Heading to Nowy Swiat on a foggy Sunday morning

Fog hangs over Krakow on this quiet Sunday morning. I walk along Poselska uliza to the park surrounding the city. It is chilly. In front of St. Franciscan Basilika there is a lady guard stopping tourists to enter the church, as the Sunday mass is taking place. She wears a wollen cap. She seems worried, points to my head and I understand something like “schapotschka”. Very kind – yes, I am not wearing a cap… I feel so sorry that I do not speak Polish, the third most difficult language of the world.

The philharmony

The philharmony was built in the 1920s. In front of it is a monument that looks like a piano without strings. Later, in the National Museum I understand that it commemorates Chopin, and the water adds the strings.

Three Art Nouveau houses along ul. J. Pilsudskiego

I come back to the straight lines of the Palac Hutten-Czapskich.

Then there is a series of houses starting with the singing frog which is the symbol of a music school. I have never related frogs with music and a guitar.

The frog house is part of a range of houses.

Yes, life is short and art lives for a long time.

… and all of us are responsible for our own fortune.

The house under the owl is a few blocks to walk from the frog.

The house under the spider, a little bit farther north

My guidebook says that the spider is a symbol for creativity.

I do wish that Krakow continues to be creative with their culture, science and economy.

(Source: Krakau, Michael Müller Verlag, 2011)