We left the Czech Republic this morning and headed for the Polish border. We had no trouble at the border crossing and it took about 20 or 30 minutes for the officers to check and stamp our passports and then we were on our way.
We stopped for lunch at a small Polish town called Psczynie and got money at the ATM, took a look at the castle there and had a group lunch of salad, soup, and raspberries and yogurt…Yummo!
After lunch we were off to Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration camps. The tour there was about 3 hours. We toured both Auschwitz I and Birkenau. It was unbelievable to see how big these camps were. It is a very solemn place and it’s almost unfathomable for me to think these camps were used a mere 60 years ago.
After Auschwitz we headed to Krakow going through the very pastoral Polish countryside…lots of Babushkas to be seen.We arrived at our hotel in Krakow and it is beautiful. The Hotel Maltanski (http://www.donimirski.com/) is a great little boutique hotel just off the Planty (the park that surrounds the city) and down the street from Wawel Hill. The hotel has 16 rooms in the renovated former royal stables. We had just enough time to drop off our bags and meet up with the group to go to dinner.
We walked through the Old Town Square and it feels just like being in a story book at dusk…just beautiful! As we were walking Ben was talking about the “vibe and energy” that Krakow emits and the moment I walked into that square it was like a jolt of electricity to my system. I don’t know if it was because of what Ben was saying or because it was dusk and the setting sun illuminated the buildings in that perfect amber glow, or the cafes around the square that were starting to buzz with activity, but standing in the middle of the Main Market Square known as Rynek Główny was simply magical to me.
The restaurant we had dinner at tonight was called Restauracja Farina, just 2 blocks off the Square. The atmosphere inside was great, candle lit tables and the service was good, and the borscht starter was excellent, but that’s where the accolades stop, the dinner of pork with melted cheese on top and garlic wasn’t the best meal I ever ate, but it wasn’t the worst, it was just average.
We walked back to the hotel soaking in the atmosphere that is Krakow. It was a great ending to a thought-provoking and then magical day!
Day 7– September 8, 2006 – A Rainy Walk through Krakow
We woke up this morning to a grey sky and rain and lots of it. I got up at 6am with the plan to check out the Main Market Square early before it was packed with people and take pictures! But that plan changed fast when I saw how hard it was raining.
CL and I did go down to breakfast at 7am and it was a nice spread in a very cute little dinning room. No hot items, but the best coffee and cappuccino of the trip so far. We were at breakfast for about an hour and then back to our “posh” room to gather our stuff and meet in the lobby at 9am for our walking tour.
We met our local guide, Marta, at the hotel and with umbrellas and rain coats at the ready; we started the walking tour of Krakow. We first headed to the Dragon Statue. The Dragon is the symbol of Krakow and then we went to Wawel Hill where the Wawel Cathedral and Castle are located. Once we got to the castle grounds and Marta gave her talk about its history we were let loose for about 20 minutes. By this time the rain had stopped (YIPEE!) it was still cloudy, but I got to take some good pictures.
We walked all through Old Town seeing various points of interest and the Franciscan Church, then parts of the city wall and finally into the Main Market Square and St. Mary’s Church.
We were in the square at noon, just in time to see and hear the bugler in the church tower (local firemen take 24 hours shifts in the tower to blow the bugle). Then we went into the church to see the amazing alter. The whole church is really quite spectacular. The interior is just beautiful. And the stained glass windows are fabulous.
The walking tour ended and we all went off on our own. CL and I headed straight for one of the bagel vendors on the square. For 1 Zlotsky (about 33cents) you get a huge ring shaped bagel. They look nothing like the bagels at home! We had ones with sesame seeds…they were great!
At about 2pm we decided to stroll around the square and find a place for an early dinner/late lunch. We picked the Restauracja Hawelska right on the square. The meal was delicious, we had: Mushroom soup in a bread bowl, vegetable plate, and meat filled pierogi. It was all good but the mushroom soup was the best. The bread bowl it was served in was tall, almost like it was baked into a flower pot, I called it a bread cupcake! The pierogi were our least favorite.
After our meal we browsed through the Cloth Hall full of souvenirs, but didn’t really find anything we wanted. Then we walked around some more and found a bakery and bought 2 of every little fresh cookie they had…try communicating "we want 2 of those, and 2 of those" to someone we speaks little English! But it was fun. Then we found the Wawel Chocolate Shop and bought a bunch of individually wrapped chocolates…guessing at what each might be. Another episode of "one of those and one of those" with lots of pointing fingers and head bobbing yes or no.
We continued walking around the square and sat down on a ledge and did a little people watching and cookie eating! Then it was back over to St. Mary’s Church to light a candle and see the altar being closed. After 10 or 15 minutes and no alter closing (we wanted to see the scene on the closed side of the altar) we started to walk back to the hotel. We called it an early night.
However, before shutting our eyes for the night, we did manage to taste test 3 of the chocolates we bought. My favorite is the Tiki Taki. It’s chocolate filled with peanut butter and marshmallow…it was really YUMMO!
Day 8– September 9, 2006 – Castle Part 2, Salt Mine and the Best Dessert EVER!
We slept late today…until 7am! And when we woke up the skies were sunny and clear…YIPEE!!!
CL and I had a leisurely breakfast and then left the hotel at about 9:30am to go back to the Wawel Castle grounds and tour the Wawel Cathedral and climb the bell tower…can’t let a good view slip by me! The church was pretty but not the prettiest of the churches we have seen so far. The bell tower was fun and the bell is huge, we got to climb right tot the top and touch the bell. The legend goes, if you touch the bell you will be married within the year….hmmmm…with CL and I both being single maybe one of us will have luck with that!
After taking many pictures we left the castle grounds and decided to walk through the Planty, the beautiful tree-filled park surrounding the city. We did a little window shopping and I contemplated buying an interesting cape/jacket combination, but in the end decided against it, since we still had 3 weeks of traveling and I didn’t want to lug a bulky cape with me. Even though it was different than anything I have seen at home, I felt it was taking me too long to decide and my philosophy with purchasing while traveling is that if I don’t immediately fall in love with it and make no hesitation about buying it, it’s not meant to be. So after taking half a day to think about whether I really wanted it or not, I decided not and moved on. Besides, I had already purchased a garnet ring in Prague (didn’t hesitate in the least on that purchase) and that was a big splurge “gift to me, from me”.
After walking around in the morning we decided to have a light lunch, yup, another bagel from a street vendor…I LOVED them! Then I was off to the top of the Town Hall Tower for some more great views and pictures…the weather was definitely on our side today!
After enjoying our bagels on a bench in the Main Market Square watching all the people and pigeons, I am not a big fan of pigeons, we decide to try and find a place we wanted to go to for dinner. Now a bit about me and pigeons….I am scared to death of them, I know, it may seem silly to others, but as a child I remember a dream I had about birds that did not end well and ever since I have not been very fond of birds a pigeon in particular. Having confessed that little item to CL, it was like the pigeons were on a mission and seemed to be following me everywhere. It came to a point where one took me by surprise and I let out a little scream in the square, so after getting several stares it was time to move on! However my pigeon phobia does not extend to cooked birds, except cooked pigeons of course!
As we walked around looking for our evening dinner sport we had several options. Ben had recommended the Georgian (not the state of Georgia, but the country) fast food place. We didn’t necessarily want fast food, but Ben said Georgian food is great and this may be the closest we ever get to trying it. We checked out the restaurant, but it didn’t really excite us. Then we looked at a place recommended in our guidebook but that didn’t really electrify us either. So then we went in search of the self-service cafeteria “upscale milk bar” recommended in our guidebook. We walked all up and down the street the listed as being the one this milk bar was on, we kept looking at the street addresses of the other buildings and nothing seemed right and there was no sign saying the name of the place we were looking for. Well, it turned out the place had changed names and we walked by it about half a dozen times! It is called Polskie Smaki Restauracja (http://www.polksie-smaki.pl/) and it is located at ul. Św. Tomasza 5.
After locating our dinning and dessert options for this evening we went back to the hotel for a little breather and to meet up with the group to go to the Wieliczka Salt Mine (http://www.kopalnia.pl/) Now I have to admit I had some reservations about going here, and Ben told us it was optional, if we didn’t want to go we didn’t have too and a few people opted out and stayed in Krakow. But CL and I thought, since we were here and it was close, why not? So we went.
It was fairly interesting, but a bit long and we went on the “shorter version” of the tour that lasted only about an hour. Before we started the tour I saw a shop selling cooking salt and I wanted to buy some to bring back home as a gift, but I didn’t buy it right then because I didn’t want to cart it around with me during the tour. Unfortunately when I went back after the tour the shop was closed, oh well, no cooking salt… it wasn’t meant to be.
By the time we arrived back at the hotel it was about 6:45, so CL and I headed to dinner at the place we found earlier in the day. The food was pretty good and the whole meal cost 29 Zł which is less then $10! CL and I shared the following: Zurek (sour Polish soup) this was EXCELLENT and the best choice, Golabki with mushroom sauce; which was very bland, it’s cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and meat and looking back we should have order it with the tomato sauce which probably would have given it a little more spice, and the second best item after the soup was Bigos, it was sausage and cabbage with potatoes and it did have a little spice to it…it was DELISH!
The way this restaurant worked, was that you went up to the cashier to place your order and the food was at the register area behind glass in warming bins. You tell the cashier what you want and they plate up the food and bring it to your table.
After dinner we went back to the Main Market Square to a café I had read about in my research for the trip that was recommended as having great desserts. OK, so we were pretty full from all the food we had at dinner, but I heard rave reviews about the chocolate torte at the Café Slodki Wentzl (at Rynek Glowny 19) that I just could not let my chocolate addiction go unsatisfied in Krakow!
We ordered the chocolate torte and just for good measure and to not negligent an ice cream craving we ordered and ice cream sundae called the spaghetti elf. The chocolate torte won the taste test hands down! It was rich chocolate mouse (but not too “squishy” mouse) on a chocolate bottom crust with checker board cake for the side crust and raspberry sauce on the plate…I wish I had taken a picture..it was so pretty, and tasted even better then it looked. Don’t get me wrong the spaghetti elf was pretty darn good too with all its chocolate ice cream and whipped cream, but the torte was phenomenal! And to wash it all down I had to have a cappuccino too! And yes, it took me awhile to get to sleep!
I really enjoyed just sitting our on the square enjoying our desserts, but we called it an early night and by 8:30pm we were headed back to the hotel. This was ok since we had to be on the bus by 7:30am the next day. It will be long bus day and we will be driving through Slovakia on our way to Eger, Hungary.
My thoughts on Krakow…I really like this city and the vibe around the Main Market Square with all the cafes. Yes, somewhat touristy but also a lot of locals; also clearly a very religious city. It’s hard to say which city I have enjoyed more so far, Prague or Krakow. Prague I liked for how pretty the city is as a whole (minus the hordes of tourist) and Krakow I liked for the beautiful Main Market Square and the cool vibe.
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