Krakow advice

[TSB]

Walt, keep your trip as short as possible is my advice, unless you're into dreary, ex-communist, bitter cities whose most industrious people have left for other EU countries. Got to say I was terribly disappointed - Auschwitz et al aside.

Krakow is my favourite city in Europe, thus far. Love the contrast between medieval, communistic and modern architecture. The beer and vodka is superb. Pop across the bridge: lots of quite odd but poignant memorials to the dead there. The Jewish quarter is excellent for bars. Everyone i met was very friendly and it's cheap as chips (and you can smoke in pubs!) What's not to like?

Oh and these beauties The pizza, rather than the handsome chappy.

 

[Eggman]

Great city. Found a basement bar that did litre beers all home brewed. White, blonde, brun. Large tube with a tap on the end. Best pork knuckle ever. Will fine out name.

 

[matt_32510]

I will be there for a stag do this weekend.

 

[Cosmic Joker]

Krakow is a fantastic place, with some of the greatest architecture, beer and vodka in Europe and friendly locals, even if the Rynek (city square) area is over-run with euro-tourists. My recommendations:

Visit:
Allow plenty of time just wander around the Old Town looking at the buildings, gates, churches. In particular the Pijarska - northern section of City Walls including St Florians Gate. The Rynek (obviously), Maly Rynek and Stolarska, Grodska and Kanonizka where Pope John Paul II lived as a young cleric.
Wavel Castle - lots of museums to choose from but i'd recommend the Cathedral tour which includes the bell tower - you need to be reasonably fit and flexible to get up there - and the tombs.
Wieliczka Salt Mine - far grander than it sounds, the "tourist route" is over 3Km of underground tunnels on four levels connecting huge caverns, chambers and chapels carved out of the brown rock salt by centuries of catholic miners, covers only a small fragment of the over 300km of passages on 9 (i think) levels which constitutes the whole mine. Everything that you can see in this photo of the Chapel of St Kinga- bar the lighting and the wooden roof struts - was hand carved out of the rock salt, including the staircases, bannisters, altar and crucifix, frescoes and statues, floor pattern.http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Znm1wdcLMuA/TI8Ws9ow-jI/AAAAAAAAAOE/128cG6kmHkY/s1600/Wieliczka-Salt-Mine-Cathedral.jpg
At the end there is a large banqueting chamber with a bar where you can drink a lager 130 metres underground if that floats your boat. Again lots of walking and steps are involved. You come up at the end by lift but descend only on foot.
Can be reached by service buses or train (buses are more frequent) for less than the tours advertised in the city.
Polish Aviation Musuem - reached by tram from the city centre. http://www.muzeumlotnictwa.pl/indexen.php
A huge collection both indoors in a new building and several other hangers and outside arranged around an old runway. Apart from more Migs and Polish PZLs than you can shake a stick at and some Ilyushins and Tupelovs, there is a suprising variety of western military aircraft including a superbly restored Spitfire, a Sopwith Camel a de Haviland Tiger Moth, two Lockheed Starfighters (F104-S and F104-G), a Harrier, a Jaguar, a Mirage, two SAABs and a Northrop F-5E Tiger.

Bars:
The best places for Polish small brewery beer - which is vastly different from Tyskie and Zwiec, Czech beer and international craft beer combined with good lively crowd are The House of Beer in the Old Town - świętego Tomasza 35
http://www.houseofbeerkrakow.com/
and Omerta Bar in Kasimierz - at 3 Kupa http://www.omerta.com.pl/index.htm Has two separate bars inside, one for Polish beers and one for international craft beers including from UK, USA, Belgium and Italy.
I would particularly recommend any beers by the Pinta, Fortuna or Chiecan breweries.
Also with great beer but a bit quieter are
Beer Gallery - Dominikańska 3 http://www.beergallery.pl/ Small bar at the front but stretches round the side into a soft furnished back room. Try to ignore the offputting looped Fashion TV (they also have an offshoot Beer Gallery Luxury near the House of Beer which specialises in Belgian beer and a Beer Gallery Kasimierz)
Strefa Piwa (Beer Zone). at Józefa 6 in Kasimierz
CK Browar is a lively cellar bar just outside the Old Town which brews its own beer and serves food. Music is loud here.

Eating:
For a traditional Jewish restuarant in Kasimierz I went to Ariel at Szeroka 18. Wonderful beef and vegetable stew, followed by roast goose with cherries served with latkes. The vegetable side dish wasn't so great though.
Went to a restuarant in the Old Town with good Polish food and also had superb vodkas and interesting bottled beers. Don't recall the name but it was in Poselska, which is only a small street and across the road from an Italian called Corleone.
For cheap eats of traditional Polish dishes you can't look beyond the Milk Bar on Tomasza
For cheap local food in Kasimierz there is Szynk a small traditional cafe/pub which also brews its own beer.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Shall we organise an NSC outing?

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Cheers for the tips.

 

[Brightonfan1983]

Have you been?

 

[HovaGirl]

The Wielicka Salt Mine is definitely worth a visit. A salt mine doesn't sound like a particularly fascinating place, but this one is.

Idle away some time in the main square and visit the Salt Market, which sells very little salt these days! (Krakow made its money from salt.)

Do visit the castle which is famous for its golden domes, made of gold!

If you get the chance to go rafting in the Pieniny Mountains on the Poland-Slovakia border, then do so. It's fantastic. The river is the border, with fir-tree covered mountains either side. When we went, we returned to the box office in the Pieniny Park in a fantastic rickety old bus (provided as part of the trip), but maybe it's more modern now. Nearby (best if you are hiring a car) is the beautiful Niedica castle.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Thanks for the tips. Had a brilliant time. Probably my favourite city I have visited apart from New York, which wins hands down because I love the ice hockey team.

Booked a trip to the Salt Mines for my last afternoon only to be told it was cancelled because the Polish president/prime minister type was looking round. Annoying thing was the Tourist Information who sold me the tour (and, in fairness, refunded it) had known a week before it was closed but sold me the ticket anyway. If they'd said I would just have gone another time. Still, an excuse to go back.

Auschwitz Birkenau was harrowing but worth a visit. Sort of place I think people should try and go to if at all possible. I knew a fair amount about it but was not prepared for the sheer scale of the camp at Birkenau. However much you read the figures it is still a surprise to see just how many huts etc there were there.

Also went to Oscar Schindler's factory which, if you are looking for a more informative, museum type experience rather than a heavy emotional one, is well worth going to. The guidebook I had included a map showing a tour of the ghetto, important historical places etc which ended at the factory. If anyone reads this ahead of a trip and is interested, PM me and I will scan the map and info in and email it to them.

Food was AMAZING. Simply stunning. If you go there and don't eat traditionally you are really missing out. One restaurant opposite the main theatre was brilliant. Will dig the name out and post it on here somewhen.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, a trip to Cracovia's football stadium is worth the ten minute walk from the main square (well, maybe 15). I had a little look round but couldn't quite sneak into the pitch area but if you don't mind having a standard sports bar style burger and chips or a pint head to Champs and Chicks on the corner of the stadium because it has a stunning view of the pitch. The tables are, albeit behind glass, pretty much behind the back row of one corner. I am planning on going back to catch a game later in the year. Prices are cheap as chips. Although avoid any game against Wisla if you don't fancy a match of Brighton v Palace angst multiplied by 1,000...

One last tip: I flew from Southend rather than Gatwick and although it was a pain driving there and back, it cost less than half the price and the queues etc at Krakow airport on the way back were almost non existent.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Also, I went during the week to avoid the stag do types.

 

[TSB]

If you are interested in this sort of thing, a trip to Cracovia's football stadium is worth the ten minute walk from the main square (well, maybe 15). I had a little look round but couldn't quite sneak into the pitch area but if you don't mind having a standard sports bar style burger and chips or a pint head to Champs and Chicks on the corner of the stadium because it has a stunning view of the pitch. The tables are, albeit behind glass, pretty much behind the back row of one corner. I am planning on going back to catch a game later in the year. Prices are cheap as chips. Although avoid any game against Wisla if you don't fancy a match of Brighton v Palace angst multiplied by 1,000...

Glad you enjoyed yourself, Richie. What were the temps like?
Do Cracovia not play at Wisla's ground?
If you go back, I'd urge you to visit the Stadion Miejski too.
Saw Wisla v Gdansk whilst I was there and would recommend that as a fixture to see, because (for a reason that I have never discovered) they seem to be best of friends. Real happy atmosphere for that one. If you pick a different fixture, I would suggest sitting in the 'family' section as the home end looked fairly...intimidating.

I suppose it may be completely different for Cracovia games though.

Stadion Miejski

 

[Boroseagull]

Fabulous city, was there last Tuesday. Free walking tour starts at the church by the main sq. at 1000hrs each day, guided in English, think their web-site is freewalkingtour.com. All the positive comments speak for themselves, and don't forget the 'Bison Grass'!!

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Fabulous city, was there last Tuesday.

So was I. Small world.

Glad you enjoyed yourself, Richie. What were the temps like?
Do Cracovia not play at Wisla's ground?
If you go back, I'd urge you to visit the Stadion Miejski too.
Saw Wisla v Gdansk whilst I was there and would recommend that as a fixture to see, because (for a reason that I have never discovered) they seem to be best of friends. Real happy atmosphere for that one. If you pick a different fixture, I would suggest sitting in the 'family' section as the home end looked fairly...intimidating.

I suppose it may be completely different for Cracovia games though.

Stadion Miejski
View attachment 44595View attachment 44596

Weather was lovely. Slightly hotter than it is here at the moment but with less of a breeze.

Wisla looked to play over the other side of a massive park to Cracovia. Ran out of time to head over there for a sniff around but keen to go back and see Cracovia and Wisla if I can find a few days when they are playing but when they don't clash.

 

[piersa]

Walt, keep your trip as short as possible is my advice, unless you're into dreary, ex-communist, bitter cities whose most industrious people have left for other EU countries. Got to say I was terribly disappointed - Auschwitz et al aside.

snap. Very disappointed

 

[Brightonfan1983]

Good to hear your feedback Walt, and that you went native, at least culinarily-speaking. Where did you stay?

 

[Mutts Nuts]

Going to Krakow. Obviously will visit Auschwitz but after any other tips of things to do and nice places to eat etc.

Don`t trust the taxi drivers they are robbing *******s, agree a price before you get in the cab