Category Archives: Krakow

Krakow

Krakow – August 25, 2015

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We buy a Hop On Hop Off ticket for Krakow today.  We are leaving on the night train so we have one day left in Krakow.

We disembark the bus at Schindler’s Factory and go to the museum that now fills the factory.  It is fascinating.  We need to re-watch the movie.  Schindler seems to be an enigma.  A spy for the Germans, a cheating husband, a thief and yet he risked his life saving many of the Jews that worked for him.  A more interesting story than we remember from the movie, for sure!

HOHOBus1As we leave the sky opens up and pours rain.  We get on our Hop On Hop Off bus that does not have windows and sit on the aisle seats to avoid getting soaked.   The bus stops at the next stop, all of the other passengers get off.

HOHOBus2We scramble to claim their primo seats in the front of the bus, only to be told that there is another bus waiting for us behind.  This one has windows!

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We ride to the train station/mall and decide to do some indoor sightseeing to kill some time before our train departs.  We could buy these jeans for 40 Zlotny or $15 CAD.  We decide to see if we can find them for a better price!

 

 

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In Krakow the sidewalks are very wide.  We learn that is so that you can park on them.

 

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We upgraded to a private couchette for this leg of our journey.  True the couchette was much more comfortable than our previous couchette and no one was being awakened early for a different destination.

 

 

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We even have a little sink in our compartment!

 

 

However, it was still a bit of a rollercoaster 🙂  We stopped soon after departure for about 20 minutes.  Lots of banging and crashing as we assume the cars were re-configured based on destination.  We were on our way.  Multiple times during the night we were stopped, re-coupled and off again.  The upside is we don’t waste an entire day travelling the same distance.

Auschwitz, Krakow

Krakow 2 Auschwitz – August 24, 2015

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After our breakfast we head over to the train station to buy tickets on the night train to Vienna for tomorrow night.  This time we book a private compartment so that we won’t have the issue of compartment mates disembarking at a different station.    Mission accomplished!

DSC_3197We are taking a tour of Auschwitz today so head over to the place where we will be picked up.  The Old Town of Krakow is surrounded by a park.  We will be picked up near here so we take some time to enjoy the green space (even though they are jack hammering the street near by)

Our bus takes about an hour and a half to drive to Auschwitz.  The process to get in seems very complex.  They have tours in many languages and limits on numbers of people in each group.  A Security check lineup is also part of the deal.

We learn that there are actually 3 camps at Auschwitz.  Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II (Birkenau) and Auschwitz III (Monowitz).  We are visiting I and II today.

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The tour group is almost silent for the whole 3 hours.  Very little conversation and no questions for our guide.  The displays in the museum are mind boggling.

 

DSC_3220We think we knew the story of this place, but we only knew the tip of the iceberg!  Auschwitz I was the testing grounds for Auschwitz II which was built on a MUCH LARGER scale.

 

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These are from Birkenau.

 

 

 

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They show the vastness of the camp.

 

Krakow

Krakow – August 23, 2015

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Well that was an experience!  The train car has an attendant and we have a chain to lock the door from the inside, so no worries of being robbed.  At times we are not moving.  They drop cars along the way, (at stations I assume, as we didn’t look out the windows) so other trains pick them up depending on where the occupants are travelling to.  Then next thing you know we are on our way again.

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It is a beautiful morning in the Krakow Old Town.  We have arrived at 7AM.  Not your usual check in time 🙂

 

 

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It takes us a bit to figure out where we are going, but are able to drop of our bags off and head out to see the city.

 

 

We gather in the square next to St.Mary’s church and locate the Free Krakow tour guides.  Off we go at 10.  Our tour guide is knowledgeable and has a great sense of humor.  A Pole named Damien, like the movie the Omen he doesn’t fail to mention.

The quiet Krakow we met this morning is becoming very crowded with tourists.  We get to the end of our 2.5 tour and find an little spot we noticed on our tour for lunch.  We both had great salads.

We head back to check into our “apartment” and discover that it has a shared fridge and microwave in the hall.  A few dishes and an electric kettle.  Not the great amenities that we had in Prague.  Oh well.

As we had a very choppy sleep on the train, we crash for a couple of hours.  As we leave, we see several VERY intoxicated people on the street outside of our place.  Hmmm could be an interesting night!

DSC_6936The center of town is setup as a market that I assume is a full time thing.  Lots of food and drink stalls as well as almost anything else you would like to buy.  Lace, wooden carvings, souvenirs.  A bustling place.

 

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We stroll around looking at menus, trying to decide on dinner.  The streets are a lot less crowded than they were earlier.  I suspect that a lot of those people are day trippers and have now left on their buses.  We decide on perogies and of course beer!

 

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We enjoy a stroll around old town.

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Krakow, Prague

Prague 2 Krakow – August 22, 2015

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DSC_3182We decided to go out and take some photos of the astronomical clock in the old town square.  The day we did our tour was very drizzly and Stu didn’t take any photos.  We think that the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus will be a great way to get us there.  As we make our way to our local stop, we see a bus go past us and resign ourselves to waiting for the next one.  When we arrive at the stop there are about a dozen people also waiting.  Another bus arrives shortly, but is full and no one is Hopping Off.  There is some discussion from the people there ahead of us as it becomes apparent that the previous bus was also full.  They were not happy.  We use our trusty feet and are in the town square very quickly.  Stu takes some photos of the clock and we look around.  There are soooo many people!!  We are feeling a bit claustrophobic and need to escape the crowds.

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We saw a couple of islands in the river on our previous walks and head towards them.  Slovanský ostrov is the first one.  It is beautiful.

 

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Lots of grass and trees and hardly any people.  They rent peddle boats from here.  We spend some time looking for a geocache that is close by.

 

DSC_6876We are thinking that it is time for a beer and a bite to eat so decide to walk over to the other island, Střelecký ostrov.  There are a couple of choices for food and drink.  One looks very upscale and the other is a barge with an outdoor grill serving beer, grilled corn, grilled sausage among a few other items.  They have picnic bench tables and a great setting right on the river.  2 big beers and a sausage for about $6 CAD.

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We take our time enjoying our food and the views of the many types of paddle boats on the river.

 

 

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We feel the urge for a rousing game of scrabble, so off we go to find ourselves another park bench.  It is very peaceful here!

 

DSC_6901We have checked out of our hotel and stored our bags until we head to the train station later tonight.  We opt to Hop On the bus and just ride to our hotel stop listening to the commentary, some of it for the 2nd or 3rd time.  Surprisingly it seems to be just as interesting after the first time.

We collect our bags and walk to the train station arriving early for our 10PM train.  We chat with a young couple from Toronto who have been working in Vimy Ridge for a year and are doing some additional travelling before on to their next assignments.

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The couchette is pretty tight.  We have the bottom 2 bunks and thought perhaps we would be alone until a young Spanish couple arrived.  They are travelling by train throughout Europe.

 

 

 

DSC_6919Head to bed shortly after the train departs Prague.  Our first experience sleeping on a train (ok family – no train jokes :))  The bunks are very very firm and at times we feel we are trying to sleep on a roller coaster!  Our Spanish friends are disembarking about 2 hours ahead of us, so that means we are awake too.  We are able to doze a bit more until we reach Krakow, which we do to a beautiful morning!