A castle, a cathedral, a cemetery, a few churches and synagogues – relaxing in Krakow.

Thursday 27 September.  After an emotionally challenging day yesterday it was good to spend the day relaxing and visiting some of the more notable attractions of Krakow – the rest of the Old Town (Stare Miasto), the old Jewish quarter (Kazimierz) and the Wawel Castle.  There are a number of magnificent churches, of differing architectural styles – gothic, renaissance, baroque – some dating back to the tenth century, however most have had extensive additions and renovations, with each change reflecting the architectural style of the moment.  Our churches included the Franciscan church and monastery which dates from the 13^th century, the Church of St Peter and St Paul, where we watched a demonstration of Foucault’s pendulum, which established that the earth rotates along its own axis and is fairly important if you’re into that kind of stuff.  The 25kg pendulum is suspended from 47 metres above the church floor and is said to be among the largest in the world.   We also saw the monumental 1634 Corpus Christi church and a few synagogues: the 15^th century Old Synagogue, the Remu Synagogue and the Zydowski Synagogue and cemetery.  We lunched in the Jewish quarter, then walked up to the gigantic and picturesque Wawel Castle, which was at the peak of its power and influence in the 16^th century.  We had a look through the castle cathedral and the royal tombs and took some photos from vantage points over the Vistula River.  We made our way back to the main town square for a hot chocolate with whipped cream (but without the rum which was on offer) and a mug of beer, while we watched the parade of beautiful white horses and carriages go past.  Early night tonight, because:

Tomorrow: on the train at 5.55am for the trip to Ljubljana, Slovenia armed with enough Sudoku and chocolate for the 15 hour journey.