Walk about Krakow

What’s a castle without a dragon, especially one that breathes fire? Smok Wawelski was first described in a 13th-century work attributed to Bishop of Kraków and historian of Poland, Wincenty Kadłubek. A dragon was harassing the town, demanding 1 cow per week or it would start eating humans. King Krak (or Krakus where then town name originated) told his sons to defeat it. They took dead cattle, filled them with smoldering sulfur, and left them for the dragon. When the dragon ate them it burst into flames and died.
We continued our stroll down the Vistula river to reach the church upon the rock or the Basilica of the Archangel Michael. This massive complex also houses the Seminarium Duchowne a seminary founded in 1565, a chapel for Saint Stanislaw and a crypt with a number of famous Krakow artists, poets, city leaders and others buried in it.
Around the corner we found ourselves back in the Jewish quarter and the Corpus Christi cathedral. We walked back along the Vistula riverfront to get to the Pod Baranem, a restaurant CJ had wanted to try. We enjoyed a heart healthy lunch menu of deep fried ham & cheese (not a sandwich, just slab of ham & cheese), fries, polish sausages, sauerkraut and coleslaw.
We wrapped up our evening by making plans for our next city: Warsaw!Read more