sound, lighting and images that made you feel like you were in wartime Krakow. At some points it felt like there was no way out, probably purposefully.The next day we explored Krakow on our own, first taking a early morning stroll through the grounds of Wawel Castle, avoiding the crush of school groups and allowing us to marvel at the large empty grand hall in peace. We spent the rest of the day walking around the Florintine Gate, visiting St. Mary's Basilica, ogling over amber at the Cloth Hall, and pushing our way through the throngs of people through the Main Square. We stopped for a quick view of a Andreas Feininger photography exhibit of his iconic shots of New York in the 1940s and then obliged my mother's interest in Islamic Art by visiting the Ethnological Museum's temporary exhibit highlight in the importance of numbers in Islamic crafts. Two days is not enough to see all there is to see in Krakow, but we got a good taste.

Links: Vacation Rentals By Owner, Schindler's Factory Museum, Andreas Feininger

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