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Day
9
(June 24, 2018) Krakow
Before
We’ll arrive at Gdansk in our early flight which is scheduled
to land at 9:30 AM. Hotel has the main highlights just around, so it
should be easy for us to combine our visits with the needed rest after
that short sleep.
The spots marked at map are:
0- Hotel Kamienica Goldwasser
1- Canal Raduna
2- Medieval port crane
3- Ulica Mariacka
4- Dlugi Targ
5- Highhland and Golden gates
6- Nacional Museum
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After
We leave our place a few minutes before 10:30 AM after our
breakfast. Baggage is still not ready as we plan to come back before
12:00 PM.
 
We take Ulica Grodzka down to the South and soon we have Saints
Peter and Paul Church in front of us. Its entrance is beautiful, with
these columns with saints on them.
 
Our first big target this morning is Wawel historical complex,
with the Castle and Cathedral. In our way up to the entrance starts
raining and we stop under one of the towers.
 
When rain is soft enough we walk across the gate and keep walking up. There are great views to River Vistula from here.
 
 
The square with the Cathedral and the entrance to the Castle,
which we’re not going to visit the interior, is magnificent and is too
where people is mainly concentrated. We go to Cathedral entrance, but
it is closed for tourists as they were officiating. From one of the
sides we can go down to the crypt.
   
The exit is a steeped road down with a brick wall with the names of the donors for the restoration of the castle.
 
We take our way back to the Main Square by Ulica Kanoniczka,
passing by the house were Karol Wojtyla lived before becoming John Paul
II.
 
We leave our baggage ready in the apartment before our walk
exploring this Main Square, which is still showing traces of the big
party last night. We pass by St. Mary and St. Barbara churches. It’s
Sunday today and that must be the reason we’re finding all churches
busy with their worship. We come back after lunch.
 
Cloth Hall has a cute shopping center for gifts inside.
   
When we reach Town Hall Tower we only have one place to visit
left in our list: Barbican. So, we take Ulica Florianska until the old
wall.
   
This part of the medieval wall is very beautiful. It’s a place
full of live and we’ve already chosen restaurant on this street but,
before, we just go to the next street to see the Church of
Transfiguration on which, again, they’re officiating.
 
The name of the restaurant is Stodola47
and here is where we’re going to have our last Polish meal, for now. We
order Strogonoff beef, Sirloin and, of course, dumplings and pay 122.50
zloty for it.
We come back to St Barbara Church after lunch, but it is still busy. Then we get into spectacular St. Mary’s Basilica.
 
For this church, admission is free by the main entrance, but it’s
only for worship. Cameras are not allowed there, and access is cut to
the main part of the basilica, which can only be seen in distance. In
one of the sides there is the entrance for tourist, where admission is
10 zloty and pictures allowed. This gives you full access to the
highlights inside, including amazing Gothic altarpiece by Veit Stoss..
 
 
Last time we were in the apartment we called the phone number in
the card there for taxis and booked one for the airport at 5 PM. As
that time is coming we take our baggage down and get into the taxi,
which was there even some minutes before time..
 
We pay 50 zlotys for the trip to the airport and, once there, we
have plenty of time before our flight back to home to spend our spare
zlotys with shopping and dinner in a restaurant with free wifi. This
travel through Poland has exceeded our expectations in all ways:
people, food, visits…
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