The main square, "rynek" in Polish
At Bunkiers café
On the rynek there is this very convenient Post Office, which also sells postcards
Barbican, one of the former gate into town
Scary bicycle to attract people into the Panic Room
Kazimierz starting its night-life
Museum of Pharmacy - very interesting!
The poison cabinet
U Babci Maliny - a rustic basement restaurant
Wavel Royal Castle
Wavel Cathedral
The exhibition shows the history of the Market Square by presenting the various relics that have been preserved beneath its surface -buried buildings, definct roads, abandoned cottages, and items that were lost- only to be discovered many years later
Promenade along the Vistula River
This dragon eventually spew real flames from his mouth at some point, frightening us all!
This salt mine is an eerie world of pits and chambers, and everything within its depths has been carved by hand from salt blocks. The mine has a labyrinth of tunnels, about 300km distributed over nine levels, the deepest beeing 327m underground
The 378 steps going down 64 m into the mine. After that we walked down to -135 m
Remains of the wartime Jewish ghetto wall
Pharmacy Under the Eagle
Such a sad letter from a prisoner to his mother in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
This is a bike renting place with very heavy bicycles! Found next to the Schindler's Factory
Relaxing after all this horrible stuff
At this place we had the best ice-cream ever. And only 5 flavours to chose from. And a queue!
Camping Smok in Krakau
We exchanged our glasses
I love to see my father so happy!
Nabila and Cathy with Gunter
Tuesday 31.07.2018: Sandomierz - Krakow (alt 200 m): 205 km - first nicely fresh with very little rain, then hotter 26ºC and humid
Drive to the airport to see evaluate the parking Orange we chose for our 4 days absence. Then we drove to our Camping Smok (99 PLN/night without electricity). After a good lunch with Aneta's smoked makrels we took an Uber to the Rynek (14 PLN). We walked around, had a drink at the Bunkier then walked over to Kazimierz. There we were escorted to the Le Scandale Bar/Restaurant and had really good drinks: a Pan Twadorwski, a white lady and a * (139 PLN). We were so lucky to be seating in this restaurant as it started to heavily rain after 1/2 hour. Back with a taxi (20 PLN). N50º2'50" E19º52'48"
Wednesday 01.08.2018: Krakow Sightseeing: 29ºC sunny and in the evening heavy thunderstorm!
After a breakfast with fresh rolls (not so exciting) we took a taxi to the Plac Matejki (24 PLN). Museum of Pharmacy (14 PLN/pax), Lunch at the U Babci Maliny (52 PLN), visit of the Rynek Underground, a fascinating attraction beneath the market square, which consists of an underground route through medieval market stalls and old roads, ice-coffee on the rynek, cocktails at Café Pianola (buy 2 martini tonic and get 3 + a lemonade for 52 PLN), up to the Hawel Hill where we visited the Royal Castle and the Cathedral only from the outside. A stroll along the Vistula River and back with Uber (12 PLN), just in time to get into our camper before a heavy thunderstorm started and passed near to our place.
Thursday 02.08.2018: Krakow - Wieliczka Salt Mine - Podgórze: 31ºC hot, but we spent most of the day inside in museums
Drive with Uber to the Wieliczka Salt Mine (70 PLN). Entrance fee to the Salt Mine 74 PLN/pax for a tour with an English guide. The tour took around 3 hours. Lunch at the restaurant located -135 m underground (29 PLN). Uber (26 PLN) to the Schindler's Factory (entrance fee 24 PLN/pax). Enough of museums and horrible -but unfortunately true stories- we had a lemonade at Two Irzywo on the Plac Bohaterów Getta. Walk past the Apteka Pod Orlem/Pharmacy Under the Eagle (which was run by the non-Jew Tadeusz Pankiewicz who helped many Jews during the Nazi occupation) to the fragment of the ghetto wall. Finally we had an early dinner at Marchewka z Groszkiem ((93 PLN, not my favourite place although it has a star in Lonely Planet). As a desert we had lody (ice-cream) from GoodLood (excellent, only 5 flavours, 3,5 PLN/ball). Back to our Camping with Uber (16 PLN).
Friday 03.08.2018: Flight Krakow to Brussels
Parking at Parking Orange (50 PLN for 4 days). Flight at 14:10 with SN2548, arrival in Brussels at 16:00. Rental Car Enterprise.
Saturday 04.08.2018 - Excursion to Pairi Daiza, dinner at Dupont, Evere
Sunday 05.08.2018: Birthday party at Brasserie des Etangs Mellaerts then to Foire du Midi
Monday 06.08.2018 in Brussels - Flight Brussels - Kraków - Zakopane (alt 900 m): 228 km, sunny 26ºC not too hot
11:40 SN2547 arrival KRK 13:30. Everything OK with our camper. Drive to Zakopane (3 hours with lots of traffic).
Polish Zloty to Euro Conversion:
1 PLN = 0.231 EUR - 1 EUR = 4,33 PLN