Wawel!

I declared Tuesday to be Castle Day. I would head north, to the Wawel complex on the hill, and focus my energies on the very large and nicely restored Wawel Castle. i would also poke my head in the cathedral right next door.

The castle itself was enormous, and had five separate areas that one could explore, each with a different, fairly costly ticket. I chose the State Rooms and the Armoury for my time there.

The State Rooms were exceptionally stately. Lots of marble, lots of very cool boxy and big wooden furniture. And lots of art. There were wall-sized tapestries depicting everything from Adam and Eve to the nine planets (assuming there were nine back then). One of my favorite rooms was the Throne Room, where an artist had placed 100+ carved heads into little one meter squares in the ceiling. Only about 35 were left, but they were very cool. Women, men, people of all classes, even a young man with curled horns.

The Armoury had its fair share of arms. I spotted swords, daggers, halberds, lances, javelins, pistols, guns, bayonets, cannons, and crossbows. And I probably missed something. Some of them had incredibly intricate detail or ornamentation. Some were also massively large, like the two-handed sword that was over six feet long. There was also the Szczerbiec sword, which was from the 13th century and has been used for coronations of successive Polish kings ever since.

The cathedral itself was filled to the brim. There were numerous small chapels, lots of celebrated graves, and a general attempt to beautify every surface in sight. There also seemed to be a lot of intrigue among historical Polish royal families.

In the courtyard of the castle was a life-size statue of Pope John Paul II, who hailed from a town not too far from Krakow. Apparently his town is known for its cream cakes...

One possible exit from the castle and cathedral complex was through the Dragon's Den. I paid my 3 zlotys and descended a spiral staircase that seemed like it was going down five stories. I came out into a cave.

It was fairly well-lit, so I wasn't too worried. I kept walking through, avoiding the camera angles of those talking family photo shots in front of me, and soon emerged.

There, the dragon! Actually, it was a pretty cool dragon statue and a not bad view of the river that runs through this city. I ambled north into the Old Town in search of lunch.