It is Sunday. Russ, Ismini, Arnold, and I just arrived in Krakow. Guess who else is here? The POPE!
As we drove toward the city we noticed that there were many, many police. Russ spotted one policeman with binoculars and we guessed they were checking inspection stickers on cars. Then there were just too many police. They were at almost every intersection and cloverleaf along the highway. They were on the overpasses. They were even standing along the highway where there was no intersection…in fields. Okay…what’s happening, say we to each other. Ah ha, and no one is coming at us on the other side of the highway…no one, not a single car or bus…obviously it is closed. About then we figured it out, because Pam had mentioned in an email that she thought our visit might overlap with the pope’s.
We had an awful time getting hotel reservations...but of course never guessed that it was the pope’s fault. It would have helped if we had guessed, because we could have planned to leave the city to him today and we could have arrived tomorrow or Tuesday. Alas, no such thoughts occurred to us until it was too late.
When we got close to the city, roads were closed on our side too. It took about an hour of extra driving to find a way round and round about to our hotel. Now we are settled in and resting up from dodging all the pope-tourists who were all over the streets and highways as we tried to find our way here.
The pope has gone to visit Auschwitz right now and then will return to the Krakow airport. After he leaves, things will calm down. Until he leaves, no alcoholic beverages are available in Krakow. The town went “dry” for two days!
Scrolling back to before our papal adventure, to the end of my last entry….Russ arrived on Wednesday the 17th after a relatively uneventful flight. We took care of some errands, getting ready for the return home, found a couple of nice new-to-me restaurants, and waited for Pam to get in on Friday before starting any tourist activities. Pam also had a good flight and got in about 1:00. We wandered in Old Town Square and had a good Czech dinner at a brew pub before settling in for the two of them to try to reset their internal clocks with some extra sleep.
Arnold and Ismini arrived early Saturday. We all did lots of tourist things: Old Town Square, Malastrana, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, Karlstejn Castle, the opera at Narodni Divadlo, Kaverna Slavia, great food, lots of shopping, Petrin Hill, the Monastery….
I had my final official Fulbright activity on Tuesday. I gave a presentation at the 4th Annual Convention of Czech Republic Foundations. There were about 100 participants. It was quite thrilling. In my session, we discussed fund-raising campaigns and endowment management. These foundations are only 5-15 years old. It is very exciting to see the entrepreneurial spirit and the passion of these founding executives. I hope to continue to work with some of them, including the Donors Forum, which was the sponsoring organization. As much as I wanted to spend more time with Russ, Pam, Arnold, and Ismini being tourists, I hated to let go of the Fulbright activities!
Pam had to go back on Thursday. She had an okay flight, arriving without luggage...bummer.
The rest of us rented a car and took off for parts unknown. We toured the Plzen brewery and were sad to learn that it is now owned by Miller Brewing Company and a South African firm, in conglomerate. That cannot mean better beer in the future!
We spent Thursday and Friday nights in Česky Krumlov. We stayed at the Hotel Leonardo, which was charming, and less than $90 a night, including breakfast, for a totally quaint room. Unfortunately some young couple, egged on by “friends”, decided to have a major fight outside our windows one night keeping everyone in the hotel awake and making various of us wish we had a hose, like you would use to break up a cat fight on a summer night. But, we loved the castle visit and the wandering around. We bought jewelry and visited shops. Nice!
Yesterday, we visited Telč and Olomouc. We planned to also see Třebeč but a detour got us so far off track that we decided to save it for the return trip. Telč is little town, a UNESCO World Heritage site, with a charmingly well preserved central square, which is under construction at the moment, which did not keep us from imagining its grandeur! We loved it.
Olomouc is also a UNESCO site. It is a big town and has almost no tourists. We could hardly believe all the pedestrian zones with fountains and churches and wonderful sites…and NO people. We walked for a couple of hours at least, then decided to spend the night there. We found a brand new boutique hotel in a very old building in the pedestrian-only area for about $80, including breakfast. We had a great dinner in a quaint Czech-food restaurant on the Square. Cabbage and sausage soup….grilled meats…peasant platters….Moravian wines…yum! We even took an evening walk in the rain to get some pretty photos.
I hated to leave the Czech Republic today…even if only to come to Krakow. The drive through the mountains was picturesque. The hills are getting higher, but they are not quite mountains yet. Soon, I’ll have some mountain pictures to post. It feels very different to be a tourist, instead of “living” here.
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