It's a wanderful life, so it is

What a time we’ve been having in Krakow! So much fun and now I’m feeling guilty for neglecting our blog. 😟

Like Nancy Sinatra’s boots, Krakow is made for walking! There are almost no hills but one significant high point is at the southern wall of the old town. Wawel Castle was founded here in the 14th century and, alongside the gothic Wawel Cathedral, has expanded out across the hilltop to quite an impressive extent. It contains a lot of different attractions, art, historical and religious – and each one is ticketed separately – but they didn’t greatly appeal to lowbrows like us. Just strolling around the grounds, however, is a recommended pleasure and I suspect it’s the best bit of a castle visit anyway. 

We visited Nowa Huta a couple of times. This is a “new town” based around a steelworks in the east of Krakow – just like Corby in Northamptonshire, only with five times the population – and designed to be the perfect workers’ paradise. Despite its socialist-realist roots, this district inevitably became a hotbed of anticommunist resistance and the Lenin statue and soviet-style street names are long gone. Shaped like a protractor, arterial boulevards spread out from the central square (now named after Ronald Reagan) separating the residential blocks and leading to factories and parks.

Nowa Huta is a complete contrast to the Old Town’s mediaeval streets and is a different kind of treat. It has a spacious, even affluent, feel that was influenced by the best bits of Paris and London and its many green spaces have helped Krakow to rank as one of the world’s top 5 greenest cities. It has a beautiful small lake where, over the years, the trees have grown to hide the buildings of the steelworks from view.

Mhairi’s sister, Maggie, and I share the same trait. We like to read the entire restuarant menu in forensic detail and then order the meal that we always pick anyway. For Maggie, that’s chicken fried rice: for me, steak pie.

To break this tiresome monotony for our spouses, we had dinner in an Italian restaurant after a busy day of sightseeing (Maggie and Beth) and watching football (Mhairi and Gerry). And what an excellent choice we made as there’s nothing better than a venue with a bit of character. All seemed routine until Beth ordered a glass of the house white. I loved that they didn’t even bother to decant the wine first into some kind of glass vessel but simply poured it directly from a repurposed gallon-sized oil bottle. Perfectly drinkable though, apparently.

Then the chap in the duck shirt asked about the spaghetti bolognese recipe. Well, nothing would do but for the chef to bring the actual ragu pot from the stove to his table to explain his process.
In the middle of this culinary demonstration, the chef had to rush back to the kitchen to deal with a sudden alarm, leaving the pot on the customers’ table. And then he returned carrying the ingredients he used, tinned tomataoes, passata and all!
All top-notch entertainment of course, even if we were scanning the restaurant for the nearest fire escape just in case.

Lowbrows we may be but we are suckers for one type of museum – an aviation museum! We were surprised with the quality of the one in Krakow. Plenty of exhibits inside and out, including the “Pope ‘copter” and MIG alley.

The last week of our stay, Niall came to join us and we really ramped up the sightseeing. Auschwitz, Salt Mines, Mounds, Perogi Festivals and more. Krakow, Poland – Part 3 coming to a blog near you soon!