Trip to Ojców National Park (Pieskowa Skała)

One Saturday, a group of us went to Ojców National Park. By bus, it’s about half an hour away from Krakow center. Before we left, Victoria and I stopped at Biedronka grocery store and got stuff for sandwiches. Since we stopped, we were cutting it close to get to the bus and had to run a little bit to make it. Once we got to the park, we were in search of one of king Kazimierz’s castles. However, the maps there were very confusing so from the advice of a lady we started walking up a trail to where we thought the castle would be. It was a pretty hike, but unfortunately some of the girls had come in sandals, or flats and a dress. On the hike, we saw a ton of snails which were the huge kind that are all over Krakow. The best part, I think, was when Ania stepped on a garden snake and then all the other girls were scared to walk over it.

Eventually we made it to the church in Grodzisko which was on the top of a hill. It looked as though it was abandoned but when we got to the church the front doors were open and the inside was beautifully decorated. Around the back of the church there were small caves which had bars covering them. I think they were meant for praying. There was also an obelisk type statue given to the church by king Sobieski. It was interesting because the base of the obelisk was an elephant which looked odd in the surroundings. Finally, we continued down the hiking trail and came to a map which was showing us that there was a castle in the opposite direction. We thought the lady had given us bad directions so we turned to go the opposite direction and got all the way back to where we started. On the way in the opposite direction we ran into a small cute puppy which all the girls, except Victoria, called to come and to pet. Then we ran into a bigger map that let us know we were going the right direction all along.

This time, instead of walking the trail, we decided that it would be better to just walk along the road to the castle. The walk was about 4 kilometers, but when we got to the castle (Pieskowa Skała)  it was very picturesque. In the front of the castle, there was a natural limestone formation in the shape of a club and which was called Hercules’ Club strangely enough. There were also frog ponds in front that were filled with little black dots of tadpoles swimming around. We walked up the stone steps and were able to take some great photos with the scenery.

Once in the walls of the castle we had our sandwiches and proceeded onward. The castle was in the style of Renaissance. The courtyards looked just like the courtyards in Wawel castle in Krakow and the outside had very ornate hedges with a clock tower decorated with astrological figures. The insides were filled with art and the way they set up the exhibits was by art era. It was a surprisingly good, yet unwelcome for a weekend trip, review for our art history class.

We finished with the castle earlier than we expected, so we decided to figure out what bus to take and go home. It was a good thing we did because as soon as we got out of the castle walls the skies turned grey and we knew rain was coming. We got all the way down to the bus stop when the skies opened up and heavy rain started to fall. At some points, there was even hail falling. We waited about an hour under the little wooden bus stop before the bus showed up and we were able finish our wonderful walk around Ojców Park.