Kraków, Poland

So we had to go to Kraków (Crakow) to renew Carsyn's, our daughter, passport and we decided that we might as well make a trip out of it too. Our trip to Kraków is explained in the following paragraphs.

Day 1
We started our journey at 7:30 am and got some breakfast and gas before traveling the 2.5 hours to Kraków. We plugged the address to the hotel that we were going to be staying at for the duration of the trip and off we went. Driving in Poland has always been the same to that you get in America, except for the roads being smaller and narrower. However, once we were on the highway or "Autostrada", the speed limit changed from 60kph (37.2 mph) to 140km! (87 mph) I wasn't brave enough to go the posted speed limit, but I did go 120kph (70mph). Then it started raining heavily. However, the drivers were not slowing down. In fact, I think that they sped up! After a while, we came to a Toll booth.

Toll booths in Poland are like any other tool booths you go to I guess. On the road to Kraków from Wrocław, you are going to go through two of them. Not too bad. We paid only 16 złotych ($5) to go 260 kilometers (162 miles). Not bad huh? It was a simple line and not much waiting at all. We continued down the road for the reminder and then we got to our hotel.

HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS:

 This is a very nice hotel if I say so myself. We decided to stay in the hotel for a 2 night stay. The staff are very friendly and they, of course speak English perfectly. If you have a TomTom, plug in Opolska 12 to be able to find it even though it is Opolska 14. Their complementary breakfast is rather nice. They have a variety of breakfast options. However, their dinners can be a little on the pricey side. For steak and Salmon and not much to chose from get ready to be 60-65 złotych ($20) for the one plate. This is high because a little down the road is a McDonald's where you can get a meal for 10-15 zlotych ($5). The rooms are amazingly clean, as a hotel should be, and only cost 159 zlotch ($50) per night per person. They even have secured parking, which is hard to find in Kraków, for 30 złotych ($10) per night. All in all we paid 380 złotych ($125) for the two nights.

Contact:
Ul. Opolska 14 31-323 Kraków.
+48 12 61 45 800
http://www.krakowexpress.pl

After unloading our bags, we decided to go look around the city a bit. We got in our car and drove toward the city center. We had to go to the US Embassy on Stolarska 9, in case you need it, and that was an adventure in itself. Even though our GPS (Lola, who we have named) told us to go down through the Rynek (Market Square) it is "technically" illegal. Luckily we had a nice police officer tell us that is not allowed. No wonder they gave us looks. After the embassy, we went into one of the best Italian restaurants I have been to in a long time.

KUCHNIA WŁOSKA TIVOLI

This is amazing food and right across the street from the Embassy! The menu was inexpensive and tasted great. I got a dish that was to die for really. It was the Cannelloni dish and a salad. The bread that came with the salad was the best! Highly recommend this restaurant because of the fact that the entire meal only cost 80 złotych ($25) for 3 dishes! I walked out of there full. One area where I found it to be a little on the long was the preparation time. However, when you take a bite out of the food, you won't really care too much. The waitress was rather friendly and she brought out our food without any mistakes.

Contact:
Ul. Stolarska 8
+48 12-431-1526
 http://www.tivoli-krakow.pl

After that we decided to go around the city a bit. However, the weather was turning and the rain took us to a City Tour car for a bit.

CITY TOUR CARS:

Don't waste your money on these tours. Whereas they may look nice to be taken around the Rynek (Market Square), it is not worth your time and money. We paid 120 złotych ($40) to be taken to Wawał Castle (about 3 kilometers (1 mile) down the road and not being able to go in anywhere. We rode around the city center and listened to a recording that told us about the city. I guess it would have been a little better had we gone on a warm day and was able to take pictures of the area around us. However, the tour was pretty lame and they dropped us off 3 kilometers (1 mile) from our car. Do not go during the rainy season because it was horrible.

We decided not to allow that to bother us and we saw that the Wawał Castle was in front of us. We decided that it would be alright to go in and look around. After climbing Wawał Hill, which is rather steep, we got inside the structure.

WAWAŁ CATHEDRAL:

This was a great self guided tour of the Wawał Cathedral found near the Castle where the Kings of Poland and Queens have been entombed. Even though Lech Kaczinski wasn't a king, he along with his wife, were entombed outside the room of the Kings. BIG CONTROVERSY here in Poland of that one too. We looked around the room and were forbidden to take pictures of the beautiful arcitechture and paintings. Jamie tried to take a picture, but the picture turned out blurry. Guess it wasn't meant to be. The tour was nice and there is a lot of things to read. We paid 22 złotych ($7) for the tour.

After the castle, we took a taxi back to the center because there was no way I was going to walk that far back to the car. When we got to the car we found a little surprise on our car. A ticket?

PARKING POINTS:

Remember this picture! If you are going to go to the center of Kraków, you are going to have to pay money for a parking pass. We failed to notice this when we parked around Ul. Mikołajska and had to pay 50 zlotych ($15), when normally it is around 3 złotych ($1) per hour. Thankfully we didn't get a boot on our car. But, luckily for us, we can pay it through the bank and don't have to go through the actual place to pay for it. This is a hassle because this doesn't happen in Wrocław and it is crazy that they have to charge in the city center and not outside of the center. I guess it is all about getting money where they can I guess. It was just a pain to have to go through this when we could have avoided it if the hotel would have informed us.


We got home and then went to bed for the night.

Day Two:

After the contimentary breakfast, we headed off to our tour to the Jewish Ghetto and surrounding areas. After driving to Ul. Dajwor 18, we got out. There is paid parking on the property and it only cost 3 złotych ($1) per hour, just like on the street except secured. From there we met with our guide Anna.

JEWISH KRAKÓW KAZIMERZ TOUR:
Kraków is a very historical city full of history around every corner. Mainly because the fact that Kraków was the main point of World War II. The tour that we decided to go on was with a guide by the name Anna Kiesell. I highly recommend this woman as your guide because she is very knowledgeable about the district of Kazimerz, the Jewish Ghetto and Scindler's List History. The tour is on foot and last about 2-2.5 hours. Well worth it to see the rich history of what happened to all of the city pre-war and post-war. The only complaint that I do have is on the weather. We were forced to have a vacation in January, but would recommend that you come to the city in April or May. Amazing tour with an amazing guide!

Contact:
Ul. Komandosów 11/22
+48 605-652-522
http://visit-cracow.com

After the tour we decided to grab some lunch.

BAGELMAMA

This is the ONLY beagle restaurant in Poland! It was amazing to see that they had beagle sandwiches and New York Cheesecake for desert. It is owned by an American man and it is reasonably priced. After eatng there, we paid 60 złotych ($20) for the three of us. The service is quick and friendly, just like you want from a restaurant, and the owner was there as well. It is definitely a stop that you must make when in Kraków and you are going to love that you can get a taste of familiarity (if you are American) right in the heart of a historical city. We were fortunate to meet with the owner of the Bagel Shop and he was very polite. You can really tell that he is happy with his restaurant and as he should because it was one of the best places I have been to in Kraków. You won't be disapointed with this place at all when you stop in her. The great thing is that there is parking right next to it and you only have to pay 20 złotych ($6) to park your car for the entire day!

Contact:
Ul. Dajwor 10
+48 12-346-1646
http://bagelmama.com

After the restaurant we called it a night and got McDonald's to eat rather then going downstairs to eat. It really isn't that good of a variety really. McDonald's is always good vacation food right?

Day 3:

The final day of our trip. Stay with me now, stay with me now! Today we went and had a nice breakfast (that is all free) and decided to pack up and leave the hotel rather then go on tour first and then pack. After gathering all of our things and checking out of our hotel, we decided to go on our final tour.

WIELICZKA SALT MINE:

If you are looking for a tour to finish off this trip, I would highly recomend the Salt Mines. You are going to have to journey down 60 flights of stairs to get to the level where the tour begins. Everything you see in the salt mine is made of SALT! Statues, sculptures, walls and floor are made from salt. It is really interesting to see and you are going to be able to do this even without a guide. You wait for your tour group and you go down into the mines. Our tour guide was...well...we shall call him Borat because he looked and sounded like him. It was fun to go down there and also had a lovely snack down on the ground floor. The only uncomfortable part of it is that they cram you into an elevator to go up and that is it. Great end to the trip.

That is Kraków for you. Those of you who stuck to the end, here is a little treat! It is a video montage of the Sibert Family's trip to Kraków, Poland. Enjoy!!