Krakow

Our hotel is the Andels and it is perfectly situated next to the biggest shopping mall in the city, and a few minutes casual walk to the old city, but it is one of those arty forty ones where the furniture is odd shapes and colours. The bathroom has clear gall around the shower cubicle which adjoins the toilet so that too has all clear glass around it. Why they have a huge clear glass door on the toilet defies loguc. I even tried to take a photo but it is of no use as you don't properly see the clear glass walls and doors! There's no point in closing the toilet door when using it, but then you have. To make sure you close it after use or you are likely to turn around and bang head first into the bloody things after you have washed your hands... I've only done that once so far! Anyway, awoke to grey skies and forecast of max of 10. Our guide for this morning is Isabella and once again we have struck gold with our guide. Initially we are being shown the sights from the coach as we head to Wawel castle on the hill. Kraków has been dubbed 'little Rome' due to having something like 100 churches just in the city and another 40 dotted around the suburbs, or whatever they call suburbs. There is a population of 2 million and Kraków is like a smaller version of Prague with beautiful old buildings down every street in the old city and a beautiful big square. The Wawel Castle is a beautiful collection of buildings, including a magnificent cathedral. As it is Sunday, Mass is currently being celebrated so no chance to inside yo have a look unless I'm prepared to sit in on the Polish Mass fir an hour... Maybe not. The castle has a really interesting history having been the seat of Polish kings for five centuries. We have time to stop in the coffee shop and have a hot chocolate which literally is a cup of melted milk chocolate! Yum. Just as well calories don't count on holidays! We then have a guided tour through the Old Town Square and end at St Marys church. here we leave Isabella and are able to wander about on our own for a while, however D, G, roomie and I decide to head to a pub for an early lunch. We go to the same little upstairs pub the D & G went to last night. They say the the pierogi 'are to die for' but I decide to try the place I which us a potato pancake. When my meal came out, I could not believe the size of it. Each pancake was the size of a small dinner plate, and there were three of them plus a salad! I managed to eat 1 and the others helped me eat the others, but even then we still left lots. They were fantastic and the others were quite jealous that they had ordered the pierogi. Back to the hotel long enough for a cuppa and then on the coach again, but this time to go to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. the mines ceased operation about 20 years ago but have been in operation from about the 1300s. Our guide is from a family of 7th generation miners, but now most employees of the mine are tour guides, about 500 of them, carpenters, OHS staff, admin, food and souvenir sellers, etc. we have to go down about 160 metres in one of the mine's lifts. About 8 of us squash in like sardines and it is quite dark, but very quick, maybe 30 seconds or a bit more. Our tour was fir about 2 hours and there were lots of OMG moments. Miners have carved various statues and scenes in different chambers. We even go into a breath taking church which has magnificent religious frescos carved into the rock salt walls. Even the chandeliers which to all intent and purpose could be thought to be. Restaurant, are made from rock salt! We are invited to lick the walls if we want, but I'm happy to lick my finger then touch the wall... And yep, it tastes like salt! Really interesting tour and I'm so glad I went. A number of our tour group chose not to do it, mainly daunted by the thought of doing some 400 steps downward, but they weren't in one go and as it was very gradual and the stairs were very well laid out, so you didn't even realize it. We got down to some 300 metres at level 3 and there are something like 7 levels. This place was not to be missed. Back on the coach and back to the hotel for just long enough for a cuppa and quick change before heading out to our farewell folklore dinner at Morskie Oko. Yes folks, it is the last night of our coach tour. I've worked out that there are two types of travellers in this world. Those who love the folksy local entertainment of the country visited and those who cringe at the cheesy amateur renditions of alleged local tunes and dances of yore. Guess which crowd I belong to? Dinner was average at best (in fact it is the worst meal I've had to date, so very disappointing. I'm sure that I got the 'boy bits' of the meat that was advertised as turkey) and the music (piano accordion at its best...) along with young folk in brightly coloured costumes singing, dancing, clapping and thigh slapping with regular effort at getting tourists up to dance with them. Ye gods, is it time to go yet??? After my second glass of wine it didn't get any better so I was more than happy to head back to the hotel with M and roomie and call it a night. As we are off to Budapest tomorrow to start our cruise, I hope you've enjoyed the coach component of this trip. Our weather today was cool but fined up early morning and we kept blue skies and lots of sunshine by afternoon. So, it is all good! This last photo is the monument to identify the entrance to where the Nazi concentration camp was sited in Kraków. It stands alone on the top of a small hill.