Wawel Hill

The closest attraction (apart from the ARCADE GAME AND PINBALL MUSEUM - which I took a mental note of, but didn't feel like spending the day indoors) was Wawel Hill.

Legend says that a huge dragon (Smok) used to live under this hill, which now carries Wawel Castle and Wawel Cathedral.

The castle, at least from the outside, was rather underwhelming in my opinion. But the cathedral immediately caught my eye with it's varied architecture. So much so, that I decided to find a spot to sit (on the ground in the shadow of a small wall) and spent some time just people-watching and sketching.

On the left of the cathedral's main entrance, keen observers might notice three gigantic bones hanging from chains. These were found in the Vistula river at the bottom of the hill and we're believed to be the bones of the dragon. In fact, as is known now, they were the fossilized remains of a whale, a whooly rhinoceros, and a mammoth.Read more