An Evening Down the Royal Way in Kraków, Poland

This is the 'Royal Way' path, where the King followed when he returned home to Kraków after a journey, or when a King was crowned or buried.

Above and Below are The Barbican, Florian Gate, and City Walls.  There also used to be a moat here too, imagine how cool that would have been!

Below is Floriańska Street with sites along the way to St. Mary's Church (Kościót Mariacki).

St. Mary's Church (Kościót Mariacki).  This church has been here for 800 yrs., the original was destroyed in 1241 in the first Tatar invasion.  Do you notice that the church has two towers?  Well, one is the church tower, the shorter one, and the second is the watchtower.  On the hour, every hour, a bugler plays the bejnat song.  There is a legend that during the first Tatar invasion, a town watchman saw the enemy coming and sounded the alarm.  The alarm was the bejnat song.  Before he could finish the tune an arrow pierced his throat killing him.  When they play the bugle song they stop they in the middle of it to honor the fallen watchman.  Neat, huh?

This side door on the right on the church is where tourists enter.  On the left side of the street is where you buy your ticket.  Totally worth entering!  Check out the blue ceilings!  It is beautiful!

The other side of the square, the church is in the background.  The main market square is Rynek Gtówny.  They still had a few stalls from their Christmas market and so we took advantage and ate dinner here.  In the 13th century it was the biggest medieval square in Europe.  At the time it was illegal to sell anything on the street, so they gathered here and everything was sold here.  They had it divided into smaller markets, this is the other side of the Cloth Hall.  The Cloth Hall burned down in 1555 and had to be replaced.  It is in Italian Renaissance style because King Sigismund the Old married an Italian woman.

See the Tower on the right?  This is all the remains of the Town Hall from the 14th c.  It was cheaper to tear down the building than to repair it, so that is what they did.

Church of Saints Peter & St. Andrew's

The statues lining the street are the 11 apostles (excluding Judas and instead including Mary Magdalene) 

Above is Wawel Hill at night