Krakow

 June 6, 2017

Whereas Warsaw was more modern and frenetic, Krakow was laid back, green and old. During the brief taxi ride to our hotel, it was obvious that this was a tale of two very different cities and we knew right away that this would be a grand experience.

Since we arrived on Cindy’s birthday, I had made an effort to insure it would be a special day. Our hotel, the Metropolitan, looked very plain and had obviously been remodeled from two older buildings. Upon check-in we received maps and suggestions for visits and were then escorted to our room, which I had carefully selected online. We opened the door and the first thing we saw was a bottle of Champagne chilling in an ice bucket with two crystal flutes waiting to be filled with bubbles.  This is always a good first sign. We then noticed how very, very large this suite really was. It went on and on and each area was more impressive than the other. We marveled at how we could play hide and seek with ease in this suite, but we had no time to dally since I had made arrangements for us to attend a performance at the concert hall and we needed to get our bearings.  So off we went in search of the evening’s venue.

The old town of Krakow is completely surrounded by a greenbelt park, filled with benches, flowers, old trees, and cool breezes - not to mention lots and lots of people enjoying the surroundings.  We wandered into the main square and were overwhelmed with the huge churches, old towers, and the grand Cloth Market smack in the middle of the square.  Following our map we tried to find the concert hall, but we kept turning down the wrong paths in the parks. We finally stopped to ask directions and a few minutes later we found our destination, which was steps from where we originally entered the park.  Having figured out how to get here, we slowly wandered back to the hotel, slowly because that was the only speed available. The old town was mobbed due to a church holiday and a city holiday that weekend.

We cooled down and dressed for the concert, which was at six pm, a most respectable time. I collected the tickets from the concierge at the hotel who had done a great job of securing them the day before on short notice, and we were off. The Philharmonic is a great hall with a magnificent organ, and while our seats were not the best, they were just right for this performance. While waiting for the concert to begin there was an elderly couple wandering around looking for their seats. They were quite befuddled and had asked several people where to go but no one helped and they just stood there.  The concert was to start in a few minutes so I jumped up, smiled and held out my hand for the tickets. In one minute I had them in the right seats and was seated before the concert began. In my next life, I’ll be an usher.  It was a really lovely concert featuring a conductor who was celebrating his 70th birthday and much beloved by the audience, and a solo violin player who was only 21 years old but played beautifully with great energy and maturity.

Cindy’s birthday dinner that evening was at the hotel, which also has one of the best restaurants in town. Champagne at the bar, Chablis at the table to accompany the fish, and  some great French red for the duck and dessert.  It was a truly wonderful meal, a great way to end the actual birthday and a wonderful ending to our first day to Krakow.

The next morning we went down to the Vistula River, a short walk from the hotel, and Cindy ran while I walked along the well-maintained pathways, enjoying stunning sights of churches (dozens of them) and old, old tree-lined neighborhoods of four-story buildings - many refurbished, others in need of a coat of paint - but all of them very old-world and reminding us of our first years in Germany in the 1980s.

We spent the next two days walking all around the old town, literally, around it in the surrounding park and then crisscrossing the old town itself. On Sunday the town celebrated their symbol day, their symbol being a dragon. All of the schools in the area built dragon floats and then there was a huge parade around the old town with bands and dancing events and all manner of entertainment. A great and unexpected benefit of our visit (see below).  After hours and hours of walking and not having had any lunch to speak of, we retired to our suite, had a sip of the Champagne and took a well-deserved nap, avoiding by minutes a tremendous thunder and lighting event that was accompanied by torrential rain.  It was still raining in the early evening so we opted to dine late at the hotel since they had a very large group of Norwegians eating early but not staying at the hotel, go figure.  Dinner was wonderful yet again; they have a justifiably well-respected kitchen.

Our last full day was, to say the least, exciting.  After breakfast I received an email that said my flight from London to Washington was ready for check-in and would be departing on time the next morning at 11 am. The problem with that was my ticket showed a departure the day after that! So I was on the phone with Virgin Atlantic for several hours as I sorted through everything. It turns out they had cancelled our flight on the 7th and rebooked us on the 6th but failed to notify us of this event. I finally got us two business class seats on Delta on the 7th going to Atlanta and connecting back to Dulles, adding six hours to our journey - and Delta business isn’t much like Upper Class on Virgin. Having sorted all of that out, we did some shopping in the Old Town, looked without success for an open museum, listened to three women playing and singing lovely folk music on the street, and purchased eighty Nespresso capsules for half the price we pay here.

We were bound and determined not to dine in the hotel again so we had the Concierge book us a table at a well-known restaurant in the Ghetto section of town, a very short walk from the hotel. Turns out there are two of these and the one with our reservation was not the one we went to, but they were only too happy to accommodate us and seated us near a window overlooking the courtyard. We noticed that there were long tables of about twelve to a side, already set with salads. When the waitress came she said that our food would take about an hour to prepare since they had this large group coming in. Poland needs to do a lot more training of staff or needs to hire more kitchen help! We were in no mood for waiting an hour per course and listening to forty or more people eating and yapping, so we simply left and, yes, ended up back at the hotel. I must say, we never had the same dish twice and it was all wonderful, but we felt like we missed a bit of old Krakow.

The next morning we took the train back to Warsaw, connected right away to the train to the airport and waited for the check-in counter for British Air to open, which took two hours. When we finally checked in we were told that our flight would be four hours late due to weather in London, and in fact the flight to Warsaw had not even departed Heathrow at that point.  Not the news we wanted at the end of a three-week trip, but it was what it was so we headed for the lounge for awhile and after that simply walked from one end of the terminal to the other, several times, to kill time and stretch our legs.  Arrived at our hotel near Heathrow at nearly midnight and had a quick drink in the pub before heading to bed.  The next day’s travels went smoothly - but as mentioned, much longer than anticipated or ticketed, resulting in our getting home at about 10:30 pm, completely exhausted. We had a rule that we can’t go to bed until we have unpacked and we unpacked with alacrity!

All and all, a fantastic birthday three weeks.  Best wishes,  Cindy and William


The June of 2017 will be the record-breaking month for Krakow events in 2017 and festivals. The beginning of June will be when the Grand Dragon Parade is expected to march through the Old Town of Krakow. Hundreds of relatives of Wawel Dragon – some of them breathing out fire for real – will be led to the Main Market Square by their child tamers for the joy of other kids (and adults) gathered all around the route. Soon after, a similar route will be covered by the longest parade of Krakow in 2017: the Parade of Dachshunds.