Hanging out in Krakow

Hi from one of the many beautiful parks in Krakow. This was a great break from ministry and adjustment into a new culture! In Poland, we weren't expected to learn any language, to know how to get around, and we didn't have to try! We just enjoyed the city and the people there.

At one time the castle and main city were surrounded by a moat (the original drawbridge is still there) but that moat has been filled in and is now this lovely park that surrounds the old city.

The city has four historical parts, the old city with the castle and walls, as well as the tower where the famous trumpeter lived. The second part is the Jewish section. It seemed the Jews couldn't live in peace with the others so they moved into their own area which is virtually empty of Jews now. A third area is the ghetto where the Nazi's forced the jews to live, the original wall is still intact and you can see where the trams were forced through a single gate into the ghetto. The fourth area, we didn't see, but didn't think we needed to was the communist section. We assume it's what we live in in Moldova!

As you can see in one of the other blogs, we did a bike tour of the city and got a great overview of the history and Ron, Steph, and Brandy did a tour out into the countryside on the last evening we were there.