When in Krakow

I debated with myself whether I should still post photos from our trip to Krakow since it took place awhile back. But I thought that as it was a great trip it was well worth sharing them.

I didn't know much about Krakow before the trip. What I found was a city extremely rich in culture and a beautifully preserved city center. Fortunately for Krakow, it escaped destruction during WWII and all its historic buildings are in their original state. The citizens are justifiably proud of their city.

For centuries, Krakow was the capital of Poland. Nowadays, it is no longer the administrative capital but it maintains its rich cultural tradition. From our hotel window, we could catch a glimpse of Wawel or the royal hill so that's where I started my visit. From its vantage point, one gets a good glimpse of the peaceful flow of the Vistula river. Of the Castle itself, the public is allowed access only to the State Rooms, the Royal Armory and a part of the Royal Apartments. It was impressive to note the number of beautiful Flemish tapestries that decorated their halls. According to the guide, they have a collection of over 300 tapestries, of which only 25 can be shown at a time. The entire collection is shown only every ten years. It must be quite an impressive sight.

After exploring the castle hill, I realized that the tiny street leading away from the hill leads directly towards the Main Square. It is supposed to be one of the, if not the biggest Main Square in Europe. And it is indeed enormous. It is a lively and bustling place with street performers, a number of flower vendors, and an even greater number of cafes where you can order a coffee and watch the world go by. The two oldest structures in the square are St. Mary's Church with its two spires and the Sukiennice or Cloth Hall.

Legend says that the spires of the St. Mary are unequal because of two brothers feud. The brother who built the taller spire was killed by his younger brother who built the lower spire. That's the story but as my guidebook dryly points out, the real reason probably has more to do with a lack of funds to complete both spires. Whatever the reason, it is now one of Krakow's main landmarks.

The Sukiennice on the other hand was always the site of commerce. As its name implies, it was the center for the cloth trade for a very long time. It now houses a part of the National Museum's collection. Unfortunately this part of the Cloth House is currently closed for renovations so I couldn't see the collection. Fortunately for me, a number of stalls selling all manner of souvenir items and amber jewelry were open and I these stalls I happily perused.

I loved the little church of St. Adalbert. It was the site of important archaelogical discoveries and it has a quiet and peaceful atmosphere, which was a welcome respite to the Main Square's hustle and bustle. It reminded me a little of Paris' St. Julien Le Pauvre.

Of the many museums, I loved the Collegium Maius. It is part of Poland's oldest university and houses a magnificent collection of science and astronomy instruments. Their two most famous students were Copernicus and Pope John Paul II. But lest you think there are only academic and science related instruments here, they also have in their collection, an Oscar Award, an Olympic gold medal and the Pulitzer Prize from Polish winners who've donated their awards to the museum. As I may never win any of these awards, seeing them at the Museum is probably the closest I'll ever get to them!

See here is an ancient reading table from the library. You could borrow a number of them and rotate and read as you wish..
All this history and culture is fine and great but I wanted to experience some local color too. And what better way than the Sunday market? Yep, the Queen of Markets strikes again. Literally on our last day, I dragged everyone out to the Sunday market to check things out. Aside from comestibles, the market also had (Eastern European style antiques, second hand DVDs and books, cheap clothing and cheap make-up (go figure).

I scored a great antique bronze mirror from the man selling all sorts of bits and pieces made of metal. Funny, he knew all about the Philippines!
A porcelain collection...
And some great vintage luggage...

P.S. When they say that John Paul II is revered in his homeland, they're not kidding. He is "immortalized" in this building where he used to stay during his visits...

Bayonne

If both San Sebastian and St. Jean Luz were coastal cities, the lovely little town of Bayonne, which is still in the heart of Basque country, lies strictly inland albeit at the juncture of two rivers. The rivers Nive and Adour split Bayonne into three parts—St. Esprit, to the north of Adour, Grand Bayonne which lies on the western bank of the Nive and Petit Bayonne which lies on the eastern side. One peculiarity of Bayonne is that until 1907 houses had to be built within the town’s fortifications. Strictly speaking the area to be covered within Grand and Petit Bayonne is not very big. But part of this town’s charm is how easy it is to get lost among its maze of narrow curved streets.

A row of traditional houses with their distinctive red and blue shutters. Funnily enough, they reminded me a little of traditional houses in Colmar! Go figure!

One of the charming little fountains that you can find within Petit BayonneHere you can catch a glimpse of the twin towers of the Cathedral of Ste. Marie
I love how well preserved everything is...red and blue shutters are a trademark of Basque land..
Bayonne is famous for its ham (there's even a Ham Fair during Easter week!) but while we were there I was much more interested in their chocolate! The town does great chocolate and the top two are Daranatz and Cazenave. Hard to decide which is better!

Speaking of food, we had lunch at this teeny place by the river and the food was soooo good!
This picture doesn't do the food justice!

I’ve been incredibly remiss in keeping up my end of the blog. The only defense I can plead is that there aren’t enough hours in the day for everything I want to do. To make up for this, I’ve decided to do some photo posts of some of the places I’ve been recently. The term “recent” being of course a relative term. Let’s see….last post was on St. Jean Luz. Being so far down South, it was only a matter of a hop and skip over to the frontier and into San Sebastian or Donostia in Basque.

What a pleasant discovery this city was, though I don’t know why I was so surprised. It is after all, renowned as the great Belle Epoque resort of the Basque coast. It even has its share of royal connection because in 1866, the Spanish Queen Regent, Maria Christina decided to make San Sebastian her summer residence and consequently, the royal court’s summer capital. The royals may have gone, but the crescent shaped La Concha beach remains as beautiful today as it did 144 years ago.

The threat of rain didn't deter people from laying in the sand and chillin out...

Its pretty little harbor....

Hard to resist the Spanish ham and tapas!

A shot of Plaza de Republica which used to host bullfights...Because these bullfights were such spectacle, each of the windows in the building around the Plaza could be sold to would be spectators, hence the numbers
A last look at the city before heading back ..

Away from the city

Much as I love Paris, sometimes you just need to escape a little. We did just that when we decided to head towards Southwest France, a region we’ve so far had little chance to visit.

The part of France we headed for is that corner that slopes down from the Western Pyrenees into the blue shores of the Bay of Biscay. We are literally thisclose to the Spanish border. And while geographically speaking we haven’t left French soil, we are now in Euskal Herria or Basque Country and it would be a grave mistake to forget this fact. The origin of the Basque people remain shrouded in mystery but they have inhabited this corner of the world for at least 3000 years now. They are fiercely proud of their history and have managed to preserve their own language and many of their customs and traditions. For a fascinating read on the Basques, there is none better than Mark Kurlansky’s The Basque History of the World.

We couldn’t have picked a better base to explore the area than St. Jean Luz, a pretty seaside town. And while we were warned to expect highly fickle weather, we were fortunate enough to enjoy fantastic weather. The changeable nature of the weather has created an incredibly lush countryside. It is verdant and beautifully wild in the way that Provence and the Cote d'Azur isn't.

San Jean Luz has managed to preserve its air of Basque authenticity; an atmosphere helped no doubt by the number of typical white washed and red /blue shuttered houses in town. The bustling main street is filled with shops and restaurants but there are narrow streets that wind and branch off that are nice to explore. A delicious discovery we made was the wonderful Basque cake that we bought from the Paries Boulangerie. You can choose between cream filled or confiture and they are yummy! It was disastrous when one of the evenings we were there, we failed to secure our Basque cake!

Despite it being a bit early in the season for bathing, the gorgeous weather encouraged lots of folks to hang out at the beach. A number of brave ones dared the water, and I’m told that after the initial shock, it was quite pleasant. For myself, I was content to laze and take pictures. Not a bad way to spend your afternoon!

I couldn't help but take tons of pictures especially when the sight is as pretty as these colorful boats lining the harbor..

These typical Basque houses surround the town's main square..

The plain facade of the St. Jean Baptiste church gives no hint of the lavish interiors, all decked out in gold and wonderful carvings. It's only fitting since it is here that Louis XIV married the Infanta Maria-Theresa..

We discovered a wonderful little restaurant called Piper Beltz where you can dine al fresco
And this giant sculpture of an espadrille (another Basque invention, it appears) can be found outside the store called Bayone, one of the original makers of the shoe...

Antwerp

Legend says that Druon Antigoon, a giant once lived at the bend of river Scheldt. He forced all passing ships to pay a toll and those who refused, lost a hand. Things continued this way until a Roman warrior by the name of Silvius Brabo arrived. He killed the giant and threw his hands in the river. Hand werpen (or Hand throwing) later evolved into Antwerpen. And that is how the city of Antwerp got its name. Those of a less fanciful bent say that the name comes from the remains of an ancient Gallo-Roman settlement on a mound or aanwerp along the riverside castle, Steen.

Fortunately enough, no sign remains of hands being chucked into the river and the ruins have long since disappeared, but Antwerp remains a city well worth visiting. It is one of those lovely cities where one can pretty much walk everywhere to see the important sights when visiting a city for the first time. It is dynamic and lively, fashionable almost to a fault and because it is a Belgian city, there are chocolate shops everywhere!

The lively Grote Markt is where all visits inevitably begin. It is a large triangular pedestrianized market square (now there’s an oxymoron!) that is dominated by its Cathedral. The Cathedral is dedicated to our Lady of Antwerp and it is the largest and finest Gothic cathedral in all of Belgium. There are at least 4 Rubens paintings inside so it’s a definite must-see.

Also worth seeing is the Stadhuis (Town Hall) with its impressive facade.

I shouldn’t forget to mention that Antwerp, for a city of such relatively small size, is impressive for its cultural landscape. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts is a treasure trove of Flemish masters led of course by Rubens. It has such an extensive collection that paintings are often rotated. One Museum that we absolutely adored is the Plantin-Moretus which houses the world’s first industrial printing works. It has got to be one of the most interesting museums, I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting. In fact the mansion alone is well worth the admission price. It’s really beautiful and the garden inside is delightful. Little wonder that it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The exterior of the Plantin-Moretus museum does a good job of hiding the wonders inside

No less interesting is the Mode Musee which is housed within the complex of the Flanders Fashion Institute and fashion department of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibitions change every 6 months but they are always incredibly interesting, well done exhibitions. Thus, it makes sense that the Mode Musee is the start of the Antwerp fashion walk. During our first visit, they had an exhibit on Maison Martin Margiella. This time around, it was an exhibition on Black. (But more on that in a separate post.) I love that fashion in Antwerp is both accessible and avant -garde. And I love that there are vintage shops everywhere. There is one part of town where I counted at least 3 vintage stores within a square mile.

I'm normally not a great fan of waffles but we discovered what has to be the yummiest waffles in all of Antwerp. Its a tiny place, just a hole in the wall really, but you order your waffles and its made on the spot. You eat it right there and then and its absolutely delicious.

And if that wasn't enough, we also discovered a wonderful little restaurant tucked away on a quiet street close to the river. It may have been a discovery for us but De Kleine Zavel is apparently one of the country's most sought after and reliable restaurants. It deserves such status as the food is excellent and the wine list is impressive. We liked it so much, we had dinner there for every night of our stay. We came away wonderfully satiated each time.
Here you can see the warm interiors of the restaurant...definitely an address worth keeping

A weekend in Brittany

Thanks to a great gift we were able to discover Brittany, a region we hardly have the occasion to visit. They say that it rains all the time there, not to mention the fact that it isn’t the warmest part of the country. But it is a spectacularly beautiful region, a fact we happily discovered during our weekend. Our destination of choice was St. Malo. There is something inherently dramatic about this city, helped no doubt by its encompassing ramparts and the all powerful sea that surges all around it. According to my trusty old guidebook, St. Malo has one of the world’s highest tidal ranges. This would account for the way the tide recedes to such an extent that one is able to access a small rocky islet where the 18^th century writer Chateaubriand is buried. Of course once the tide goes back in, you’re stuck for a full six hours.

Up on the ramparts, we got a good long look at the wide and powerful expanse that is the Atlantic sea. It is such a far cry from the warm blue of the Mediterranean. It was certainly easy to imagine St. Malo and the seas around it as the perfect place for privateers to set up their trade. More importantly this was an area where many naval “contests” took place between France and England to decide who was the more powerful country. In fact, the city walls were built to keep the city safe from such naval "contests". Looking down at the city below the ramparts, it is funny to realize that most of it was rebuilt after it was completely bombed out during WWII. Where one can see traces of its distant past is around the area of St. Sevran with its pretty church. One interesting fact we unearthed was that it was from St. Malo that Jacques Cartier set out on his landmark voyage that led to the discovery and naming of Canada!

Magnificent views and history aside, St. Malo is a great place to gorge on seafood and that wonderful Breton specialty--crepes and cider! Once you've had a taste of their crepes, it becomes impossible to have another anywhere else.

Believe it or not, this is a saltwater pool. At high tide, you don't see the ladder anymore..

A view of the ramparts...
When the tide comes in the water reaches the steps....

A lonely islet in the middle of all this water

St. Tropez

Hard as it is to believe now, St. Tropez actually started out as one of those simple fishing villages along the Riviera. It acquired its name from a rather gruesome story. In AD 68 a Roman officer named Tropes was beheaded on Emperor Nero’s orders and was packed into a box with a dog and rooster to eat his remains. Miraculously, his remains washed up ashore completely intact and the villagers subsequently adopted him as their town’s patron saint. It would have remained just a picturesque little fishing town if Providence in the form of Roger Vadim hadn’t intervened. In 1958, Vadim shot the movie And God Created Woman, starring his then wife Brigitte Bardot and the rest as they say is history.

Needless to say there is a ritzy air about St. Tropez and during the height of summer, the town is filled to the rafters with the beautiful folk with their stupendous yachts and prices skyrocket to unimaginable heights. It’s almost ridiculously excessive and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. If you want to avoid the see and be seen crowd, the best time to come is after the season ends and the fancy yachts leave, when it becomes possible to walk around the little town and see its picturesque and less pretentious side. The locals too become much nicer and welcoming. Then it becomes a pleasure to sit and have a café glace at Café Senequier or indulge in the area’s speciality –the Tarte Tropezienne.

A walk along its quiet side streets reveals the St. Tropez that was once a fishing village. High upon the Citadel, you see the magnificent Bay laid out in all its glory. I shouldn’t also forget to mention that every Saturday, Place des Lices is taken over by its weekly market where you find among other things, beautiful cashmere shawls, provencal linens and local specialities. Its so much fun to wander about the stalls and I could easily spend hours there!

The rest of the week, the Place de Lices is a quiet shady place where you see people playing boules...
It turns into a jampacked market every Saturday....

And because we are still along the Riviera, a visit to the beach is part of the fun. We headed off to the Baie de Pampelonne with its 4 km stretch of sandy beach lined with exclusive restaurants and cafes. Easily a day could be spent just lazing about the beach and watching the more adventurous folks play with their jet skies. For me, a tall glass of juice in hand and a nice soft shady sun bed was all it took to complete my day.