Hello, I live in Krakow (some people say: Cracow) for all my life, and I love my town very much. I would like to invite everybody to see how beautiful Cracow is :-) If you have any questions - especially what to do in Cracow with kids - write to me, I'll do my best to help. see you in Cracow :-) Monika
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I spent a few days in Krakow last year and you're right, it is a beautiful place to wander around. We stayed at a great old hotel in the historic centre, overlooking a courtyard bursting with flowers. We used Krakow as a base to visit Wieliczka - the 700 year old salt mine located southeast of Krakow - apparently the only place in the world where mining has been continuous since the middle ages. The caverns and their decorations - made entirely of rock and salt were incredicle. Beautiful sculptures, floors that looked like they were tiled in marble but in fact salt, a number of chapels including the giant St Kinga's chapel complete with salt chandaleirs, an altar and relief works on the walls of scenes such as the last supper. All the more amazing to hear that all this had been carved by the salt miners themselves and not professional artists! Next morning we walked through the whole of the historic centre, taking in the sights, and later visiting the Jewish quarter, where Oscar Schindler had his factory.
Christine
Posts: 158 | Location: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: 19 November 2006
Lovely city, truly enjoyed our time there. Many walking streets to stroll, ring road with gardens around the old site of the city wall. Great castle (book the tours in advance), lovely countryside.
We blogged (with photos)a bit about Krakow and environs here.
I'll do my best to help anybody who would like to visit my town. Christine - nice to hear that you like Wieliczka, it is amasing place! When you'll be once more in Cracow try to visit also some places around Cracow - I like especially Niepolomice (Royal Castle) and Castle Pieskowa Skala (called "small Wawel"). see you in Cracow :-) Monika www.cracowforkids.com
Krakow has always been on my list for an eventual home exchange. I just returned from swapping in Salzburg, Austria. I was there for 12 days and had the worst weather I ever had on a European trip. All along I had heard about the mild weather this winter. I got there and had exactly two days of sun. The morning I was supposed to drive to Bavaria, I looked out the window and knew I was not going--about 6 inches of snow and it was still snowing!
Krakow eventually!
Posts: 282 | Location: McLean, VA | Registered: 14 August 2006
I am going to be in Cracow in three weeks (after visiting Prague, Cesky Krumlov and Olomouc). Do you have any favorite restaurants that serve authentic Polish cuisine that you might recommend?
Of course, we might be sampling some vodka while in Cracow, also. We are looking forward to visiting your city. Thanks. Tom
Hello Tom, nice to hear, that you'll be in Cracow! :-) About polish quisine - I would trully recommend "Chłopskie Jadło" they serve traditional polish cuisine in interior of old peasant’s home cottage. They have really good food - try borsch, pierogi, bigos. The are three restaurants "Chłopskie Jadło" in Cracow - the nearest the Main Market Square is on Grodzka 9, and Jana 3. Just by the Kazimierz (Juish district) is on Św.Agnieszka 1 street (I have been only in this one restaurant). I think they also have nice vodka - like plum vodka (śliwowica) :-) I like that one :-)
My sister and I visited relatives in Hungary and Poland in May 2007, and between Budapest and Warsaw we stayed in Krakow. We absolutely loved the old capitol of Poland, especially since it suffered little damage during WWII. We second the recommendation for Chłopskie Jadło as a great dinner place. For lunch, we ate at U. Stasi restaurant, and we were the only foreigners there! It's a hole-in-the-wall lunch place, and when they run of food, it closes. We stayed at a great little guesthouse called "Globtroter" in the old town center, right across from Polski Smacki, which also serves fast food, but many foreigners eat there. We liked their dinners, but the omelettes were greasy. We'd go back to Krakow in a heartbeat! We also toured Aushcwitz (and Birkenau by shuttle) via city bus, and that is quite the sobering place. We had menacing clouds that day and that seemed appropriate.
Hello SueD, I agree with you - U Stasi is great place, full of students, professors from Jagiellonian University, and generally citizens of Cracow. They have good food and everybody in Cracow knows that, even they don't advertise at all :-)
