We were a little concerned when Zibi pulled over to the side of the road and instructed us to get out. We had already passed the stairway entrance a few minutes before, but he insisted that a quick, easy wander through the woods would be a much more picturesque introduction to Pieskowa Skala. As he drove off, TR reminded us without being asked that we hadn't paid his fee yet, so surely he would be waiting down at the car park for us, and not have abandoned us an hour from Krakow, essentially in the middle of nowhere.
The trail was fairly clearly marked and I have to admit it was a gorgeous walk. I don't normally miss the fall colors living in L.A.. I've pretty much seen them all my life, and to my mind, the riot of fuchsia, violet, lavender, coral, tangerine, yellow, pink, and every possible shade of green from the gentle tinge of magnolia to the deep waxy evergreen of the frangipani leaves of a Southern California spring more than makes up for the warm colors of everyone else's autumn. But I did find myself more than once on this trip quite happy that we had visited just when the leaves were changing. Poland's autumn is something to behold. The walk was appreciated, and actually much easier on TR's cruddy ankle than the steps would have been. After about 20 minutes strolling through the forest the castle suddenly appeared.
Pieskowa Skala still stands, and houses a small museum with rooms organized by period, from medieval through the 20th century. For a few zloty we were able to tour the museum, although we did have to put on overshoes to protect the floors. This greatly pleased the two museum professionals on the trip. It being somewhat out of the way, the castle lacked as much English language interpretation, both in the employees and some of the captions (alas, most of the info on the castle itself) but it was well worth it. The pictures cannot due justice to the breathtaking views, but I'll post one anyway.
As promised, Zibi was waiting for us at the carpark at the base of the hill the castle was standing on. The short walk we took to get to the castle sure did beat the hell out of climbing those stairs.
The next place he took us was about 45 minutes away. It was another castle on the Eagles Nest trail, but this one a ruin (actually, Pieskowa Skala is the only one that remains more or less intact). This one is the largest ruin, according to some random dude in the parking lot, in all of Europe. Zibi felt perhaps that it was the largest in Poland, or maybe just the largest that the random dude had personally seen. Nonetheless, it was pretty impressive.
Ogronodiecz is so bignormous it is difficult to fit it into one picture. As with most castles on the Eagles Nest trail, this one was built to take advantage of the natural limestone formations, so it seems to be piles upon piles of brick growing out of organic matter. It was deeply cool, if somewhat tough to get around in. On our way back we stopped at a tent with two older folks grilling cheese. This was the famous oscypek, a delicious sheep's cheese made only by around a hundred farms in the Tatra mountains. We all had some and almost immediately went back for seconds.
I'm definitely glad we stopped at Mirow Skala, but feel that perhaps the kielbasa I ordered at the pub across the way in my questionable at best Polish might be more noteworthy than Mirow Skala itself.
It was a smaller ruin, but fenced off. TR and I stayed at the base and took a few pictures before we were off to a wooden church - which we were alas not destined to see. Even our highly experienced and intrepid driver got lost a few times before we gave him permission to just continue on to the monastery of Jasna Gora, which houses the famous Czarna Madonna, Poland's national icon.
It was a Sunday and there was a mass going on in the chapel non-stop (in fact, this is why there are no pics of Jasna Gora - it's disrespectful in the extreme to take pictures of a someone's holy place while it is actively in use). We stood at the back, near the entrance. Actually, we knelt. As someone used to padded kneelers traveling with people not used to any kind of kneeling, we were not best prepared for this. Looking around an seeing elderly folks kneeling on stone, not to mention the wall full of the crutches and canes, walkers and slings of those pilgrims who had been healed through the intercession of the Madonna, we decided that staying on our feet was not an option (hooray, shame!).
After a respectable amount of time spent bruising our knee-caps, we stood and got a better look at the icon, albeit from a bit far. TR and I rose right after the Sanctus and visited a building across the way, which housed a small collection of artifacts the monastery had collected over the years, including much John Paul II stuff. We stopped at the inevitable gift shop (the nice one, not the ones near the parking lot, with the paintings on velvet) and picked up a few souvenirs for folks back home. We ran into TR's mom and sis, who asked if we had gotten close and told us all you have to do is go around the sides and walk right past it. TR and I gave it one more shot - after all, we had traveled all the way to Poland, hired a driver, wandered all over... we might as well get a better view of the Black Madonna. By the time we got back, they were deep into the Rosary, so we didn't get as close as her sis and mom, but I did see it pretty close up. It was, uh, very nice, I guess, blackened from a combination of incompetent past conservation and years of candle smoke and incense buildup and torn from a random attack hundreds of years ago, Our Lady has a different mantle for every occasion. She's kind of like a super-holy Polly Pocket.
It was a long drive home, and Poland's not real big on the "highways" thing, so it got dark and we all tried not to fall asleep. We paid the driver our 700 zloty (which was about $250 for a day of driving and tour-guiding) plus a bit of tip and eventually were forced to have our last meal of the weekend at the Hard Rock Cafe (have I ranted about the "reservations" idiocy that Krakow indulges in?) which was much less sucktastic than it could have been.
A small footnote from our travels that Sunday... in the month that we've been home TR's ankle seems to finally be making some progress. She's been able to walk without the cane and occasionally wear actual, grown-up shoes. We have two theories: #1, that she spent most of our Poland trip pounding the crap out of her ankle tendons and muscles and that the pain she had was the result of nerves mis-firing rather than any warning of injury. Through this abuse, her muscles became stronger and are now available to assist in locomotion. #2 - well, the Czarna Madonna is no stranger to miracles.
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