I'm in Krakow right now and loving it even more than the last time I spent a week here. Yesterday, we visited the Rynek (again), which is the largest market square in Europe. I found out what the Cracow-itinerary for the June 17-19 trip is referring to as the "Underground Tourist Route."
Described in more detail here: Rynek Underground review , the Underground Tourist Route refers to a new museum underneath the Cloth Hall at the center of the square. Quite simply, it is one of the best museum experiences I have ever seen. I say this as someone who will quite happily turn off the highway in South Dakota to visit the Corn Palace, or in Aberdeen, Kansas to visit the Greyhound Racing Museum, or drive 4.5 hours on a whim to take my kids to the Cleveland Natural History Museum and Art Museum (don't laugh -- all the Cleveland museums are endowed with monster trusts from the oil barons, etc.).
Not large, the museum under the Rynek is mostly an archeological and ethnographical exploration of Polish culture and history based upon archeological digs under the Cloth Hall that were only completed in 2010. The museum is a technological marvel, including complete explanations of all exhibits in English and numerous interactive touch-screen displays to explore the exhibits more fully. Exhibits include explanations of the archeology underlying the market square (a rich source of material since it included a graveyard (which also includes six vampire burials that are a curious mixture between Baltic and northern European vampire-killing and disposing techniques), markets, trash heaps, and paved structures. There are even a few artifacts from a Mongol raid on Krakow in the 1200s.
The museum is so good it kind of spoiled me for the Ethnographic Museum that my wife and I visited later in the Jewish Quarter. Those exhibits were also excellent, but more in the style of a local museum with placards and occasional explanations in English.
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