Krakow

KRAKOW

Sheraton Grand Krakow, 7 Powisle St, 31-101 Krakow, Poland
Tel # 48 12 662 1000

WHAT TO EXPECT - Tauck Itinerary


Breakfast
- Leave Hotel Bristol by bus for 5.5 hours

Krakow is reported to be the prettiest city in Poland, with its important history, and its beautifully preserved medieval old town (UNESCO World Heritage Site).
 

Lunch
 
- Do a walking tour of the Old Town to the Sheraton Hotel 
 

The Jagiellonian University and Franciscan Church and the Archbishop's Palace, where Karol Wojtyla lived for two decades before becoming Pope John Paul II. 
 
- Register at Sheraton Hotel located on the banks of the Wisła River and at the foot of The Royal Wawel Castle within a walking distance to The Old Town and Kazimierz district with all its iconic tourist attractions. 
 
Dinner
- At our hotel Anima Restaurant
  


SECOND DAY
 
Breakfast:
- One of two options:

- #1: Explore Kraków's former Jewish Quarter, known as Kazimierz – nearly destroyed in World War II but now restored and enjoying a Renaissance. This video is a walkthrough  , or

- #2: Journey to Wawel Castle, the seat of Polish kings from the 11th to 17th centuries, and visit inside iconic Wawel Cathedral, Poland's national sanctuary, and historic royal coronation site.  Here is the video

Afternoon:
- One of two options :

- #1: Stay and explore Krakow or 

- #2: Take a 40-mile excursion to the museum at Auschwitz,   

Dinner
- At Karczma Bida Restaurant 


 
WHAT WE DID
 
Tauck's website shows we were to travel from Warsaw to Krakow by train. Instead we rode five and a half hours by bus. No explanation. 
 
The change, however, provided an opportunity to view the countryside. South of Warsaw the terrain was flat. It reminded us of driving through boring mid-western America. By the time we reached Krakow we were through tall hills suitable for skiing. The rains also joined us.
 
We had brief coffee stop at Dwor U Antoniego (https://www.dworuantoniego.pl/)


After lunch at Jarema, we put on the umbrellas or raincoats and walked a couple miles through Old Town Krakow (as shown in the map below) passing into St. Florian's Gate, into the Market Square, and passing through Collegium Maius of the Jagiellonian University's to our Sheraton Hotel.
 

Jagiellonian is Poland’s oldest university founded in 1364. We entered its oldest 500 years old building,Collegium Maius. It was especially famous for the teaching of law, mathematics, and astronomy. The astronomer Nicolas Copernicus, the proponent of the modern, heliocentric vision of the Solar System, studied here in 1491–95. According to legend, a few years later, the arcane knowledge of magic and sorcery was acquired here by Doctor Faustus and the Polish master alchemist Twardowski. 

Watch below the clock on the University
 
We had great views on the banks of the Wisła River and at the foot of the Royal Wawel Castle.  
 

Abbie and I went up to the top lounge assuming others would find that way. Wrong guess.

 At night I got some nice photos from that same lounge.

 

On our second day in Krakow we walked from the Sheraton to Wawell Hill.
 

We climbed up the top of Wawell Hill, viewed the Renaissance Courtyard, and examined Sigismund Chapel. Back down the hill we passed Saints Peter and Paul Church in Old Krakow.
 
In the afternoon we had a 75-minute bus ride to Auschwitz Museum. With hundreds of documented pictures of the museum, I chose to take only a handful of photos. (See Side-bar)
 

 
For dinner at 7 PM, we drove to Karczma Bida near Boleslaw.  As an appetizer,  we (some) were treated to a one (or more) shotglass of Slivovitz - a fruit spirit (or fruit brandy) made from damson plums, often referred to as plum spirit (or plum brandy).

Slivovitz is a popular drink all across Eastern Europe, but especially in the Balkans. Serbia even declared it as their national drink. It’s consumed mostly as an appetizer, but with 38-50% alcohol, it is not a drink for the faint of heart or for most of our Tauck companions.

 
SIDE-BAR

The U.S. and the Holocaust  provides a candid look into American history at eugenics, racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism. This film dispels myths that Americans either were ignorant of the Jewish persecution in Europe, or looked with callous indifference. Americans were hardly innocent with one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century.

Directed by Ken Burns, the film initially broadcasted on September 18-20, 2022.  A copy of the six-hour documentation is available at https://bit.ly/KBHolocaust

 
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