Krakow

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Geo: 49.9989, 19.9907

Got the express train to Krakow 2 hrs and 25 mins (192zloyts/52 eur). Lovely train, 6 berth cabin this time with complimentary tea and bisc. and we have it to ourselves for the 1st hour, seems like 1st class but it isn't. From Krokow Glowny (central) we could walk to Old town to our hotel Mokolaj on Mikolajskia 30, very nice attic room and nice possibly stoned reception staff.

So we start our investigations on Rynek Glowny (largest medieval sq. in Europe), after avoiding some loud brits we had nice lunch etc. Then did a big walk past market stalls Sukiennice and the Mariacki church - finest gothic structure in the country - with its human trumpeter tooting in ever hour and giving a wave. Then up Ulica Florianska the main drag and up to the Florianska 14th century gate that marks the end of old town. Then drinks in The Black Gallery in Mikolajskia and dinner in an Egyptian place and 'Loch Camelot' for night caps where there was great drama as an ambulance had to come (down very narrow streets) for some old guy who collasped.

Day 2 was 70km drive to Oswiecim aka Auchwitz, where there are 1 million visitors a year now (and where we met some people from my home town). We had a guided tour for 2 hours which was interesting but horrible, the smell was got me. The collections of hair, glasses, shoes, suitcases (where I saw my old boses family name painted on one) was just awful and as for the zyklon b containers and the gas chambers (but they brought back Rudolph Hoess to hang him there.) What can I say, much has been written about peoples feelings when they get there and all I can say is you just feel kinda sick.

Then we went to Birkenau where most of the atrocities were done, you know the one with the railway station that the line goes straight to the gas chamber ? (See Schindlers List), again pretty grim but not as bad as I expected but then again there's only a fraction of the site in tact, apart from anything it would cost too much to maintain. People live around the camp today which I can't say I'd fancy, there's kinda something in air.

So on returning to Krakow at 3pm at Wawel castle we walked up Grodzka and the main sq Stare Miasto and back hotel wards etc. Later after recovering from the mornings sites we has coffee in Botanika on ul. Bracka and C. had hot chocolate with cherries and vodka, uuummmm. Walked around Plac Dominikanski and past St Peter & Paul basilica (Pope JP II was a local lad) until we got back to Wawel Hill and walked around the castle grounds that was the polish monarchys for 500 years and burial site for royals, peots and heroes. Very nice grounds to walk around esp. as the sun sets and has a huge open square with a cathedral - didn't go in as we are still churched out from Russia. There is a good statue of Tadeusz Kosciuszko at the waza gate a copy of a 16th century one the nazis destroyed. On the other side past 'Dragons cave' is a great view back from the Debnicki bridge across to the Kazimierz (jewish quarter). Then went through Planty a park bordering the town back to base, the black gallery bar and dinner in 'Ipanema' a v. nice brazilian.

Tried a few 'cool' bars only to end up in 'Pod Papugami' an Irish bar where we met 2 mad Limerick lads Paul & PJ and had a mad one shall we say (vodka shots), and ended up in another Irish bar 'Mbassy' on ul Sienna til all hours which thankfully was near the hotel but I am not too sure how we worked that out.

Anyway moving swiftly on we woke up on day 3 in our own hotel room which was good. Only we had booked and paid for another trip out of town, to a salt mine in Wieliczka (unesco site), luckily theres a few times of day you can go as we missed the 8.45am bus, after much humming and hawing by C. we made the 11.15 bus and felt pretty rough on the 15km ride there via Kazimierz but it was so worth it.

Kopalnia Soli Wieliczka was discovered to have salt in 11th century, it's 327meters deep and has 300km of tunnels over 10km wide, these days mining is the least of their worries as they have now more tour guides than miners, but they have made a fab. job of it. We went down 200ft (65m) by stairs and walked further down through rooms and passageways made bet. 17th - 19th centuries complete with horse powered pulleys etc., sculptures made from salt incl. Copernicus, Goethe, Balzac, the 7 dwarves and Pope John Paul II. There are over 40 carved chapels & a fantasic one called 'Blessed Kinga's chapel' (at this point we were 135m down) the chapel is 50m long & everything is made from salt including the chandeliers, the stairs, the banister, altar and 3D pictures of the last supper and others. Apparently it has amazing acoustics so concerts, weddings and banguets for the likes George Bush I are held here, they even do bungy jumps in a nearby hall. Also there is a sanitorium down there as the air is so pure and lo-and-behold when we came out we had no hangover, what a place 😊

Only down is buses back to town are evey 45 mins we missed one by 5 mins, d'oh! But when we got back to town we checked out Joseph Conrad's childhood home on Poselska 12 (after crap mexican late lunch). Decided to get the 17:00 back to Warsaw and after major confusion about where to buy tickets (you buy on the platform/peron but down a back stairs) we got our tickets at 16:59 on peron 5 and jumped onto carriage 6 as the whistle blew. Adrenlin rush, awlright. 6 Seater Carriage 6 had on one side of us a couple of get-a-room types (and the other side normal people) so that still beat a 60 min wait til the next train.

Back in Warsaw we went back to the hotel Metropol where we had stored our stuff and collected our train tickets to Berlin & Brussels (bought a month earlier on the Internet, phew). This time they gave us a room in the done-up wing which was nice but had no a/c. so slept like crap!

Anyway would recommmend Krakow and environs.

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