Visiting Krakow, Poland

September 28 is a holiday in the Czech Republic, which means we got a three day weekend! When thinking of places to travel for this short holiday, we realized we had not yet visited eastern Europe and wanted to change that. Krakow is close to the Czech border and easy to get to via train or bus. So on Friday after school we got on a train to Ostrava, Czech Republic and from there took a mini-bus (which really turned out to be a mini-van. it was weird) to Krakow.

Our route from Prague to Krakow

We arrived late (and in the rain) on Friday, but found our hotel fairly easily. Saturday we planned to be our sightseeing day. We were armed with our umbrellas and Rick Steve's book on Eastern Europe which included a great walking tour of Krakow. It rained ALL day on Saturday, but that ended up working to our advantage. Even though it makes the pictures of such a beautiful city look a bit dreary, it allowed us to explore Krakow free from the press of crowds, which we really enjoyed!

The Barbican - fortifying Krakow's ancient city walls!

We began our day in St. Mary's Basilica which is famous for it's beautiful High Altar. Each day the altar is opened by a nun from the church, and many tourists come in to see this moment. The whole altar is made entirely of wood and is HUGE. The statues inside the altar piece stand over 8 feet tall! It was masterfully made and the opening was a beautiful moment.

St. Mary's Basilica

Gorgeous High Altar

Krakow is a city filled with churches. There are 142 churches & monasteries within the city limits, and 32 of those are within the Old Town. Churches are one of our favorite places to visit when we travel, so this was great! On Saturday we visited at least 5 churches within about 3 hours. We also were able to see both the church and home of Pope John Paul II who was from Krakow.

St. Andrews Church - and directly to the left is the Church of Saints Peter & Paul

Another thing we really enjoy about traveling is trying new foods, and perogies, we have discovered, are DELICIOUS. And we wish they were popular in Prague, though it's probably good that they aren't, because we had perogies for both lunch and dinner on our Saturday in Krakow!

YUM!!!!

Our day ended with a trip to Krakow's Wawel Castle, which was a gorgeous castle and one that really reminded us of castles we read about in books. When we pictures mythic or fantasy castles,

Wawel Castle is what we see. Outside the castle's walls there is a dragon which breathes fire! This was the end of our day and such a great little must-see of Krakow!

Entering the Castle grounds

With the dragon!

On Sunday we had the privilege to visit Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II - Birkenau. This was a difficult and sobering trip, but it was one that we believe is important. It is impossible to put into words what we experienced there, so we won't even try. We took only a very few pictures, but we encourage anyone who has the opportunity to visit and learn and remember.

Auschwitz II - Birkenau: train tracks & main gate

Auschwitz II - Birkenau: end of the train line

Arriving back in Krakow the sun was shining, so we did a bit more sightseeing in the sunshine! We spent more time in the main Market Square trying new foods and shopping for gorgeous Polish ceramics.

The Cloth Hall in the main Market Square

We were so pleasantly surprised by the beauty of Krakow, and highly recommend it as one of Europe's best kept secrets! We hope to be able to return there again some day!

I mean, how cool is this?!

To see the rest of the pictures from our trip, click here!