If you've had enough of the city, adventurers should head for the quaint rural town of Lipnica Murowane this Palm Sunday, where a much-loved - and decidedly fantastical - custom is about to get underway.
Strollers on Cracow's Main Market Square will have already noticed the colourful, paganesque totems that have appeared at the flowerstalls. These are Polish palms (that's right, our medieval ancestors couldn't import the tropical ones in those days) and they're an indispensable part of Holy Week in this fair land. At Lipnica Murowane, there is an annual competition to build the tallest palm possible. Some of these gargantuan creations reach over twenty metres in height, and the market square at Lipnica will come alive in a kaleidoscope of colour.
Another captivating custom can be savoured at the village of Tokarnia, an hour's drive south of Cracow off the Zakopane road. The Palm procession and the wooden church are magnificent. But - and it's a big but unfortunately - someone has decided to build a colossal red-brick church a stone's throw from the ancient wooden one. It's a built like building a skyscraper next to a country cottage. Somehow it doesn't quite fit!
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