Krakow Stare Miasto Day 2

My second trip into Krakow's Old Town was centered around museum trips, as Thursday was free admission for Naradowy Museums. Late start again as usual, but never unpleasant with Ciocia Ala. We first went to her parish church, beautifully adorned, and saw an old Polish style wooden church.

We then made a stop at the modern church, built during and against communist rule, called Arka Pana. It has in fact an ark built as the roof of the church. All of the details of the church have specific meanings that attest to the Poles fight for religious freedom and against oppression. An older gentleman approached us and explained much of the history to us. Turns out he was one of the church builders. The sacrament is housed in a sphere of rock, but most unusual is the shining orb set in it that was given to Pope John Paul II by Neil Armstrong's wife ... a piece of lunar rock.



Next on my list was to see Wawel Cathedral, from the inside, since it was already closed by the time we got there 2 days before. One ticket gets you into the Cathedral, Polish king tombs, and up the narrow and very badly lit stairs to Zygmund's Bell.



After Wawel, I walked up through the old town, past St. Peter and Paul's, made a little visit to Sukiennice again (and bought more boots, omg, i can't stop), saw the Krakow History Museum (not worth it), and went to see an art exhibit that caught my eye of Jan Stanislaw and Stanislaw Wyspianski before catching the tram home to Nowa Huta by the Barbakan (old remnant of the walls that used to surround old Krakow).

After stuffing myself silly with pierogies Ciocia Ala made, we went to visit her sister, Marila, and family (Dariusz, Kamilla, Kasia, Karolina ... Ciocia Ala also pictured). She's very similar to Ciocia Stasia.