Tony: like Scylla and Charybdis, the collectors of revenues on the right with their schedule of fees, and the scourge of heretics on the left, form the channel at the entrance through which all visitors to St. Stephan's Dom must pass. (Is that a shillelagh he is carrying?)
While Frommer's guide book says that Steirerek's "restrooms count among Europe's quirkiest", Petersplatz is also not without toilet quirkery. Note the pigeon about to do business as well as the fountain.
Before we left Melbourne we booked for dinner in Vienna to celebrate Tonys birthday which was on the day we flew out. We chose a restaurant called Steiereck which is situated in Stadt park. It's an elegant white building with a large verandah and has been renovated to allow modern restaurant requirements. It proved to be a very formal and efficient experience. The seats were ruby velvet arm chairs, the table was round and there was a small curved table adjacent to that to be used for serving purposes. We were treated to multiple appetisers before consulting the menu for rest of our meal. We chose a six course degustation with matched wines which proved a very interesting and worthwhile experience.
One thing I must describe although I don't have a photo unfortunately is the bathroom experience. Firstly the cubicle was about 2 metres sq. it contained a toilet as you would expect but the rest was both colourful and a bit weird. There was a canary yellow basin about 2/3 metre diameter and then there was a bright blue trumpet looking thing suitably placed for an inconceivable purpose! The last structure was another trumpet like thing that faced upwards and was obviously to contain used hand towels. Then of course there was the flushing business. There was none to be seen so I assumed it was a self flushing device, but no, moving away didn't work. Then I noticed a chain flush in amongst some fabric silver fringing above the toilet, so I moved to pull it and as soon as I touched it, bingo!
We got home about 11pm and were a bit worse for wear so this morning was spent lolling about. This afternoon we walked to Petersplatz and had a look in St Peters church. It is typical of the heavily baroque style one would expect of a Viennese church of the 18th century. Then we strolled down to the Hofburg Palace, along the road that goes though the building into the Heldenplatz and out onto the Opernring to find our way to Karntnerstrasse. We had expected this road to be full of exclusive unattainable shopping but found it was mostly a large shopping mall with ordinary fairly boring shops. Just before we re-entered the Stephensplatz at the north end we came upon a Wiener workstatte shop which was full of original and replicas of pieces designed by members of the secession movement. It is part exhibition and part retail. We will probably go back for another look.
Since we were feeling a bit more amenable today, we took another look in St Stephan's. We also checked out the Manner (famous for it biscuits) shop. It's too touristy so we didn't buy anything. Then we trekked home via the very beautiful clock pictured at the bottom of the blog only to go out after dinner for a much needed ice-cream!
On Monday night we had our last evening meal in the hotel with a concert as described by Wendy. My photo sets the scene.
We had our last big breakfast together on Tuesday morning and then made a final attempt to locate the grave of one of Wendy's ancestors (d.1874) in the cemetery a short walk away. Although we had a grave number identified in modern times (one of the few numbered) and the help of two carers, it could not be found.
After a stopover in the playground for Xanthe it was off to the airport where our paths went different ways. We embarked our little de Havilland efficiently and it took off 5 minutes early and made up more time in flight, so we arrived in Vienna 20 minutes before our transfer was due.
The lane leading to our apartment was dug up, and the poor driver had to consult a taxi driver on arrival about the best place to disgorge us.
The apartment is of luxurious size- our bedroom must be about 24 sq.m., and the lounge-dining room is bigger. It is equipped with all modern machinery and "entertainment centre"( loaded with radio music, videos, and the TV works ) is beyond our competence even after 2 lessons. After a significant struggle we persuaded a large machine in the kitchen to provide us with a coffee.
Today we trekked to Naschmarkt for the week's provisions. While it has numerous stalls the choice of most particular food items, except olives and dips is too limited to constitute a competitive sellers' market. We shopped satisfactorily but in my assessment if Queen Vic in Melbourne is world class then Naschmarkt plays in the VFL.
On the other hand the city public transport system is excellent with max 5 minute wait on the metro. Although I haven't looked at the ticket system for locals, it welcomes visitors with fast multi-language ticket machines and offers seniors discounts.
We looked into St Stephens church but our spirits were not lifted by the 2 euro information machines every 2 or 3 metres, or the notice board crammed with prices to go into various areas, and dominant concert advertisements. It needs a man with a whip to review the commerce. Said to be "soul of the city" and "the most spiritual church interior in the world", a sympathetic description of its glory and escape from an order for total destruction in 1945 which did result in loss of almost all the windows, and restoration efforts since, can be found in Wikipedia but since we were not willing to pay up we saw only the large lugubrious statue of some prelate described in Latin as a "persecutor of heretics" (we guess Lutherans, Jews, and Turks) who died in 1541, which for us will characterise the place.
Having been a Communist country for so long and previously having had to submit to various hostile rulers, Poland is not a wealthy country but the people are pleased to finally be able to govern themselves. Krakow is possibly one of the better off places in Poland because it is a tourist destination and because it has a fairly prominent university. There are a lot of young people here. As we were riding back into Krakow, I snapped some photos to give a bit of view of the contrasts of this city.
Today was to be a full and exciting day. We decided, for our last day to go into the mountains. We chose to go to Poland's most popular resort town - Zacopane. It is the winter playground of everyone apparently and a place to visit in summer for both Poles and tourists alike. It was definitely a tourist town and very crowded. Being only about 100 km from Krakow you would think it is easily accessible. However it took 3 hours by bus because of the multiple traffic jams. On arrival we were frustrated and flustered especially since it was looking nearly impossible to find our way to the cable car in a village called Kuznice. However, it was surprisingly easy once we had collected ourselves and supplied Xanthe with a hot dog!. We went back to the bus station and got on a mini bus which departed immediately for Kuznice. It is only about 3 km but took about 10 minutes to get there. We bought return tickets for the cable car and only had to wait about 4-5 minutes before departure. It was a very pleasant ride up but we found that after we transferred to the second car for the completion of the journey, the cloud set in and we could see very little. By the time we got to the top at Kasprowy Weirch (2000m) near the Slovak border, the cloud was very heavy and little could be seen. We settled for a hot chocolate and some photos before taking the cable car down the mountain again and making the journey back to Krakow.
In the evening we had dinner in the hotel and listened to a bit of Yiddish music and song before calling it a day.
Below are some photos taken from the bus between Zacopane and Krakow. One of the things that struck us is that the farming still seems to be in very small plots with only a couple of animals, possibly subsistence. No doubt this will change in time.
This morning we headed for the Wieliczka salt mine. We found ourselves an amenable taxi driver and for a mere 65 zlotys (about $20) he drove us to the mine. We then embarked on a two hour walk down many steps to 130 metres level and through many tunnels, rooms and two chapels. We saw salt sculptures of Copernicus and Pope John Paul ll amongst other famous Poles. Each sculpture was made by a miner. The guide described the history of the mine which goes back to about the early 1600's and showed us a couple of salt lakes. The second of the two chapels we saw was quite large and plays host to weddings as well as regular church services. It had salt chandeliers and a carved salt floor as well as reliefs on the walls. One of the Christ child sculptures was made from 2 million year old salt coloured with iron oxide.
This is a world heritage site and is still a working mine although not where we went. There are about 20 kilometres of tunnel in all.
It is also said that the air in the mine is curative for allergies and people are able to go into a special treatment area and just breath the air for several hours!
There are of course innumerable richly adorned Roman Catholic churches in Europe, but surely one aligned with the classic poor friar Francis would be austere? Not in Krakow: this basilica has the most breathtaking tile work, ceilings, and "art nouveau" style stained glass installed in a 19th century restoration. A notice mentioned a 1237 commencement, and the knight pictured below mentions a specific date in 1279. The west window represents God creating water and dividing darkness and light.
