Tom`s travels: Lublin, Zamosc & Sandomierz (11-13/11/2016)

This one was the first trip with my girlfriend Ania. We took a really early train from Krakow leaving at 5 am and arrived in Lublin at 10 30am. Luckily the woman checking tickets in the train told us that she would open a carriage just for the two of us as we had found only separate seats, so we were able to spend those five hours in a comfortable way. After getting out of the station we took a bus and went to drop our luggage off at the hotel. We had booked a room in the Hotel Campanile, not far from the city center, so after checking in and leaving our stuff we were already heading into the old town. We first stopped at the Krakow Gate, one of the only surviving remnants of the fortified 14th century wall that used to surround the town of Lublin. Most of its base is from that period while the top dates from the 17th century. Passing under the gate, we reached the medieval core, and entered the small yet pretty Rynek. At its center stands the Crown Tribunal which used to be the seat of the highest appeal court in the Polish Kingdom. We then continued down Grodzka, the main street, and reached Plac Po Farze where the foundations of what used to be the Church of St Michael stand. From there we had a nice view over the surroundings, including the castle. We then exited the old town from the Grodzka Gate, originally dating from the 13th century, but completely refurbished in the 18th century. Crossing the bridge we stopped at the foot of the castle and notice a crowd of people looking down on the castle square. I then figured out what the bustle of people and the polish flags hanging all around was all about. Apparently today was the National Independence Day of Poland, and a large group of military personnel was parading at the castle square. After enjoying the show, we moved on and reached the Dominican Monastery, built in Gothic style it suffered a fire which completely destroyed it and was rebuilt in the Renaissance style; as a mass was taking place we gave a quick look but found it rather pretty. Continuing further we entered the Cathedral of St John the Baptist. Built in the Baroque style during the 17th century for the Jesuits it has a nice interior, and rare for countries in northern and eastern Europe, a lone standing bell tower. We were getting hungry so we decided to have lunch on the main square in a place called Biesy which was quite good. After lunch we were feeling quite tired so we decided to head back to the hotel and rest a bit. After a nice nap we woke up around 7pm and decided to head back into town; we walked through the old town again and enjoyed the cold yet soothing night. We then decided to head back again to the hotel but first stopped at a bar for a hot mulled wine, which we ended taking twice each as it was tasty and heated us up from the cold. The next morning we woke up at an acceptable hour and headed to the bus station where we took a bus leaving at 10am and reaching the town of Zamosc one hour and a half later. A Unesco world heritage site, the town was founded in the 16th century by a polish nobleman, Jan Zamoyski, and under the direction of Italian architect Bernardo Morando as an unique example of a Renaissance town in Central Europe and modeled after the Italian ideal town. After getting of the bus we headed immediately to the main attraction: the main square. The so called Rynek Wielki, measures 100x100 meters and is surrounded by beautiful renaissance houses and the town hall at its northern end. At the north-eastern end of the square stand five beautifully colored houses called the Armenian houses because they stand on Armenian street which used to be built and funded by a rich amernian merchant. We then passed by the Jewish synagogue, as Zamosc along with many other Polish cities used to hold a large jewish population before wwii, and the Franciscan church which was unfortunately closed. However we managed to find the Cathedral open and visited its rich renaissance interior with some rococo additions. We then passed under the Brama Szczebrzeska and reached the Rotunda, a fortification dating to the 19th century, which was regretfully used as a place for mass murdering a large part of the polish population by the Nazis during WWII. After that unpleasing yet touching place, we were back in town and walking along the pretty streets. We had lunch at the Bistro Zamoscianka just as it started snowing outside. We then decided to take a bus back to Lublin to be able to see the museum as it had closed on the previous day because of the national holiday. After reaching Lublin, we were in time to check out the main museum, located inside the castle. For 6,50zl we saw various paintings and object dating from the medieval to the modern times, but most of all the castle church. The Chapel of the Holy Trinity was built in a Gothic style during the 15th century and holds some beautiful Rutheno-Byzantine frescoes, mostly religious scenes but also the portraits of king Władysław Jagiełło. After the visit we decided to go for dinner, and Ania had found a nice Thai restaurant online called Thai Story where I had a nice massaman curry. After sleeping the last night at the hotel, the morning after we took a bus leaving at around 11am that took us to Sandomierz. The bus took around 2 hours and dropped us off right in front of the Opatowska Gate. The main and only remaining old town gate dating to the 14th century; it also has a viewing platform which we climbed up to see the old town from above for 3zl each. It started snowing again, and most of the roofs were already turning white. Once down we walked further and reached the small yet really nice Rynek, not perfectly flat but slightly sloping down towards the river, with the Gothic town hall at its center and colorful house all around its perimeter. We then entered the tourist office and asked if we could leave our luggage while visiting the rest of the town; they kindly agreed. As we were getting hungry we decided to eat at a restaurant on the square where we had a cheap and nice lunch. After that we continued on and reached the Cathedral and entered as it was open. Originally built in Gothic style, it is now mostly Baroque looking and contains an interesting series of paintings depicting the murder of priests and the murder of christian children by the Jewish population. The second part supposedly is an old belief that Jews used to kill christian children to use their blood in rituals, which was obviously never true. Not far from the cathedral we walked further and got to the Castle which dominates the southern end of town on top of a hill and overlooking the Vistula river down below. It was time to go, so we headed back through the old town, grabbed our luggage and took the next mini bus which took us to Krakow in about three hours.