{"id":2095,"date":"2011-12-11T22:42:52","date_gmt":"2011-12-11T22:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/?p=2095"},"modified":"2022-04-11T21:33:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T20:33:44","slug":"cracking-krakow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/cracking-krakow\/","title":{"rendered":"Cracking Krak\u00f3w"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Ryanair fanfare signalled a flight without any major disaster, and welcomed us to Krak\u00f3w on Wednesday. We had crossed the border into Poland a couple of times when we visited Slovakia a couple of years ago<\/a>, but this was our first proper visit.<\/p>\n

\"The

The 14th-century town hall tower. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

After depositing our bags at the hotel, we wandered around the old town to see what it had to offer. You may be aware of my habit of visiting UNESCO World Heritage Sites<\/a>; the old town was one of the original twelve first designated in 1978. There’s plenty of history and – typically for eastern Europe – plenty of churches. The Church of St. Peter the Apostle in particular was full of bling\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Inside

Inside the Church of St. Peter the Apostle. It's rather plain on the outside, believe it or not. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

For more up-to-date bling and other non-specific gangsta accoutrements, I was delighted to spot this shop\u2026<\/p>\n\""We\n

A traditional meal of goulash and potato cake that evening proved the guide book correct in its assertion that Poles like meat and hearty (i.e.<\/em> stodgy) food, and aren’t too keen on veg. This was fine by me!<\/p>\n

On Thursday it was time for UNESCO location number two – the Wielizcka Salt Mines<\/a>. It’s been worked since the thirteenth century and the miners there have decorated the entire place with statues of prominent figures both real and mythical.<\/p>\n

\"Bust

Bust of King Kazimierz, carved from the salt which the Wieliczka mines are made of. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

The salt is 95% pure, rock solid and forms the entirety of the mine (I was expecting it to be soft and  crumbly veins running through other tougher rock). The tour guides even encourage you to lick the walls, but with more than a million visitors passing through each year we declined!<\/p>\n

\"Blocks

Blocks of solid salt forming the tunnel floors. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The original twelve UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Only ten more to go. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

After returning to the city, we took a stroll to Wawel<\/a>, the hill on which the Royal Castle and Cathedral sit. Climbing the cathedral tower gave a great view over the city, next to Zygmunt’s Bell<\/a> which has rung over 12 million times since being cast nearly 500 years ago, and weighs 1.8 tonnes. Impressive.<\/p>\n

\"The

The impressive courtyard of the Royal Castle at Wawel. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

Friday was another UNESCO site, but not necessarily subject to the usual excitement since it was Auschwitz<\/a> Birkenau, the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp. Suffice to say that it’s quite a sobering experience to walk the grounds and read the details of the horrors which took place there.<\/p>\n

\"Auschwitz-I.

Auschwitz-I. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Auschwitz-I.

Auschwitz-I. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Auschwitz-I.

Auschwitz-I. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyway, that evening we ventured into the Christmas market in the main square of Krak\u00f3w. It followed the standard recipe for such things – plenty of tasty-looking chocolate and sweets on offer – along with more esoteric produce including 2ft long wooden spoons and christmas tree baubles the size of melons!<\/p>\n

\"St.

St. Mary's Basilica in the main market square. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

Unfortunately the following morning entailed a train journey to the airport and a flight home, but I just had chance to nip out after breakfast and finish the trip with a picture on the only day on which it didn’t rain…<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The towers and spires of the historic cathedral and castle of Wawel at dawn. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2011<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Ryanair fanfare signalled a flight without any major disaster,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[819,817,816,251,821,360,475,818,820],"class_list":["post-2095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-auschwitz","tag-cracow","tag-krakow","tag-poland","tag-salt-mine","tag-unesco","tag-unesco-world-heritage","tag-wawel","tag-wieliczka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}