Krakow Poland

Krakow Poland


Arrived in Krakow last evening and had just enough time to do a short orientation walk around the Old Town. We are staying in a nice hotel just a few minutes’ walk to the Main Market Square. The building is quite nondescript from the outside but the rooms are the nicest we have stayed in since we arrived.

Walking to the Main Square the first night

Krakow is the third largest city in Poland. It was a former residence of Polish Kings and is now a World Heritage site. The town square is one of the largest in Europe and is surrounded by many beautiful buildings. It is filled with people both day and night, tourists taking in the sights as well as the locals going about their business.

The square with the Cloth Hall in the background

It's a great place for drinking at night

It is also home to the first Polish Pope John Paul II so there are statues everywhere. Poland is a very Catholic country and many people still attend church. There are churches everywhere but the main one is in the square, St. Mary’s Cathedral where John Paul served as an Archbishop.

St.Mary's on the square

This morning we took a short bus ride to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mines. They are the oldest working salt mines in the world and have been in operation for 700 years. You walk 800 steps below the surface to visit the beautiful structures that exist so far underground. There is even a chapel which is still used for worship. Luckily we didn’t have to walk back up as we took the miners cage to the surface. It is a quite remarkable place and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Going down to the mine

The underground chapel

There are huge underground lakes where people come to soak for health benefits

In the afternoon we took a walking tour to Wawel Castle, a royal residence which sits atop of the hill just outside the Old Town. Again it is one of the largest in Europe and quite impressive. It seems every city has a castle here and always on a hill.

The castle was built over a number of years so has different styles of architecture

The castle has a private chapel where all the important people are kept in coffins such as this silver one which weighs over 300 kgs

We also walked to the former Jewish Quarter which until Hitler came on the scene was home to the most Jews in Europe. After the Holocaust there were less than 1000 left out of over 300,000 people. Now there is only one working synagogue in Prague and not much sign of the once vibrant culture.

One of the plaques at the Jewish cemetery

A typical street scene

Since we were walking almost all day we were looking forward to some refreshments which we found at a bar on the Main Square. Most of us had a big lunch so we passed on supper.

Krakow is a city that has much to see but in this trip not so much time as we would like to explore the place.