ul. Kanonicza (Oldest Street in Krakow)

The picturesque Kanonicza Street ends just at the foot of the hilltop Wawel Castle and used to constitute the last and most glorious part of the Royal Way, Krakow’s ceremonial route leading from the main city gate to the central square to the Wawel Castle.

St Andrew’s Church is one of Krakow’s best preserved Romanesque European fortress church completed in 1098.  Along the bottom of the larger part of façade are small openings that served as defensive windows at a time when the church was planned as a place of refuge from military assault.  It was the only church in Kraków to survive the Mongol attack of 1241.

Guess what we saw along the way – looks like a beer mug from the Pod Wawelem Kompania Kuflowa restaurant we just had lunch at escaped :-p

Krakow Bagel

Walking around Krakow, you can find lots of carts vending fresh bagels and pretzels.  Everything in Krakow is linked to some legend long long time ago and of course, the Krakow bagel had its own legend.  So here goes…

17^th-century Poland was the breadbasket of Europe, and King Jan Sobieski was the first king not to confirm the decree of 1496 limiting the production of white bread and obwarzanek (bagellike rolls whose name derives from a word meaning “to parboil”) to the Krakow bakers guild.  This meant that Jews could finally bake bread within the confines of the city walls.  Furthermore, when Sobieski saved Austria from the Turkish invaders, a baker made a roll in the shape of the king’s stirrup and called it a beugel (the Austrian word for stirrup).  With such a long history, I definitely have to try it.  For just 1zł, you get one of this Krakow Bagel (in many flavours – i chose cheese).

After walking around the Krakow Old Town and the Jewish Quarter, we proceeded back to Greg and Tom hostel to rest and had dinner at Galeria Krakowska – TY had a KFC Twister meal while I had a huge meat puff.  We also changed our remaining zlotys to Hungarian Forint at the Galeria moneychanger.