We slept most of the night on the train, except for the main stop at around 2:30 am for customs. Actually, I woke up for every stop. Overall, it was comfortable and we both liked sleeping on the train. During the customs check, we waited at the stop and had the conductor bring us some tea. I was starting to get sick – sore throat, congestion, cough. I almost always get sick when I travel, but usually it’s not until I get back. I was so worn down in the week leading to the trip, though, that the germs won out this time. The tea helped.
The trip was uneventful. The train was very prompt and arrived in Krakow at 5:44am. Early! We didn’t have a hotel reservation and had to wait for the tourist office to open. First, we bought our reservation for the train going from Krakow to Budapest. The train system is really easy, especially with a rail pass.
We decided not to store our luggage, since we packed pretty light and have wheeled suitcases. We wandered through town for quite a while. The streets are narrow and the town is easy to navigate. Lots of cobblestone, very clean, and it was great to see the city early in the morning with no one around. We didn’t find anywhere open for breakfast, but we started looking for a place to stay. No one had availability! We checked five or six places. There was a little place that was really interesting, but they only had one night available. Finally, the tourist office opened at 9, and we were first in line. The tourist office wasn’t super helpful, but at least they found one place that had a room for us the first night. We figured we could book the other place for the second night.
I noticed one other place in our guidebook we hadn’t checked, so we didn’t have the TI office hold a room for us – we headed in that direction, with plans to stop in at Globetroter to see if they had a room. Success! Only a suite, but it was still cheap. And a pretty good location, within the Old Town walls. They held on to our luggage and told us to come back at 2.
I was getting sicker and sicker as the day went on. We found an excellent Internet Cafe (23/3 Rynek Glowny) (and spent some time there catching up on e-mail. Then we decided to use our guidebook to do a self-guided tour of the Royal Way – we did all of it except for Wawel Castle.
We saw the beautiful planty, which is a former moat surrounding the old city. It’s now a park. Most of the old wall around the city is gone. We walked down Florianska Street, the historic and tourist street of the city. St. Mary’s Church is right on the main market square, and it absolutely beautiful. Very ornate. We only stepped in, because they were in the middle of giving communion. A bugler plays from the tower every hour, and there a huge, three-part Gothic altarpiece that opens up every day at 11:45. People line up to see it.
The main market square is really neat. It’s huge, and bustling with people – tourists and locals alike. There are about 20 cafes along the perimeter. There are flower vendors that are there practically 24 hours a day. At the end of thesquare we saw a tiny church, St. Adalbert, the oldest church in Krakow. It was built in the 10th century. This square is one of the places the Poles gathered during Pope John Paul II’ sillness and death.
In the middle of the square is the Cloth Hall, a building housing shops – mostly souvenier shops. We moved on to see St. Francis’ Basilica, where Pope John Paul II was archbishop. A silver plate marks where he used to pray. The stained glass is really pretty in this church – one was modeled after Michaelangelo’s depiction of God in the Sistine Chapel.
Moving along the Royal Way, we passed a gazillion more churches. There are a LOT of churches here. We also walked along the street where many of the clergy live (the Pope also lived here at one time, before he was Pope).
We noticed a lot of kids out on the street – teenagers, mostly. The boys were all carrying fancy canes. Really weird.
We left the last part of the Royal Way, Wawel Castle, for a later time. It was getting close to check-in time, and we were dying for a hot shower and a nap. We chose one of the many Milk Bars in the city, Polskie Smaki (ul. Sw. Tomasza 5), which also happened to be right down the street from our hotel. It’s cafeteria style – go to the counter and order, and they give you some of your food there, and you get a number for the rest. We got tomato soup, turkey stuffed with mushrooms in a gravy, meat pierogis, fried red beetroot and potatoes for $6. The Polish government subsidizes the Milk Bars – a leftover from Communist days. And the food is really terrific. The turkey and the soup were our favorites. Oh, and the beets. Really good beets.
After lunch we went to the hotel and showered and napped until dinner. I was really hurting, in the full throes of my cold, and Larry was still fighting it off but was getting worn down a bit from it. We turned on the TV and found about 3 stations, including the Vatican channel. Everything in Polish, even the American programming. The dubbing is done by one guy (male AND female voices) in a Polish monotone.
Before dinner, we went out in search of a cookie shop we had read about on one of the travel message boards, Ciasteczek z Krakow (at ul. Stradomska 19). First, there are a LOT of bakeries and ice cream shops and cookie stores in this town. Seriously, about every few doors there’s another bakery. And they always seem to have customers. We found the cookie shop and ordered a whole bunch of cookies. By the pound, all small (two bites). It was less than a dollar, and they were super tasty.
We tried going to Pod Aniolami for dinner, which is supposed to be really good, but they were booked for the night. Instead, we had dinner just outside the Planty at Restauracja Jarema (plac Matejki 5). The food was pretty good. Larry had a Lithuanian Pork Chop – breaded with with cheese and mushrooms on top and potato dumplings, and I had turkey breast with a creamy sauce (of course) and apples, and a traditional Polish salad of cucumbers and sour cream. The food here is heavy and rich, to say the least. Larry had a beer he liked – Okacim.
We really enjoyed our first day in Krakow.
