Krakow
A great break in a great city
Krakow, the heart of Poland and a wonderful city to take a short break, somewhere that was recommended to us and we thought why not?! A very early start saw us at Stanstead airport for an 8:15am flight, however, that was soon forgiven when we arrived. We stayed at the Excelsior Boutique Hotel, small but very nice and in a perfect city location. A short 5 minute walk to the Old Town Square and around 15 minutes to the Jewish Quarter. The hotel staff were great and provided us with maps and good advice.
The first day was just a slow one, finding our bearings and of course finding a good beer. A brief walk to the centre and we discovered one thing, it was very quite! That's because November 1st is All Saints day. This is a national holiday where people visit graveyards and celebrate the lives of the dead. So our first day was amazingly quite. In the evening we found a nice bar called Sioux, it's outdoor dining area was surrounded by patio heaters and blankets were provided, perfect! A pint of Ksiazęce was the first of the Polish beers we sampled. The gentlemen serving recommended this one to us because we are British, so I took his advice and bought one. It was very nice and not too strong (ideal as we were tired from the early start!) so we decided it would be rude not to have a second. The food in Krakow's main square really catered to the tourists as it was mainly pizza, burgers and steaks. After our traditional Polish "burgers" we took a walk around the main square in the Old Town. It was stunning and looked even better on a quite night. A short walk around and another new beer was discovered "Perla", we found this at Buddha Bar, a quirky cocktail place that was pushed back in a small ally way. If your with someone that's not a pint drinker this bar is great, as cocktails were around 17 ZLt (£3:00)
Finally we managed a short walk further round the square to the Polski Pub, we sat here and planned our next day with a cold Tyskie.
Day Two
Again a short walk into the main square to the Polski pub for breakfast, before booking the excursions for the next few days. When going to Krakow book your activities at the small blue information kiosks around the city as it's cheaper than online. However, do it early as they do book up quickly. We managed to book the tours of Auschwitz and The Salt Mines. After booking the excursions I managed to persuade my partner to visit the stadium of SK Cracovia. A very unique stadium that was literally two minutes away from the hotel. Outside was the statue of Josef Kaluza a former player and manager of Cracovia and Poland. He scored a staggering 458 goals in his illustrious club career. The first team were training inside the stadium so you couldn't go into the ground, however, we visited the fan shop which sold everything from lanyards to balaclavas. It was not like a British club shop, and it was quite a wired experience..... so I decided to buy a Cracovia top for only £18!
It was time for a small lunch and a café was recommended to us before we set off to Poland. So we decided to give it a try and again it was sound advice. We tried the pork and beef dumplings and they were coated In a sweet onion sauce. They were great and very enjoyable.
We then took a short walk to the Jewish Quarter to have a look around. There was a host of bars and restaurants as well as some really old and well maintained synagogs and graveyards. However there were a lot of guided tours in progress, so if it's something you want to see more of I would suggest booking a tour. Finally it was time for tea and after a short walk back to the hotel to get ready we went out. It wasn't to be a late night as we had to be up early for the Auschwitz tour and Museum. So we decided to go to the Polska Pub and have stone baked pizzas. Once again we decided to dine outside where we had heaters and blankets. This meal was fantastic because we had a really great view of the town square with all the horse and carriages lined up. After finishing our meal we decided to take a turn left and walked up to the "classic pub" but to be honest we left feeling disappointed, it was very small and the beer wasn't great.... but never fear, we found the Bulldog bar just off the square. This pub had a good atmosphere and sky sports showing, it also had Perla on draught, which made me very happy. However, the only downside was the tonic was on tap for my partners G and T, so it was flat!
Day Three
An early rise and a quick breakfast from the local cafe started our day before touring Auschwitz. This day was worth it but it's very harrowing. I don't want to talk too much about the day as it's something you SHOULD do, if anything it makes you realise how lucky you are. The day starts with an hour and a half drive to Auschwitz. We had our tour backwards because of the volume of visitors and we visited Berkenau first before finishing at the Auschwitz museum. We went with "See Krakow" and the tour guide was superb and we learnt more than we expected. After the long drive back to the hotel we decided to go back in the square and being Friday night it was a lot busier. We picked the Hard Rock Cafe as it was easy and reliable before another early start the next day. A typical Hard Rock meal of burgers and beers, however this night we discovered Zyewic.
After our meal we went back to the Polski pub because I wanted to watch the football, with a Tyskie of course. We had a couple here before heading back.
Day Four
8:30am pick up for the Salt Mines, I didn't want to get up! However, I'm glad I did... It's about a twenty minute drive to the small village where they can be found. The first thing you need to tackle is 52 flights of stairs downwards. Here you can see some simply fantastic artwork and some wonderful chapels carved in to the salt by the miners. The tour guide was again fantastic and the information provided was another good learning experience. Once you ended the tour far, far down you were taken back up in an old mining lift where you ended a brilliant tour.
Once back in Krakow we decided to walk around the castle and main cathedral to have a look. The castle was lovely and in the "Dragons Den" you got a lovely view of the river Wisla. We finally decided to go and sit outside and have a few beers and food in the open square. We finished our last two pints of Zyewic and left very happy after another great trip.
