Day 9 (June 24, 2018)   Krakow

Before   

Mapa de Gdansk


   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

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.
Entrance to apartmentUlica Grodcka
   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.
Saints Peter and Paul ChurchSaints Peter and Paul Church
   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.
Wawel CastleWawel Castle's gate
   When rain is soft enough we walk across the gate and keep walking up. There are great views to River Vistula from here.

Wawel CastleWawel Castle
Wawel CastleViews from Wawel Castle   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.

Wawel CathedralWawel CastleWawel CathedralCrypt in Wawel Cathedral
   The exit is a steeped road down with a brick wall with the names of the donors for the restoration of the castle.
Wawel Castle's gateWawel 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.
Karol Wojtyla's houseUlica Kanoniczka
   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.
St. Mary's BasilicaGeneral entrance to St. Mary's Basilica
   Cloth Hall has a cute shopping center for gifts inside.

Cloth HallCloth HallTown Hall TowerSt. Mary's Basilica
   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.

Ulica FlorianskaKrakow's wall towerKrakow's wallKrakow's Barbican
   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.
Church of TransfigurationChurch of Transfiguration
   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.
St. Mary's BasilicaSt. 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..

St. Mary's BasilicaGothic altarpiece by Veit Stoss
St. Mary's BasilicaSt. Mary's Basilica   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..
Apartments Sienna 7Apartments Sienna 7
   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…