Wander More Work Less

This morning’s walk was first to check out a fountain on the edge of Old Town. It was called Plac Szczepański, but I’m not 100% sure if that is the name of the square, the street, or the fountain. It sits in a pretty city square surrounded by very nice buildings. A short hop to the side of the Old Town then took us to a small inner-city park called Wisława Szymborska Park. It was nicely laid out with a mixture of gardens, lawns, and water features. There were lots of seats for people to just enjoy the green space. There was also a large mural dedicated to a Polish poet. Next on our list was the market square, Stary Kleparz, which is a local farmers’ market. It’s a very busy place in quite a small area, with many people selling their produce. They had some lovely-looking peaches and fresh blueberries. We were planning to go to the Carrefour Hypermarket next, so didn’t buy anything at first, but on our way back we stopped to get both. Two very large white-flesh peaches and a ...

A sad start to my day as I sat and thought about my mum while having breakfast. She would have been 73 today. She would have loved reading about this adventure. ❤️ This morning we set off on a big walk to the other side of the river and a couple of blocks beyond. Our main targets were a church square and a set of rainbow-coloured steps. The square was worth the visit, though photos didn’t really do it justice since we were looking into the morning sun, despite the day starting out overcast. The colourful steps, however, were a bit overrated—they clearly hadn’t been repainted in quite some time. Oh well, you never know until you go and see for yourself. From there, we continued on to the Jewish Ghetto area. Between 1941 and 1943, 16,000 people were forced to live there, compared with just 3,000 before it became a ghetto. A prison-like wall once surrounded the entire district, and we were able to see some of the remnants still standing today. In the main square there are also...

Our walk this morning was to the Jewish Quarter. We arrived at a spot we had marked on the map (called Kazimierz), but it didn’t seem much different from anywhere else. Maybe we need to poke around some of the side streets? But first, we decided to cross the river since it wasn’t far away. There’s a nice new-looking pedestrian and cycling-only bridge with acrobatic sculptures hanging along its length. It’s called Father Bernatek’s Bridge. We had no idea who Father Bernatek was—an acrobat perhaps? As it turns out, he was not. The bridge, built in 2010, was named after a monk who, among other things, helped found a hospital in Kraków.  On the other side, we dropped down off the bridge and walked beside the Vistula River until we reached another road bridge. We kept going, spotting another interesting-looking bridge further along. This one also had pedestrian and cycling access, but trains ran across it too. It’s called Most Podgórzanek—glad I only had to copy and paste th...

A morning walk took us into the Old Town and around the main square, Rynek Główny. The square is very large—just under 10 acres. At its centre is the Cloth Hall, which is now a museum on the first floor and filled with dozens of souvenir shops at ground level. It was once a historic centre of international trade where textiles, spices, silk, leather, and more were exchanged. Kraków is also well known for its nearby salt mine, which was one of the commodities traded here, along with imported spices from the Middle East. There are two other very prominent buildings in the square: the Old Town Hall Tower and St. Mary’s Basilica. For now, we just wander around the full perimeter of the square, checking out the buildings, restaurants, and shops. There’s a noticeable sculpture—a monument to Adam Mickiewicz—but we have no idea of its significance. On the other side of the square, there’s also an interesting mask sculpture lying on its side. The square was very busy wit...

We had already packed our bags last night, so this morning was a relaxed checkout at 8:30am. The train we were catching didn’t depart until 9:55am, but with the railway maintenance near the apartment and the pedestrian closures yesterday we didn’t want to take any chances. The footpath we had been using was open again, so it was just a short walk to the tram rather than a potential longer detour. The tram took us to the train station and we still had 50 minutes to wait before departure. Today’s plan was to make our way from Olomouc to Kraków (Poland), with a train change at Hranice. The Czech train app had flagged “closure” next to a couple of stations on our route, including Hranice. After some checking, we realised it meant there were replacement buses operating for those sections. We hoped this was just for local trains and that ours wouldn’t be impacted. With only a planned seven-minute gap to change trains at Hranice, we were slightly on edge about both the connection and the clos...

Today's plan was to make sure we saw the Astronomical Clock do its thing at midday. There was no hurry to start the day, which was good. Sarah had a catch-up chat on WhatsApp with Kate, and with Paul and Suzanne. I joined in for a quick catch-up too. We were in the centre of town with time to spare, so we browsed a couple of shops. It's Monday and there were many more people about, but still not crowded—a nice change from other tourist stops we've done.  At 11:50am we sat down near the clock to wait. We hadn’t been there long before we were asked to move because they were filming a movie or TV show. The woman who approached us looked a bit flustered when she realised we only spoke English. She basically said, “stay still here or move away.” We replied that we were waiting to watch the clock. The compromise was to move slightly aside and then stand still. 😂 That put us right in front of the clock, where I could video both the clock and the movie scene—which turn...

This morning, after Sarah had a catch up with Emma on WhatsApp, we headed out around 8:30am, and the temperature was quite cool—only 12 degrees! The high was forecast to be just 22, which made it perfect for walking. Sarah had a specific destination in mind. We first went to the main square and then wandered a couple of streets over to find some sculptures. They were outside a café that now seems to be closed. The sculptures are a bit unusual: one hanging off the top of the building looks like Predator from the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, while the other looks like a cross between Alien and a pelican. (Pic below.) From there we walked down to a city park that follows a small river. Across the river were the botanical gardens, which were large and quite pretty. Eventually, we crossed back over and headed up through a city wall gate that brought us out at the university buildings we had visited yesterday. Our next stop was Saint Wenceslas Cathedral, which is very...