4th Day of Honeymoon: Krakow (5/26)

On our last day in Krakow, we headed out to Wawel Castle, the #1 attraction of the city. After seeing some great panoramic views of the Vistula river, where there was a Mother's Day celebration, we ventured inside the castle to take specific tours of the state rooms, the armoury, the cathedral, and the Dragon's Den. With the first three rooms, we were not allowed to take pictures, but I pulled off some clandestine shots. (The Polish museum guards were ever vigilant, as if they wanted all visitors to buy postcards/souvenirs.) With the Dragon's Den, we descended a lengthy spiral staircase into a wet underground cave, only to emerge to see a statue of a dragon that breathed fire every 15 minutes.

After the castle, it was back to the Rynek for some Tyskie beer. Later, we hit the tram to the Kazimierz district again to see the Jewish cemetery there. However, it was closed, although we did have a nice, cheap dinner of bigos and potato soup before running across Ariel (Spielberg's favorite restaurant while shooting Schindler's List). We also saw our Tokyo train companion walking by and we greeted him and continued on.

     On our trip back, we were accosted by a tram policeman, who wanted to fine us for not punching our ticket. He escorted us back to our hotel, where he demanded 240 zlotys or almost $80. We got away with paying only 110 zlotys since we didn't have the exact amount, and he didn't want to go into our hotel for change. Thus ended our Polish vacation, and from there on out, we made sure to time stamp our tram tickets.