Kraków, Poland
City and local notes: Line on Travel’s vignettes of larger cities, well-known attractions, and short trips.
With a millennium of Polish royal history and its historic buildings, Kraków is Poland’s biggest tourist attraction. There’s a whole body of Kraków travel literature; this is a short review of some personal highlights. I had about four days there, took two out-of-town excursions, and managed to see the places that were top on my list, though not everything there was to see. My entire focus was on the old town. I hardly ventured into modern Kraków.
In the vicinity. Kraków is where you embark for tours of Auschwitz. I did that, and for a lot of reasons don’t think this is the time to write about it. But whatever history you know, or pictures you’ve seen, being there will affect the lives of thoughtful visitors. So go, as hideous as it was.
I also took an excursion to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a shorter trip, the oldest operating salt mine in the world. It’s an interesting place but be aware that you spend a lot of time underground in an atmosphere suffused with sodium chloride. Your lips taste salty when you exit. I didn’t lick my hands or wrists to see how they tasted, but I did lick a wall in the mine when our guide challenged us to test it. The walls and even floor “tiles” are carved from the dark-colored salt; there are chapels, some enormous, with bas relief religious scenes and chandeliers also carved from salt. There are elaborate salt sculptures by mine workers throughout, and of course you can buy anything salt as a souvenir. The guides are dressed in understated but snazzy salt mine uniforms and in his, our tall guide looked like a 19th century cavalry officer instead of tour leader. The magic of uniforms.
Back in Kraków
Kraków’s monumental buildings are originals. The Nazis planned to make Kraków an eastern capital and installed their man in the castle. Thus the physical city was spared. Along with the architectural monuments, there’s the main market square that’s the largest medieval town square in Europe.
It’s hard to see just how big it is because of the expansive Renaissance Cloth Hall right in the center, but walk across and around it to get the feel. When I visited during August, there was a performance of some kind – folk dancers, musicians, singers – every day, even on the rainy day I arrived. The devoted stood around the stage holding umbrellas. The kiosks that appeared daily around the Cloth Hall sold everything Polish that a tourist could want, including lunch, and there was more on offer inside Cloth Hall.
Watching a performance on the Market Square
There are some beautiful things there but I didn’t buy much. Won’t fit in the suitcase. But color, energy, performers, buskers, lots of tourists and more pigeons – those things I could take away in my memory and photos. Pleasant as it was in the old market, I enjoyed staying a little way apart, not far away, but not in the tourist center. It felt the relaxation every time I walked to my hotel along the busy Karmelicka with its café-au-lait colored buildings. It was like not being a tourist any more.
Around the Castle
The fine castle on Wawel Hill may be Renaissance, but it has Gothic underpinnings and as a seat of Polish royal power, goes back a millennium. The castle premises was restored after much damage and alteration by the Austrian military when Kraków within the Austrian Empire. But it was undamaged in World War II.
You can walk around the large courtyard for free, but you need tickets to get inside any part of the castle or cathedral. Buy castle tickets ahead (there’s an additional reservation fee) or be sure to queue up early to get a time you want if you’re there during tourist season. I stood on line for a while and bought tickets for the next day. Cathedral and castle visits are sold at separate locations, and I only mention this because I was confused at first and saw others who were, too.
The castle architecture is interesting, Gothic remains and Italian Renaissance buildings fitted out with steep slate roofs to shed snow and ice. A transmontane hybrid.
Around the castle
The castle’s State Rooms tour was self-guided, after which for a modest extra fee you can see Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine. It is phenomenal. Do not skip it! After looking at the picture as long as I could, almost straining my eyes like I could absorb more that way, I went on to my timed, guided tour of the Royal Apartments. That tour was scripted and carefully timed to avoid loitering. Then you’re propelled out, so ask questions when they occur to you, and quickly. But do take the tour. I also took the Architecture and Gardens Tour and found it very interesting, partly because of the engaging woman who led it. She knew everything about the castle’s history and structure but oddly claimed to know nothing about gardens, at least what’s planted in them. Still, she knew when and how the gardens were laid out, where the historic plants were and she took us through some gardens and areas of the castle that are otherwise closed to visitors.
Churches
Kraków is a religious center and is full of churches. Of course, there’s the history-laden Wawel Cathedral that you see at the castle. If you’re interested in very big bells, climb the cathedral’s bell tower to see the huge Sigismund Bell, cast in 1520 and nine feet across. I wanted to see most of Kraków’s other churches, too. Each has unique attributes – architecture, artworks, history. St. Mary’s Basilica is the big draw, with its beautiful altarpiece – the largest Gothic altarpiece in the world – its stained glass, hejnał (more later) and location on the market square. It’s worth the ticket price. I loved the tiny Church of St. Andrew’s 11th century exterior, but it got a Baroque re-do inside. Disappointing. Another church I favored was St. Francis with its Art Nouveau glass. And sometimes the things you find are not what you’re looking for. One afternoon I was sitting almost alone in big, Baroque St. Anne’s church (Św. Anny) and a group of young people came in, migrated toward the front and sat together. Then they tuned quietly and sang a cappella – so beautiful, so perfect, gently filling the big space. I didn’t recognize the music and only understood the words “Santa Maria,” but it was sublime. And then they walked out, not as a group, quietly. Look into all the churches. You’re sure to find something you like in each. And maybe you’ll hear something beautiful.
Saint Pope John Paul II is everywhere
There are nuns from every order under the sun if you like to make a record. I started a list of habit styles and colors. I hadn’t seen most. Saint Pope John Paul II is a presence everywhere here in the city where he spent much of his career. There are paintings, chapels and sculptures. There’s even a life-size statue of Pope John Paul II carved from salt in the Wieliczka Salt Mine not far away.
St. Mary’s Basilica Tower Climb
Lots of tourists climb the higher of St. Mary’s Basilica’s towers. Ascents are timed every half hour from 9:10 AM (in summer) and tickets are limited for each climb – it’s a small space up top. Of the 280 or so steps up, only the first few are a claustrophobic stone spiral. The views are impressive but even more interesting is that every hour, a bugler sounds a call (the hejnał) from the tower. I was at the top for the hejnał. Shortly before the hour, a dapper trumpeter (his instrument wasn’t a bugle) emerged from his little office and talked with us. I didn’t understand anything he said (my Polish is limited to the utilitarian) but he had a nice face, and was affable talking to the others. At the time signal on his radio, he rang the basilica bell, then commenced playing the call from each of the four windows, four compass points. It’s a local tradition and if you time your ascent right, you can be there to watch. Give the bugler a tip, too.
Sounding the hejnał
Jagiellonian University. John Paul II started at the Jagiellonian University right about the time the Nazis closed it. Looking farther back, Copernicus was a star student (that’s an intentional pun). I wanted to see inside so paid for the English tour. Our guide was quirky. I wasn’t sure whether he was a comedian, performance artist or just living in his own world. But he did communicate information and got us in and out in what must have been the prescribed 30 minutes, in time to hear the famous courtyard clock. I saw what I wanted to – the rooms, instruments Copernicus would have seen or used, and a very small globe in a secure case that’s the first known globe to show the Americas, which are sitting in Asia, where they thought they were.
Kazimierz
This quarter of Kraków dates back to the 1300s and was once a separate town where both Jewish and Christian populations lived. The area has a plethora of churches and synagogues, as well as lots of restaurants and clubs. I met people who were staying in (and enjoying) the Jewish section of Kazimierz, where I went on a sunny afternoon. Oskar Schindler’s factory – famous from Schindler’s List – is across the Vistula in Podgórze. The museum is said to be excellent but this is another top sight I confess I didn’t get to. Something for next time. Four days weren’t quite enough given my out-of-town trips, although I would not have given up either of those.
In Kazimierz
Sleeping and eating in Kraków.
Sleeping. There are many hotel, guest house and apartment options in Kraków. I stayed at Cracowdays Hotel just under a 15-minute walk from the old town. It wasn’t far, but I was in a normal neighborhood, and I could stop at Rossmann (the “drug store” that sells everything) and the grocery store on the way “home.” Cracowdays is an 8-room hotel or guest house in an old building that’s been updated and is run by a terrific and genial staff. With our comfortable vestibule and shared kitchen on my hall of four rooms, I felt like I’d moved into an apartment. As with most places I visit, I got to know the local grocery stores well, but also ate at several restaurants.
Eating. There are many places to eat, even if you don’t leave the main market square. I had lovely breakfasts in Cracowdays’s pretty communal kitchen upstairs from my room. Lunches were heavy on kiosk sandwiches. The hotel gave us a list of recommended restaurants where a 10% discount was also available for guests. So for four of my dinners, I went to a restaurant on the list. Zielona Kuchnia twice (handily across the street from the hotel), and one time each for Mama Mia on Karmelicka and Wesele on the main market square. All were good. At Mama Mia, I had roasted chicken on a bed of arugula, so it’s not all pasta, name notwithstanding. Zielona Kuchnia has an innovative menu. One night I had pan-seared salmon coated with black and white sesame seeds and served with avocado puree. I didn’t record the second night’s meal but remember it was good. And on the outside terrace at Wesele, where I had pierogis, I sat near a man with lots of tats and more metal studs than I’ve ever seen in a person’s face. His cell phone cover advertised a tattoo and piercing salon.
Pigeons. There are way, way too many pigeons in Kraków. They need some peregrine falcons. Or something.
Trip date: August – September 2016.