First morning in Krakow

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Breakfast:

We woke this morning, glad to be in Krakow, glad that we had arrived safely. I believe that every building within the old moat is hundreds of years old and our hotel is inside that ring. That moat was filled in during the 19th century and turned into a park called the Planty which circles the oldest part of the city.

Breakfast is served in the basement of the hotel and what a basement it is. Since the hotel is a renovated town house dating from the 1500’s,the basement is fantastic! The walls and columns are very thick and the walls gradually curve to the supporting columns. The whole basement is a series of very strong arches which divide it into a series of interesting small ‘rooms’. The floors are flat rocks. The dining room comprises three rooms, one is quite large and could be used as a banquet room, a second smaller room has six tables set up for diners, and the third and smallest room is where the breakfast buffet is set up each morning. There is even one other area which is just large enough for a table and two chairs. We suppose that area is for ‘young lovers’.

Each morning we had our choice of various fruit yogurts, fruit juice, bread, cheese, various sliced deli meats, corn flakes, yummy jellies, hard boiled eggs, a selection of tea bags, coffee, mustard, horseradish, pickles and mayonnaise. I used the mustard and mayo to make an egg salad sandwich. The last two mornings I was there was no mayo, so I had an egg salad sandwich using mustard only. It was pretty good.

Our hotel, the Hotel Jan, is located only half a block from the old town square, the Main Market Square. After breakfast our first morning, we walked around the square until we found the Orbiz Travel Agency. Our tourist book ,“Rick Steves’ Best of Eastern Europe 2004”, had told us that was the best place to buy tickets for different tours. While in Krakow we wanted to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine and Auschwitz. Because this was the Easter holiday weekend we had to work around the holidays. “Everything will be closed on Monday,” we were told. This wasn’t quite true, but many places were closed. Our schedule was finalized and we bought tickets to visit the salt mine Friday and Auschwitz on Monday. [Nancy again- I often appear as editor even when I don’t sign in folks so my voice is here even when my name is not!- At this point I just wanted to say you haven’t seen a holiday until you see how Catholic Poland celebrates Easter. When they say, things are closed over the holiday they really mean it. There were many things we might have done but could not do since the seriousness of this holiday (I mean serious observation not serious as in sad) means that museums and other tourist spots are simply not open. However with the castle and grounds mostly open, the philharmonic in full concert swing, all the extra fairs and booths and celebrations for Easter itself, there was more to do than normal. To do Krakow right you need to arrive 3 days BEFORE the holidays and do museums, etc. then stay Friday-Tuesday to see all the celebrations. Oh, and to eat all the delicious foods that are there only for the celebrations. No, I don’t think about eating ALL the time. Just Breakfast, lunch, supper, snacks when there are temptations on every hand, etc. But face it, the guide books told us that Krakow has a reputation as one of the gourmet centers of Europe. Most people think of Eastern European foods as starchy and dull. Wrong! Polish cuisine in Krakow is really fabulous. We ate a lot for a little money and it was all delicious. Well, I’ll let Bill have the computer again. Then I will proofread and ‘correct’ and add in my two cents worth. I hope he has sense enough to need a lot of exclamation points in his sentences. Krakow is fantastic enough to merit a lot of !!!! about sights, things to do, people we enjoyed, etc.!!!!!

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Photos

The buffet in the Hotel Jan
Nancy is selecting her breakfast. The dining room and buffet is in the basement of this ancient building. We thought the ancient masonary work was very interesting.