Cracow's historical centre can be easily explored on foot. It was snowing a bit when I walked around (that's why the photos look somewhat bleak). At Wawel, the Castle, I joined a tour inside the Apartments. These living quarters exhibit many Renaissance decorations and furnishings. Some Dutch china (with oriental themes), Flemish tapestries, and Italian majolica chimneys. It got me thinking about the originality of many sites, and that I should stick to visiting the "originals" (Rome instead of "The Second Rome", Venice instead of "The Venice of the East", Jerusalem instead of "Polish Jerusalem").

The most impressive monument of Cracow is the 14th-century Cloth Hall (Sukiennice), situated at the centre of the square. It's a huge building with a very distinctive shape: all gables wherever you look. There are little (souvenir) shops inside now. On the first floor, there's a fine exhibition of large paintings by Polish artists from around 1900.

On Sunday morning I picked a walking tour from my guidebook and went to the old Jewish neighbourhood Kazimierz. Already a considerable number of people were present at the clothes market on Plac Zydowski, although it was freezing and before 9. There are a number of synagogues in this area, all a bit more decorated on the outside than usual (perhaps to rival at least somehow the exuberant Catholic churches in Cracow). The Jewish community in Cracow has been minimalized for a long time, so these synagogues and the adjacent Jewish cemeteries are merely reminders of the past.