Poland - Krakow

European country number 32.

Originally we planned a 5 night break in Krakow, then after looking at Zakopane we split an 8 night holiday between the two. 

We booked into the glorious Stradonia ApartHotel in Krakow - It was less than 5 minutes to the castle and less than 10 minutes to the Market Square, Jewish Quarter and the river.

Krakow was busy, even the hotel receptionist said that Krakow was busy.  It was also hot, nearly 40C on a couple of days.  We had wanted to go to Auschwitz but due to circumstances, we hadn't booked a tour in advance, and the only option was to go before 6 and queue.

Wawel Castle dominates much of the skyline.  

And it is lit up at night

View from the castle gardens

And not from the castle gardens, just a flowerbed by the castle walls.

Wawel Cathedral - This is in the same complex as the castle.  I particularly liked this view of the cathedral from the castle.  

And the view from the castle entrance

The Cathedral was glorious (but officially no photos) which I found out after I took this one

With a great bell tower, 

With panoramic views.

The tower was well lit at night

With dragon gargoyles

Old town - similar to many other old towns.  It was pleasant that it closed to vehicles for much of the day.  

This church had some amazing statues on the wall.  Om a night there were some high class buskers - an opera singer one night, and on others two accordian players, who did an amazing version of Toccata

 

The focus is the market square

Staying close by it was easy to have a walk over early morning.

Krakow has one of the largest market squares in Europe.

Dominated by the central market hall, and the bell tower in one corner and the scaffolding clad St Matrys in the opposite corner.

The inside of the market hall

A city gate and the last of the fortifications

And a random building I liked

Jewish Quarter - incredibly vibrant, with lots of food and drink options.  Along with several museums,  Of course, there were many poignant reminders of what had happened during the holocaust, including the stark 65 chairs monument - A chair for each 1,000 lost from the city.

The Riverside - A glorious place to walk, and very popular for picnics.

A Balloon at a fun fair

This bridge had statues mounted in the rigging.

 And there were great views of the castle from the other side of the river

Churches all seemed to have a shrine, chapel or statue (or all 3) of St John Paul - It's not suprising when he was a hometown saint who died during the lifetime of so many.

St Francis church, very unassuming outside, but a gloriously decorated church inside.

The decoration was mainly patterns, rather than Christian imagery, and incorporated many flowers and animals.

The cloister had a more traditional church look.

As the church is only two minutes from the Market Square and next to Planty Park - the very cool wood that surrounds the old town, it was suprising there were not more visitors.

St Mary`s dominated the market square, and was beautiful inside, but shrouded in scaffolding.  

Other churches caught my eye when I was walking round - we didn't go into either.

Overall, I enjoyed the Wieliczka Salt mines, but the tour felt crowded and rushed.  But the temperature was 18 Degrees inside and 40 out side.

One of the lakes in the mines

As always, there were curios and statues.

This just reminded me of Father Jack

Not a lot you can say about this one

Always prepared to listen.

You can't have too many dragon statues

Fountains are always good to see.

Arguing statues

A pig on a raft!

Apparently, the only 24 hour sundial in the world. It uses a laser fitted with a motor for night and cloudy days. 

Our server at the airport.

I really enjoyed Krakow, but visiting in July was probably not the cleverest idea.

Only complaint was in Zakopane I was introduced to all these really good Polish beers, but in Krakow there were a lot more generic Euro brews.

Poland - Zakopane

 Zakopane is the gateway to the Tatra Mountains.  It is busy it is very commercial, but it is set in a beautiful part of the world.

It reminded me of Queenstown in New Zealand, but with hundreds of stalls selling local produce made in China, and food and drink.

The food was very good and we had the two best meals of our holiday at Bubuja Bistro.  Although we saw very few other British tourists, all the info boards in the National park and around town and menus were in Polish and English.  We even found a pub decorated in Liverpool FC memorabilia!

There was a booming craft beer sector with a lot of choice of fine brews, which we didn't find as much in Krakow.

We used Ubers a few time, they were efficient and by UK standards cheap.  

The main street does have some interesting features.

We went on the funicular, but at the top it was mainly stalls and booths selling local food, drink, local crafts and Chinese trinkets.  There were a few interesting buildings..

This was probably my favourite - an open-air church.

There were views. 

The most spectacular were over to the Tatra National Park, at the other side of the valley.

We did two walks from the centre of town, both were busy.- both led to waterfalls - one more spectacular than the other, 

The first was the valley Dolina Bialego

This was a walk alongside a stream (or in more like a stream bed)

to a "waterfall" - the UK is not the only place with dried up streams.

But it was a pleasant walk

And certainly a nice place to sit and chill at the end.

The second walk was much busier along the Strazyska Valley, but at least the Siklawica Falls had water.

The walk was very similar, which was not surprising as the two valleys were only a few KMs apart.

Towards the end of the trail, there was a brief period of sunny weather, which coincided with some of the most dramatic views.

The latter part of the walk was dominated by the cliff face

The main walk reached a picnic ground at the base of the cliff face of Mt Giewont.  Unfortunately, the weather closed in again.

From the picnic area, there were there was an extension of the trail to the Siklawica Falls.  This was very busy.

I always thought my cats would like some of the place we visit but this is taking it to a whole new level

There were two routes which linked the two valleys - as it was raining and the stone slippy we chose the low level.

This was probably my favourite house - Adams Family holiday home

Probably the first building we saw after getting off the train.

The street we were staying on

Some random street art - none more random than the Swing Dancers outside the railway station

On the side of one of the mountain streams flowing through town

A park with sculpture rather than a sculpture park

In case you forgot where you were

On our last night we were just passing through the park near the middle of town, and were treated to a stunning sunset.

Because of issues with late delivery of luggage we were not able to go on some of the walks we planned and spent most of the time in and around the town.  But we still saw some great scenery.

 I would certainly recommend anyone with a love for the outdoors to visit - but recommend mid week and not in the school holidays - the Polish people certainly like to walk.