We, meanwhile, were discovering a few quirks in the apartment. Very few plugs, and none in the bathroom or near any of the mirrors. There was a big flat screen TV, but it only got one channel--The Polish people's court. I tried the mini bagels on a string--hard and dry, but still quite good. They would be wonderful for baby-teething and had a taste like zwieback cookies. I had bread and cheese and GAAAACK!!!!! That is NOT milk.
After some serious tooth-brushing. We walked to the train station (about a 45 min walk), seeing some interesting sights along the way.
Of course we saw H&M. H&M's are everywhere. I had no idea.
We found Catherine.
usual, was carrying a seriously heavy load--an overstuffed backpack and several bags, none of them light. We had planned to take home some of her stuff with us, but still.... I don't know how she managed to lug all of that to the train station in Krakow, about a 45 minute walk on her end as well. We weren't nearly so hardy and got a taxi. This taxi driver, alas, did not speak either English or German, and also had no clue where the apartment was (can't really blame him, it was in a little alley). He got us sort of somewhere close and pointed. Then, with all of her stuff---heavy even with all three of us, we wandered around lost until we found the old town and then the hotel. She showed us the wonderful treasures she had collected on her travels and then demanded to be fed (some things never change). With umbrellas in hand (it was cool and rainy the whole time we were there. We took her to the old town, which had this little Alice in Wonderland section.
We had a rather expensive lunch in the beautiful town hall. Alas, we did not get the Goethe table.
First Pierogi!
Portions for everything were huge. Catherine was a little baffled as to how to approach half a duck.
That is, except for what we needed most. Water. Apparently Europe doesn't believe in water. They also don't seem to believe in bathrooms, so I guess that all works out. You can order your water either still or sparkling, and you pay big Zlottys for it.
Also, at the restaurant there were beggars who kept trying to get in. This was a little surprising, as this was a very nice place. The waitress, had to keep shooing them out.
After lunch we lazily explored the street stalls, and the flower market
The cutest gnomes I've ever seen...
the rest of the town hall. Town Hall was sort of an odd collection of fantastic furniture and commemorative tributes, some very old, like this king and queen from the 1200's.
We got some gelatos---the most important word in Polish is "Lody"--it means ice-cream.
Lody Barton. The first Lody place we found and it remained a favorite.
Then we went back to the hotel for a nap. It was much harder to wake up from the nap than it was to wake up in the morning. After we woke up, Dave did some work and I did some trip planning. We went back to the old town and tried to see the biggest church there, St. Elizabeth Cathedral. We weren't allowed to go in because mass was in progress, but we were allowed to climb to the top. These things always seem like a good idea when one is on the ground. Not so much 10 minutes later.
But we made it and were rewarded with a terrific view.
Can't go any higher.
Still unable to get inside after we came down, we hunted for "Stale Jitski" a tiny little street that used to be used as the slaughtering area, but is now full of trendy little shops and some great cast iron statues in honor of the animals.
After this we were hungry again so we went back to the train food cart. There are actually quite a few beggars in Wroclaw. One nice looking gentleman cam asking for money saying that he was hungry. We didn't give him any money, but the portions we got were huge, and there was no way we could finish. We called him over to our table, and motioned that he could have the leftovers if he wanted to. He seemed very happy about that. By this time it was about 8 at night. We didn't expect much to be open, but we found the river.
and University (not the one where Dave was having his conference), and looked around the grounds.
We also picked up some paper towels at the grocery store. After that, we came home by way of the friendly neighborhood alligator
and ate Catherine's stroop wafflen and chocolate (of which she had brought a ton), and relaxed.
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