Krakow (Poland) and Auschwitz

Krakow Square with St. Mary's church

While Krakow may be best known to Western tourists as the city from which to visit the infamous WWII concentration camp Auschwitz, Krakow is actually a very charming city in and of itself. Krakow has even been likened to Prague several years ago, before Prague became so commercial. I really enjoyed staying in Krakow for a day. I tasted a variety of Polish food, caught the Tour de Pologne and walked around the city. I also took the tour of Auschwitz.

Krakow pretzel

On our arrival to Krakow, we settled into our hotel and then headed off on a walking food tour. It was great to have a local person tell us the history of different foods and get us fresh samples. We ate Krakow pretzels, called Obwarzanki, which must be a certain size and coated with salt, poppy seeds or sesame seeds. For only 1.5 PLN (about $0.50), you can purchase one. Some of my other favorite foods on this tour included pickled herring, cold beet soup and pierogi.  Pierogi are dumplings stuffed with either savory or sweet fillings. The first that I tried were cabbage and mushroom. However, I quickly discovered that I liked the strawberry and blueberry filled pierogi even better! On this walking food tour, we also tried two types of vodka and were given a recommendation of kvass, a soda like drink made from yeast. Kvass doesn't taste so good at first (tastes like sweet beer) but gets better near the bottom of the bottle. Wawel Chocolate was another recommendation. Named after Wawel Castle in Krakow, there was quite a variety of chocolates to choose from. The walking tour lasted three hours and ended at a local food market where we ate sauerkraut and dill pickles, bread, mozzarella cheese and Lisiecka sausage, from a specific town in Poland. We paid about 20 PLN/person for all the samples in all the different stores during this three hour tour. Well worth it! Our guide was from a company called "Krakow Tours" or "Point Travel".

Krakow Old Town Square after dark

That evening, we enjoyed an unexpected festival with live music in St. Mary's Square. We wandered through the food stalls, sampled some roasted chestnuts and listened to choral and band music. The squares are beautifully lit at night.

Tree that started growing in 3rd or 2nd BC and died 300 years later.
"Fossil Oak" used to reconstruct parts of Wawel Castle.

The next morning, we were up early to walk around Krakow. We started wandering along the park that circles old Krakow. Originally, this was a moat that ran around the city. It has subsequently been filled in and made into a park. A sign post stopped me for a photo. It announced that this street was part of Jacob's Way, the pilgrimage trail to Santiago de Compostela! Now I can say that I've walked the pilgrimage in two countries. The next distracting sign took us on a side trip through the Botanical Gardens. There was quite a variety of plants here, including roses and a very old tree trunk used for restoration on part of Wawel Castle. There were a couple of carnivorous plants in the garden. Although not caged, the plants were too far off the path for me to feed.

Wawel Cathedral

We continued on toward Wawel Castle, stopping to admire some sculptures in the park as well as the barbican. Eventually, we sloped upward into the Wawel Castle grounds. It is an enormous complex that includes palace buildings, a cathedral and various museums. The view of the river and of Krakow are beautiful from the castle. I attempted a quick tour of the cathedral but was hindered by tour groups on guided tours stopping at each interesting object. In the castle, the oldest tomb that I saw was from the Polish king Wladyslaw I, who moved the capital to Krakow and was crowned in Wawel Castle in 1320. The church is beautiful; however, it is quite small for the influx of tourists.

choldnik (cold beet soup)

By now it was time for lunch. We navigated the many gates blocking off streets for the Tour de Pologne bicycle race and found a place to eat in the Old Square. We dined on pickled herring, cold beet soup (chlodnik) and Redd's (which, unfortunately, is South African and not Polish). The chef even sent us out complementary sauerkraut and dill pickles. From our table, we watched the kids race their bicycles in time trials. Quite a cultural event!

After lunch, it was time for the tour that I'd been looking forward to and dreading at the same time -- Auschwitz and Birkenau. It was very sobering to be walking through the WWII concentration and extermination camps. We even stood in a gas chamber where people were killed with Zyklon B gas and walked past the kilns where they were cremated. We saw collections of the items that were found in Auschwitz-Birkenau, a mountain of suitcases with peoples names and birthdates written on them. Rooms full of shoes. It was all a very chilling reminder of the evil in humanity that humans would kill so many other humans. In Auschwitz-Birkenau alone, 1.3 million people were killed, 1.1 million of them were Jews. Currently, you can only visit Auschwitz via a guided tour (which you can sign up for once you reach Auschwitz). It's about three hours to see both sites.