Krakow

Krakow is wonderful city to visit.  The whole family felt that way. We loved the place, the people, and the food.  Our week long trip through the Czech Republic and Poland was one of the best family vacations we’ve had so far.  It was cold. It snowed and then it snowed some more. It didn’t matter.  It was glorious.  Krakow exceeded every one of our expectations!

Wawel Royal Castle and Cathedral

What We Saw

We could have kept ourselves busy for a full week in Krakow.  There’s that much to see.  Our lovely AirBnB  was located right between Old Town and the Jewish Quarter so we could walk to almost everything.  We spent our first full day at Auschwitz (see blog posted 2 February) and had time for only dinner (Polakowski- Yummy!) once back in the city.

The Oskar Schindler Factory was stop #1 on our second day (our only full day) in Krakow.  The Factory itself has been turned into a Holocaust and WWII Museum.   As you walk through the different rooms you become immersed in Krakow in 1939, 1940 and the following years through Nazi occupation and WWII.  The museum is fascinating and full of memorabilia to help set the stage to give you a better sense of the Polish experience through WWII.  There are opportunities throughout the exhibits to listen to the incredible stories of people who experienced this all firsthand.  While the building has Oskar Schindler’s name on it, there is not that much of a focus on him throughout the museum.  His story is an important one (as the film Schindler’s List depicts) but the museum tells the bigger story of the city and people of Krakow and WWII.  I thought it was absolutely worth the visit.

The rest of our day was spent walking Krakow, which we did until dark.  We started with lunch right near Wawel Castle and then headed up the hill to explore.  By nature, we are wanderers, rarely making reservations, choosing to tour only the outside areas of sites, in this case, the castle and complex.  While the interiors and galleries are open to ticket holders, we enjoyed the architecture from the outside and basked in our first sunny day of the entire trip.  There is a wonderful story of the Dragon of Wawel Castle and you can visit the Dragon Cave most of the year.  Sadly for us, it was closed in January.  The complex is a photographer’s dream and the views from the top looking over Krakow are just beautiful.

Wawel Castle

 

The boys goofing around at the castle

From the castle we walked into Old Town and the Main Market Square.  The pedestrian friendly streets were still decorated with Christmas lights and the square was just breaking down it’s Christmas Market.  In warmer months I imagine this would be a perfect place for a long cup of coffee at an outside cafe watching the world go by.  We were lucky to hit the square at the top of the hour.  As a long held tradition, a trumpeter plays the five-note Polish anthem from the tower of this church every hour on the hour from the north, south, east and west windows. The story of the bugle call has a long history.  If you’re lucky, you may get him to wave at you.  I have also read that it is tradition to blow him a kiss (but I haven’t verified that with a credible source).

Looking at the Church of the Virgin Mary in the Main Market Square.  It is from this tower the trumpeter plays every hour.

Pope John Paul II lived in this house in Old Town.

 

 

Statue in the Main Market Square

What We Ate

Polakowski- Our FAVORITE restaurant in Krakow!

We loved the food in Poland.  We were on vacation so we decided not to pay too much attention to calories and exactly what types of oils were used to prepare our food.  (We were walking off all those extra calories, right?!)  A great discovery for us was the Polish “Milk Bar”, a very traditional, delicious and inexpensive way to eat a polish meal.  You walk  into the “bar” where most of the food is on view.  You can point and smile or just ask about a dish (we found almost everyone spoke English quite well).  You can also ask for a taste of almost anything before you order it.  Our first night we gorged ourselves on 2 large bowls of soup, a huge plate of stuffed cabbage rolls covered in tomato sauce, a huge pork cutlet with potatoes, dessert, a bottle of local beer and 3 soft drinks. The bill was approximately $19.  If we could have stuffed more food into our bellies, we would have. We ate dinner at Polakowski every night.

Yummy pierogis and beer at Pod Wawelem! You can see my son working on the giant meat platter across the table.  Not pictured -the cherry vodka shots that came after lunch- Yum!

We stuffed ourselves (again) this time right near the Wawel Castle at Pod Wawelem. They served us enormous meat platters, pierogis and potato cakes with smoked salmon.  The local Tyskie beer (taps pictured below) was delicious and light enough to keep walking after lunch.  We didn’t even attempt dessert after our lunch here- unless you consider the 2 cherry vodka shots that came with the bill- dessert.

It’s like a soda fountain but for beer.

 

A great meal right by the Wawel Castle.

Great Pizza in Poland!

On our way to Polakowski one night our “noses” discovered this pizza place.  We tried it for lunch the next day and it did not disappoint.  The pizza was enormous and absolutely delicious.  The only thing that made this pizza distinctly Polish was the number of peppers, pickles and different pork varieties you could order on top of it.  It was also possible to get a “Hawaiian” or veggie pizza just as easily.  As a family we like to try things like pizza in Poland or Chinese food in Prague. I have also started taking pictures of the restaurants we love so I can more easily (and accurately) pass along its information to future travelers.

Frank got to eat out with us.

If we had stayed longer in Krakow we would have spent more time in the very colorful Jewish Quarter and done a few structured walking tours of the city.  Our experiences with walking tours in various cities have been excellent and seem to be a great first step to orienting oneself to a new place.  Given more time we would have also visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine, an old and vast mine filled with statues made entirely of salt, a labyrinth of tunnels and caves, underground chapels and salt crystal chandeliers.  From what I have read it is an amazing sight to see and only 20 minutes or so from Krakow.

Krakow is beautiful.  It has character.  I feel like Krakow has held on to its history (all its history- the good, the bad and the ugly) with a great deal of dignity and pride.  It is from history that lessons have been learned- I think this is what allows a city and its people to be great.  A great trip. A great city.