In March 2008, Jean and I had a few days in Poland
taking advantage of BMI Baby's direct flights to Warsaw from Cardiff,
our local airport. An early morning departure meant that we were in
a rather snowy Warsaw well before noon, and were soon on an intercity express train for a three
hour journey to Krakow.
We planned to have three nights in a hotel right in the centre of the
beautiful former capital city of Poland with a view out onto the
spectacular market square.
The Wentzl hotel filled the bill and also
supplied us with an excellent welcome and superb food.
we catch the train and have a comfortable compartment
to ourselves of a kind that is no longer available to rail travellers in the UK.
All very neat and clean with mains sockets for each
seat for those who like to use their laptops on the move.
At first, the landscape is flat and
quite heavily wooded, but as we go further south we see more arable land
and small towns and villages.
and then the sun comes out!
This is the superb view of the market square from our
hotel window on the second floor.
Krakow is
beautiful, be sure of that.
Looking more closely, one can see a
child fascinated by someone in mediaeval costume.
The light on the church was changing as rapidly as
the weather!
We took a stroll through the attractive indoor
market Hall. Slightly warmer here than outside which was minus a few!
Amber jewellery features prominently in this part of Poland.
This stall holder was surrounded by a
'nest' of warm furs and skins.
and of course, there were souvenirs of
the more touristy kind.
Free beer??
What's the snag?
The snow begins to fall: very east
European winter...
Dusk approaches...
and the lights come on one by one on the church of St
Mary. I won't attempt the Polish name.
Below,
Our view of the square
at bed time. There can't be many nicer city views.
