Although a dedicated photographer would have planned to be on Charles Bridge at dawn, when dawn is 5 am and you are on holidays, dedication sometimes sleeps in ! ? So our visit started at 6.30am instead. We justified our tardiness with the fact that it was cloudy and there wouldn’t have been a good sunrise anyway. But we did certainly have a jump on the crowds. Whilst there were a few people around, you could nearly count them all.
An almost empty bridge
And as an indication of how early you need to be there to at least get some sort of “crowdless” view, there were 2 sets of “bride and groom” having wedding photos taken at 6.30 in the morning. Not to be outdone, on another part of the bridge I spotted a guy down on one knee proposing (she must have said “yes” as when we walked past a little later, they were drinking champagne?) and a little further on a couple doing “baby bump” photos !
This is called “photographer” bombing
She said yes !
What the bridge actually looks like
For those in need of a bit of historical fact, the Charles Bridge is named for Charles IV (1316-1378) a Holy Roman Emperor who ruled his vast empire from Prague. He built the bridge and large parts of Prague generally. It is believed to be one of the oldest original bridges in Europe.
Back to our hotel for breakfast and to pack up, we were on the road before 9am. Being Sunday morning the roads were fairly quiet so we got through the city easily. And our first destination today was about an hours drive away – Kutna Hora.
The “Skull Chapel” or Sedlec Ossuary is a small Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints. The ossuary (place for storing bones) is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. The bones have accumulated from the 13th century when an abbot of the Cistercian Monastery went to Jerusalem and bought back”holy soil”. Soon people everywhere wanted to be buried in Sedlec so the cemetery had to be expanded. Then further accumulation in the 14th century – victims of the plague in that period – to the Hussite Wars in the 15th century and the Thirty Years War in the 17th century. In 1870, a woodcarver was appointed to place the bones – which had just been piles and piles – “in order”, resulting in what you see today !
The entry to the ossuary
One of the 4 chambers of bones
Surprisingly, nothing could top that on the rest of our drive across the Czech Republic to Poland? !
We had quite a drive today – about 6 hours all up. When we reached Poland, we noticed quite an improvement in the roads. The Czech Republic seem to be a bit behind in bringing their infrastructure up to 21st century demands after years of Communism. There are roadworks constantly throughout the country on its main roads. However once we were in Poland, this all changed. And with it the speed limits – now the maximums were up to 140kph whereas previously they were 120-130kph – but often much less with the roadworks.
Here we are in Poland
One thing I’ve noticed driving in Europe is the varying speeds. Generally in Australia we drive “about” the speed limit – some more some less – and you don’t find too many that drive “too” slow (and if they do they are likely to get a blast from the horn !). In the USA, there are so many lanes they just drive further and further to the left lanes until one is going fast enough for them. In Holland, Belgium and France (and France, I think, was the worst) they have manly 2 lanes – sometimes 3 – and you have people driving anything from 70kph to 130kph in a lane. So you can be going along at 120 in the inside lane and suddenly find someone ahead doing 70. As you look to overtake you need to be so careful as you will likely find someone suddenly loom in the outside lane doing well over 130 ! It’s a bit like dodgem cars sometimes ! In the Czech Republic and Poland it seems to be a bit more like us – but definitely more lunatics appearing out of no where in the outside lane !
We arrived in Kraków around 3.30 after Google Maps and TomTom had a disagreement on how to get to the hotel so we had an unexpected detour around the city. As we had spent so much time in the car we decided to stretch our legs and walk into the old town to the Main Market Square. We first strolled through the “Planty” – an area outside the old city wall which was once the moat, which had been filled in and planted with trees and lawns. Then through the Florin Gate – part of the old wall – we reached the main street to the square. It was almost like walking down the Main Street in Las Vegas – souvenir shops and people trying to push tours, restaurants etc everywhere !
The Florin Gate
Being Sunday afternoon probably didn’t help. The main square was also buzzing. The main square is huge ! In fact there is a large building – the Cloth Hall – in the middle of it which makes it almost like to separate squares. On one side there were market stalls and on the other side various entertainment – including some swing dancing. It looks like “bublifuk” has made it to Poland as well as there was also a guy keeping the crowd entertained with his bubbles !
Part of the Old Square and the Cloth Hall
Polish bublifuk
We have 3 nights here in Kraków, staying at Andel’s Hotel , not far from the old town. We decided to eat in the restaurant tonight to make it easy – and the food was excellent !
Tomorrow we have a tour booked – more news then…
Today’s “Tour Trivia” – Poland boasts the most winners of the “World’s Strongest Man” title !