Sarah and I experienced some Polish food last night at Hotel Eva, adjacent to our campsite. I had dumpings with meat and Sarah had dumplings with cabbage and mushrooms. It can be neatly described as “rib sticking”. These were not so much dumplings in the way we understand them in Britain but rather little parcels with a filling in the middle. The problem is that the parcels, which resemble large ravioli, are made out of what appears to be a type of suet! Like my grandmother’s suet puddings 50 years ago, great for fuelling a manual worker but heavy, so heavy, for modern tastes. We both agreed they would be the last Polish dumpling to pass our lips.
Today we planned to visit Krakow. In the past we have thoroughly enjoyed the “free” walking tours which now exist in most cities. They are not really free in that the guide expects you to tip him or her at the end, but if you were really shameless they could be free because there is no obligation to pay.
I had figured out the public transport we would need to get to the centre, using the ever useful (and free on Camping Adam) internet. So we set off at 9am to catch a bus. I knew I had to buy a ticket on the bus, but when I offered my zlotys to the driver he pointed to the back of the bus and said something in Polish. Luckily passengers ushered me to the automatic ticket machine in the bus and I bought two tickets to cover our ride into Krakow.
After only one stop on the bus we changed onto a tram and after three stops we were in the middle of old town. The whole thing took only 20 minutes from the campsite and the dogs enjoyed their first bus and tram rides (they did trains in Italy).
Main Square
We were an hour early for the tour and so we ambled around the beautiful centre of Krakow admiring the achitecture. Krakow has been almost uniquely lucky in this part of Europe in that it’s buildings were largely unaffected by the Second World War. It’s Jewish population was of course not so fortunate.
The mongols invaded in the 13th century and raised Krakow to the ground, all bar one brick church. Since then most building styles are represented. Medieval, renaissance and baroque. It is really one of those cities which lives up to the hype, it really is beautiful. Particularly in the relatively early morning before the British Stag and Hen parties get going.
Town Hall Tower
We met up with our guide Pavel at 10.15 am and he took us around all the main sights of Krakow and at the same time gave us talks about Polish and Krakow history and regarding the buildings he was showing us. We’ve only had one bad free tour, which was in Madrid, where the guide was not Spanish and so knew relatively little about the Spanish culture. Pavel was born and bred in Krakow, had graduated in history from the prestigious Krakow University and had spent some time in Britain, so his English was excellent. An all round first rate tour. Sarah and I missed 15 minutes of the tour because Melek and Mabel were not allowed into the castle, but we met up with the group again after that. We, of course, gave him a commensurate tip. I can thoroughly recommend Krakow and I would like to visit again for a long weekend without the dogs sometime.
St. Mary’s Cathedra
Barbican
After the tour we retired to the main square, the biggest in Europe, so it is claimed, to have something to eat. By this time the city was getting very busy with tour groups and most of the restaurants contained at least one Stag or Hen group, though at this time of day they were relatively quiet. The Stag party in our restaurant were from Leeds in Yorkshire and were very nice, talking to us about our trip and it turned out one of the party had two Welsh Spring Spaniels, like Mabel, so he came over for a long talk.
Tomb, now forming part of the walls just off the main square
Wawel Castle
Our return trip on public transport was as smooth as our one in the morning, except, despite our best efforts, we could not find how to buy a ticket. Luckily there were no ticket inspectors, so we got a free trip!
Back at the campsite we have bumped into, and had a long chat with, Ant and Liz who we last met camping on a car park in Vergina, Greece. It’s a small world when you’re motorhoming!
I have booked myself a trip to Auschwitz on Sunday and tomorrow is planned to be a day for admin and planning.