Anyway, apparently in Poland the fire brigade also doubles as the tree cutting brigade. JR got to watch from our balcony as the firemen used their truck ladder and cut down the tree in our neighbors yard. Apparently it was rotting and a branch had recently fallen on his roof.
Needless to say, the whole thing captured JR's attention for almost an hour. And that's saying something.
Anyway it was pretty cool. Among other things they had were huge stairs and a ginormous recliner to show what everyday things look like to infants. And big clothes, as our model here is showing. Pretty funny.
Krakow held their ninth annual Pierogi Festival this weekend in the Mały Rynek. Beautiful weather, live music, a couple dozen stalls selling pierogi, and beer. What more do you need?
We sampled probably eight or nine different kinds of pierogi, from different restaurants. The winner in our book was the 4-herb pierogi. Fried, not boiled. (Hey, we're Americans after all.)
Then, a stroll around the Planty -- the park that rings the Old City -- to burn some of those calories. And a bike ride later. (That's probably worth about two fried perogi!)
The main plaza (Fussganger zone)
On the south bank of the Inn River
In the Imperial Gardens (aka, city park)
Cheesy? Maybe.
Old men playing chess in the park
Although we only spent one day in Innsbruck, we have some very pretty pictures to show for it!
After our hiking, we thought we'd spend a night in Innsbruck before flying out. Good call, Tom. It was worth it. Pretty city of about 1/4 million, nestled up next to huge mountains, with the incredibly aqua-green and surprisingly fast-flowing Inn river running through it. Site of two winter Olympics too. That's gotta be a trivia answer or something.
So, the picture is Jill in front of the Golden Roof (Goldenes Dachl, auf Deutsch), a relatively well known sight judging by the number of Korean tourists taking pictures in front of it. Well, kahm-sa-mi-da, we got a picture too! Anyway, you can look it up on Wikipedia, but basically in the 15th century an Austrian king had it built to show how wealthy he was -- fancy schmancy. It's located on the central plaza in the middle of the Old City. (Which Jill says is pretty, but doesn't compare to Krakow's Main Square.)
We also strolled through the Old City, along the Inn, through the Imperial Gardens (where old men were playing chess on these huge life-sized boards), and even took in a bit of classical music at a public performance in the courtyard of the imperial palace. JR was restless after about 10 min, of Strauss. And of course we found a playground for JR. All in all, a nice way to finish our trip to Austria. Auf wiedersehen!
