Passage to Poland

Today was our drive to Wrocław, but not before we saw one of the most famous sites in the city, Wawel Castle .  I forgot to mention that while Warsaw has been Poland's capital since 1596, it had been Kraków until then and the Polish kings resided in this castle. Full disclosure--we stayed in the free parts and did not buy tickets to any tours.  We really didn't have time as our checkout from the hotel was at noon, and Wrocław is just over three hours away.  So if you come to town, try to get this in first.  The pictures I've seen of the inside of the cathedral are beautiful.   Approaching the Castle along the Vistula River Entrance Gate to the castle View of the old Romanesque church foundation Castle Courtyard Statue of Pope John Paul II.  He celebrated his first Holy Mass here (as a newly-ordained priest) on November 2, 1946. Side View of the Cathedral After walking back to the hotel and checking out, it was time to drive to Wrocław.  Just over ...

 After yesterday's events, we actually slept in a bit and got a later start.  I'm not getting any younger, in case you forgot.  After a great breakfast at a place just outside the Old Town, we did some exploring. A view of Planty Park , which surrounds the Old Town Me and Jan Matejko discussing his paintings of Polish history. Horse-drawn Cart Entrance to a McDonald's Old Town Square St. Mary's Basilica Inside the Basilica The Cloth Hall Inside the Cloth Hall.  It was entirely souvenir sellers. We bought something, of course. Town Hall Tower Eros Bendato  (Eros Bound) Kraków Barbican .  Like the one in Warsaw, it was part of the city's defenses.  Connected to... ... St. Florian's Gate . After this, we wound up near Krakow's train station and mall.  We did some shopping then rode the tram around a bit until we were hungry.  We rode to the Jewish Quarter and did the touristy thing, buying a zapiekanki .  I'd describe it as a French bread ...

While still planning this trip from home, I booked an all day tour of Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mine for our first full day in Kraków with AT Cracow .  I knew it would be a lot in one day, both physically and mentally. Auschwitz is about 45 miles from Kraków, and we had an early time slot at around 8 am.  To have enough time to pick up everyone our minibus left at 5:50 am, which meant we got up at 3:30 am--early even for me!  But the bus was comfortable and we were able to sleep a bit on the way. Full disclosure--I did not take any pictures for myself on the Auschwitz tour.  They were allowed in most parts, but how many pictures of the Arbeit Macht Frei gate or the Birkenau tower do you need to see?  And in a blog that's primarily about us having a good time, it didn't feel right to put photos of the displays of the inmates' shoes that were taken from them, the mountains of human hair that were used by the Nazis to make fabric, or the artificial limbs t...

 It's Wednesday the 25th and I'm trying to catch up--again.  I'll try breaking these down into posts per day I missed. Sunday night (the 22nd) was our last in Warsaw, so we checked out on Monday morning and went to the Enterprise Rent-a-Car .  We got a Toyota C-HR , a mini-SUV hybrid.   Our Polish Chariot I was (of course) a bit nervous since I hadn't driven in Europe since 2017 on our Spain trip.  Traffic in Warsaw was somewhat heavy but nothing like NYC.  The streets we used in town were wide and the three-hour trip was mostly highway. There was one pit stop for lunch at a rest area.  I was hoping they had a different restaurant we could try but it was McDonald's only.  Oh well.  I did get a side salad--with olive oil! My "Healthy" Option Around 2 pm we made it to our hotel, the ibis Krakow Centrum .  Nice room and good hotel, but my habit of choosing one by public transit didn't work this time.  There's so much construction ...

We're not going to be doing much today with heavy rain forecast all day, so I will catch up on yesterday. As always, we started off with coffee.  There's a Green Caffè Nero right down from our hotel. Mine's the one with the whipped cream.  Don't judge me. After a quick trip to the mall to get a SIM card for Fe's phone, we took a tram to Warsaw's Old Town .  The area  looks centuries old, but was actually reconstructed after World War II.   Old Town Square Royal Castle Courtyard Inside St. John's Archcathedral Mermaid of Warsaw Statue in Old Town Marketplace The Barbican . You can read all of its history in the link, but it was part of the 16th Century city walls. It was past 1 pm by now and we were hungry. Luckily I had seen and read about Polish milk bars , which have cheap local food.  I don't have pictures of what we had, but I pulled them from the menu .  Fe and I shared a plate of Ukrainian pierogies, apple crepes with cream, and two cherry...