Ghosts, both Holy and unholy

Last night we went to church.  Alison had located and messaged the Anglican congregation in Krakow.  They are a small and friendly group and the congregation consisted of 15, including us.  They don't have a dhurch yet so they just meet in a room in a building.  We were made to feel very welcome by Rev. David who comes down from Warsaw.  He is an Englishman and has been in Poland for a year and a half and doesn't speak Polish at all!  Apparently it is a hard language to learn but, in my opinion, he could have made a bit more of an effort!  The service was conducted in a mixture of Polish and English.  Dominic, who is considering ordination, did the Polish bits and translated the sermon from English to Polish and David took the bits that had to be taken by someone ordained, in English.  Dominic was a lovely guy and the service was great and pretty easy to follow, especially the bits in English!  At the end, we observed the Polish Christmas tradition of breaking bread and blessing each other in the congregation.  Alison got to read a leason as she revealed her true identity when she was asked.

Before and after

After that, it was the ghost tour.  We were starting to get a bit worried that our guide wouldn't show but just after seven we were approached by a man in a black coat and fedora who asked if we were on the ghost tour.  We spent an hour walking around the square and were told four ghost stories at four different locations.  Appareently they are all based on true stories!  There was one moment when we were lulled into being scared when someone jumped out at us.  I was very good and only said one swear word!  And it wan't even a bad one!  After that it was back to the hotel and sleep.  Our guide had informed us that there would be fireworks in the square the next day so that is our plan for this evening.

Today, we went to the Castle, which was built in the late 15th century.  My mission was to not go arse over in the ice on the way there.  I am pleased to report it was sucessful!  All the way through this trip I have had location specific songs in my head.  Today was no exception.  'Castle on a Cloud' was playing on a loop in my head all the way up the gentle hill to where the castle is located.  Inside it is quite richly decorated with painted walls, large tapestries, faded now but would have been magnificent in their time, and paintings.  We also went in to see da Vinci's painting of Lady with an Ermine.  On the way back to the hotel we went and visited the locations of last night's stories.

The castle overlooks the river, which is pretty much completely frozen over.  It was great watching the swans come in for a landing.  Reminded me of coming in to Wellington on a windy day.  I will put up the photos later when I get them sent to me.

We have a french patisserie over the road that does hit chocolate made with actual chocolate.  Divine on a wet day like today and that is what I am doing now, while providing this update.  Tomorrow we have to get up before sparrow's fart to catch our train to Vienna (cue the Ultravox ear worm!).