Long weekend in Krakow - Realistic Road Trips and City Breaks

Holiday Ratings
Recommended days	10
Budget	£
Difficulty	Easy

A long weekend in Krakow lets you explore the old medieval capital of Poland, with a wealth of history, great cafes and bargain prices! The old city is easily walkable and both safe and clean, with a huge castle, dozens of churches and a small section of city wall remaining.

The holiday started with the news that entitled middle class eco anarchists were gluing themselves to the M25 because ‘they know best’. Sadly our police, rather than dragging them off and interning them (protest is one thing but wilful sabotage is entirely another), were concerned for their welfare rather than that of the tax payers that cover their wages. That being the case we left in plenty of time to find their were no protests on our route and we had 3 hours to kill at the airport.

We watched some iPlayer stuff on Ancient Persia, had a hugely over priced lunch and eventually boarded our very full flight. This, and the subsequent entry into Poland, was incredibly low key compared to Germany last month. A vaguely disinterested glance at our documents and then we were through passport control. We waited in the arrivals hall for our transfer to no avail so rang the helpline to be told they weren’t using that firm anymore so to get a taxi and then claim it back. Luckily the taxi we had was excellent, dropped us almost at the hotel and gave us a card for the return trip. This was our second visit to the city and the first time we had stayed in the old town, the previous visit is detailed here.

Rynek Glowny

The hotel apartment was in a fabulous location, right on the market square of Rynek Glowny. We went inside, dumped our stuff, had a wash and headed out. We were shattered as I’d driven from Plymouth to Bristol that morning and then on to Gatwick but we wanted to make the most of things. We did a circuit of the square and it was just like we remembered, busy with cafes and families, clean and just pleasant to wander around. Deb chose a bar, which was actually next to the police station and we sat down for a couple of beers, followed by a couple of double vodkas. All for the cost of a single beer in the UK.

As is the custom in Krakow it was by then raining so we walked back to our apartment and had a pretty restless nights sleep as the curtains were rubbish and the courtyard outside was lit up by AA searchlights. I eventually got up at gone 9.30, almost unheard of! Breakfast was at a very nice place just round the corner – scrambled eggs with bacon and salad, croissant and rolls. Very filling and excellent value although it was absolutely pouring down so our walking was somewhat limited.

Rynek Underground

We tried to find the city museum but couldn’t so we settled on the underground museum, a museum located underground (subtle eh?!) in excavations of the original buildings of the market square. The Rynek Underground was actually a great way to spend a couple of hours avoiding the rain. All of the exhibits were labelled in English so there was plenty to read and it gave an excellent history both of the city and the market square itself. The Mongols burned the city to the ground in 1241 so there was an opportunity to rebuild and fortify Krakow properly. It then developed into a major trade hub and the capital of the Polish state in its various forms for a few hundred years.

St Mary’s Basilica

After a couple of hours of brain overload we needed a coffee to recharge so sat outside under an umbrella and watched the rain batter the cobblestones. Most of the places I wanted to see involved walking so we opted instead to visit St Mary’s Basilica as we’d seen that it had the biggest gothic altar in Europe so Deb was thrilled to see that 😉 The church was impressive, in a very Catholic way. The interior was all painted and a gorgeous riot of colour although the profusion of gold made it rather showy too. My protestant heritage showing through. The stained glass windows looked impressive but we couldn’t get close enough to see any detail. The altar was nice but the gilt and paint on it really made it difficult to appreciate the carvings of Veit Stoss and the adoration of Mary didn’t really tie in with the Catholic treatment of women as a whole.

After the inside of the church we then had our favourite bit – climbing the tower. This had 271 steps and as always Deb hated the climbing (spiral staircase) and I hated being at the top (vertigo). I took a few careful pictures with my phone, I hadn’t even bought my proper camera out as it was so wet and got quick glimpses of the view and layout of the old city. After far too long at the top we came down the steps and then crossed the square back to our apartment where we enjoyed a calming cup of coffee! Haven’t even taken my proper camera out of its bag yet as the weather has been so poor, hopefully it’ll clear up for our evening tour of the city.

Krakow Old City Walking Tour

We had dinner in the apartment and then walked the ten minutes to the castle to meet our guide for our walking tour. It was starting to get dark so I didn’t bother with my proper camera again and we walked through the old town, revisiting some places we knew and seeing others for the first time. Our guide, Peter, had the breadth of European knowledge that comes from dealing with people from all over the continent and it was great to chat with him about the history and culture of the city. We discovered a couple of places which we can hopefully revisit in the daytime as well as learning a lot about the places we’d already seen. We said goodbye after a couple of hours and then Deb and I sat down for a beer in the rather chilly by now market square. After one beer I was too cold to sit out for more so we headed back to the apartment for a shower to warm up!

Early Morning Walk

Saturday I woke at 6.30 and got dressed to go out and do some photos as it wasn’t raining. It was a bit chilly so I took a few photos in the square and then marched through the Florian Gate to the Barbican and took some more there. The city was pretty quiet with the guys out cleaning the roads and a very occasional jogger but that was about it. There were a few people sleeping in shop doorways or the corridors between buildings though which we didn’t see in the day.

The Barbican is a brick built defensive bastion, surrounded by a deep moat and originally built in the fifteenth century. Most of the extensive fortifications of the city have now gone and the Florian Gate, Barbican and 3 towers are all that remain. They are now surrounded by parkland and trees so a bit difficult to appreciate but there is a wall walk and museum that we might do later. I then walked back through the old city to the castle and walked to one of the bridges across the Vistula to take some pictures of the castle, continuing on the southern side of the river to the next bridge before crossing back over. It was getting a bit busier now and there was a guy fishing, more joggers and even someone else taking photos. Bloody tourists! I saw the statue of the loyal dog and the dragon sculpture before continuing back to the hotel for 8.30. A nice little walk and very peaceful.

Wieliczka Salt Mines

We then had breakfast while I tried to register for covid tests at the airport but it was too bloody complex as they didn’t have a single recognisable payment method so we gave up. At 10 we left to walk the short distance to where we were meeting the minibus for our trip to Wieliczka Salt Mines. This was about 30 minutes away and after a short pause for a coffee we joined the guided tour and started shuffling along the tunnels. To be fair the guide, Joanna, was excellent although very quiet so if you weren’t at the head of the queue you couldn’t really hear anything. The mines are vast, well over 200k of tunnels dating from the fourteenth century to the present day.

The salt that was dug out accounted for 30% of royal revenues so it was extremely important. The tunnels we walked through, after descending 65m, were in excellent condition, interspersed with caverns and carvings. There were several lakes and an underground cathedral, all carved from the salt. There is even the option of staying the night underground or taking a 3 hour mining experience where you get a map and a pick and have to go off and work like the miners used to. I had to rely on the iPhone for photos yet again as There was nowhere for the long exposures the proper camera needed.

We left the mine and were most happy to take off the damned masks. We went for lunch in a bistro just outside the complex and Deb had a healthy salad whilst I had a not so healthy burger and chips! Then it was back on the minibus to Krakow. We were intending to go straight to the Barbican to go inside that but I got distracted by a barbers and ended up having my first proper shave for 20 years. It was an excellent experience actually and I fell asleep for part of it. It does feel rather different to be even more hair free than normal! We had a quick visit to the city walls afterwards but they were actually closed so we’ll have to go back tomorrow. We made our way back to the hotel and sat down for a most welcome cuppa.

Jama Michalika

We’d found a place to go for tonight’s meal while out walking, Kawiarnia Restaurant (Jama Michalika), which was one of the oldest in the city and looked to serve authentic food for Deb. It was drizzling on the way there but we got inside and it was quite an amazing place, the walls were covered with paintings, sketches and caricatures in an art noveau style setting. Our waitress was Olivia and she was fantastic, taught us the Polish equivalents to “cheers” and “enjoy your meal”, took photos for us and was a really bubbly mine of information. The food was excellent too and some amazing drinks and all incredible value. We were actually inside for a couple of hours which is probably a record for me! When we left it was absolutely pouring down so it was a very quick dash back to the apartment and then bed.

Sunday I woke around 7.30 and started the tedious task of editing the photos which took until nearly 10AM. Considering I’d barely used the proper camera that was quite a shock. Breakfast and a shower and then off out again. First stop was walking up to the Barbican as it was actually open this time!

Barbican, Florian Gate and the city walls

The Barbican was originally joined to the Florian Gate by further defensive walls across the moat. These have now been demolished so it stands isolated from the gate and last remaining part of the walls. There are also trees growing right against the walls so you can now barely see them from the Barbican. There were excellent information boards inside and the cost was just over £2 to see both the Barbican and the walls. There was a lot to read so this did take a bit longer than I expected!

Jewish quarter and Kazimierz District

The original plan was to then get a taxi to the old Jewish ghetto walls and then walk back via our other stops from there. Cunningly I convinced Deb we needed the exercise so off we started! We walked the 3km through the old city and across the Vistula then paused at a cafe for coffee and a cheesecake before continuing on to the walls. There are only about 20m of wall left and just to rub it in, the Germans built each section in the shape of a Jewish gravestone. It’s the little touches that matter!

From there we passed Oskar Schindler’s factory and more of the original Jewish area before crossing the river again and stopping at the old synagogue. This is now a museum of Jewish culture and outside has various art installations that have been installed in recognition of the Jewish population that used to live in Poland. What was particularly tragic was that the antisemitism continued after the Germans were removed in 1945 and there were further waves of Jewish emigration amongst the very few that survived the death camps.

Our next stop in our Pilgrimage of Joy was the new Jewish cemetery. This was a badly maintained and very overgrown collection of tombs and gravestones and some memorials for the Jews of Krakow. Some were current but most were broken by the Germans and then relocated here, more as a testimony to the annihilation of a culture than as a place to rest in peace.

Our walk, by now a trudge, continued back towards the old city, stopping for lunch at a vegan restaurant for some variety. We then walked along the line where the city walls would have been if the Austrians hadn’t demolished almost all of them and finally back to the hotel. Rather a chilly day and not exactly feel good but some things have to be done. Such as bloody paperwork to fly back to the UK, 30 minutes of form filling to complete our passenger locator forms.

It is interesting with the alleged number of Covid cases though. The UK media is all doom and gloom, we’re all going to die unless we wrap ourselves in clingfilm type stuff. In Krakow I could only find 3 places to get a covid test, one of which was the airport. This compares with Britain and Germany (my only other direct experience this year) which have test centres practically everywhere so the number of reported cases is bound to be different.

Krakow Evening Photo Tour

I had an evening photo tour booked so Deb stayed in the apartment and I walked back to the Barbican to meet Olena. We then walked through the old city, stopping at a garden I’d walked past many times without even knowing it was there and across the Vistula into the Jewish quarter. Her fields were mainly product photography and street photography, so very different to mine but it was great to get some different perspectives and ideas. Frustratingly my eyes were being silly and I was struggling to see details so a bunch of my shots were rubbish. We were actually out 2 and a half hours but she was lovely to talk to and I got 10 decent shots out of 82 so thank god for digital photography rather than film!

I got back to the apartment and met Deb and we went straight out for a drink, coffee and a warm honey and cloves beer for me, wine for her and sat and watched life on the market square. That helped warm me up and I think was asleep about 30 seconds after hitting the pillow!

Warm beer with cloves and honey on Rynek Glowny

Wawel Castle and Cathedral

Monday was our last day of our long weekend in Krakow. I got up at 6.30 and had sorted last nights photos by 8, followed by a shower and breakfast. After breakfast we dumped our luggage in reception and walked towards the castle, again! We paused at the St Peter and Paul church to revisit the garden I saw last night so Deb could look at the topiary. She wittered on about various plants and then we continued to the castle.

We climbed the ramp and went to the ticket office to find that most of the castle was closed on a Monday. Oh joy! I booked the armoury, Royal Gardens and Lost Wawel exhibitions, a total cost of 20PLZ, about £4.

The Lost Wawel exhibition showed ongoing excavations and discoveries and it was quite impressive how far down the original buildings were, considering they were only 900 years old. There were lots of glazed clay tiles and stonework as well as models on what the castle looked like through its various incarnations. A lot of the displays were unlit and the general low lighting made it difficult to read some of the info. The medieval footwear they had on display was amazing though, very intricate.

We left the exhibition and walked around outside, trying to workout where to go. There were maps of the site but helpfully, none of the places we had tickets for were actually marked. Eventually we gave in and (Deb) asked a guide! Second stop was the Treasury and Armoury – this was quite amazing. The stupid glass (a specially inbred museum variety) made it very difficult to take pictures but the weapons were quite incredible works of art. Crossbows, muskets and assorted melee weapons all demonstrated superb carving and inlay work. The Polish weapons and armour were surprisingly eastern and it was good to see the gear of a winged hussar at last.

After all this excitement (!) we needed sustenance so we visited the cafe in the grounds. This was actually excellent and we both had salmon with salad for about the same as a Happy Meal back home! Our next visit was to the Royal Gardens, which were quite small but nicely laid out with roses, an orchard and various other bits that Deb could identify. There were also good views over the city. That was the castle done so next was the cathedral.

This was a huge fourteenth century building that seemed to be the equivalent to Westminster Abbey – tomb of royalty and VIPs and a seat of power in its own right. Unfortunately we couldn’t take photos inside but some of the side chapels were amazing, particularly the one painted in the fourteenth century that almost seemed like a 19th century Arts and Crafts offering. There was lots of religious stuff and we pretty much skimmed through the Treasury.

The Royal Tombs were quite amazing, very well maintained/restored and a variety of styles including stone, metal and possibly painted wood but all ornate. There was also a memorial to Katyn, where the Soviets massacred 25,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in 1940. Again, no photos though. The final visit was to the cathedral bells. These were up a series of incredibly steep and narrow steps and there were quite a few of them on various levels of the staircases. They were all massive and quite ridiculous weights too! Despite being largely closed we’d spent over 5 hours in the castle complex so that was pretty good going.

We took our final walk through the old city, stopped for waffles and then collected our luggage for the trip to the airport, the end to our long weekend in Krakow. We had our joyously pointless covid tests, just to fleece us of more cash and then checked in. Sofia had been bombarding me with messages about the dogs being naughty which makes me wonder why as they are usually idiots but well behaved. It didn’t exactly add to the relaxing holiday vibe! The plan is to land around midnight, drive back from Gatwick, grab 4 hours sleep and then drive to Plymouth and collect them. What bloody fun.

Krakow Revisited