Krakow

Monday 19th

We book Sunday-Friday, allowing a weekend either side to relax at home. As ever, we just about make it to the airport in time for final boarding call on Sunday afternoon, after Andrew kindly gives us a lift. We discover on arrival that we've been so relaxed and disorganised about this trip, we have no idea of the currency, exchange rate, how to get to the hotel...! It all turns out okay, the hotel cheap and clean, but a little out of town. The biggest drawback is that there's no food available; happily, though, there's a Tesco across the road, and no Sunday trading laws.

We've decided to try and keep this trip low cost, since we've already had two weekends away this year (Glasgow and Madrid), and are spending two weeks in Morocco in November. Our hotel is only one step up from a hostel, but it does the job. I do regret it somewhat when we're woken up at 3.30am by a drunken England supporter. Reception move us on request, and the rest of the stay is peaceful.

Said "fan" wakes us up again at 7am - this time I don't get back to sleep. Breakfast is included in our £26/night for a double room, and consists of (slightly peculiar) coffee, ham, cheese, bread and cereal, which is a nice start to the day. We catch a bus into town, which takes around 20 minutes when the traffic is light. It's pretty hot, and due to peak around 33 degrees this week.

[Kosciuszko Mound]

[River Vistula]

[Wawel Castle]

[Wawel Cathedral]

[Wawel Cathedral]

[Wawel Cathedral]

[Wawel Hill]

[Wawel Hill]

[Castle Courtyard]

[Archaeological remains]

Krakow has a traditional walled castle and cathedral affair, by the river, on Wawel Hill. Happily the city escaped Nazi demolition (unlike Warsaw, which was ) - the Gothic cathedral square has one of the prettiest 360 degree views I've seen.

[Dragon]

[Staircase to the Dragon's Den]

We climb down the "dragon caves" and walk through the old town towards the main square. The buildings are an interesting mix of Eastern and central European architecture. There are tourists milling, but it's not overly busy, and there's a laid-back atmosphere - possibly feeling tangibly calmer than England because Poland are already out of the World Cup.

[Cloth Hall]

[Music]

[St. Mary's Church]

[Trumpet Tower]

[Altar]

[The Planty]

[Grunwald Monument]

[Art]

[Kanonicza Street]

[Cloudiness]

[Church of St. Peter and St. Paul]

We find a pancake house for lunch, and eat four between us, for less than £1 each. Bargain. We've got a loose itinerary on this trip, for a change, with more days than required, so we take advantage of this and have a chilled afternoon seeing the city, drinking beer and iced coffee (individually), and soaking up the sun. We find a traditional Polish restaurant called "Miod Malina" (which means "Honey Raspberry") for an astonishingly tasty dinner. I fare better than Iain - mushrooms have never tasted so good.

[Wawel Castle]

[Rowing on the Vistula]

[River Vistula]

[River Vistula]

And then back to the hotel to read guidebooks and sleep.

Tuesday 20th

[Painting the satellite dishes]

[The way up]

[Wawel Hill]

[Krakow in the rain]

Far too hot today. Everyone on the bus seems fine but we're dripping nicely. We take a walk along the river and up the hill (in the heat) to Kosciuszko Mound. It's lunchtime when we arrive, but the cafe only has junky snack food, which has to suffice. Whilst sitting at the highest point for some miles, under a metal umbrella, a massive storm breaks out directly above us. It does get a bit scary.

[Jeremy 'Ego' Clarkson]

[House of the Singing Frog]

When it finally calms, we check out the views, then lose each other for an hour on the hill before catching the bus back. More coffee and beer, then a wander around the areas of town we missed yesterday. Dinner at Tesco's food court (Mexican - not inspiring, but less than a fiver), and we pick up lunch for tomorrow.

Wednesday 21th

Big day out today; I've identified a raft ride to go on in the Dunajec valley, which is about 50 miles from town. We spent some time yesterday looking at tour prices, and deciding that avoiding paying £60 each must be worth the pain of negotiating public transport into the unknown. After some uncertain navigation, a taxi at 6.30am, and a two hour bus ride, we reach in Szczawnica, where no-one seems to be able to direct us. Walking down the road, guessing we should head towards the river, we hear Irish accents, and gratefully receive instructions. Unfortunately all we can do is wait for a minibus driver to decide he has sufficient passengers to drive us to the start of the raft trip.

An hour and a half later it's worth the hassle - two hours of fabulous mountain scenery on board a wooden raft steered by a guide in national dress, telling bad jokes, which are kindly translated for us by a Polish-American cop from Connecticut. I say "kindly" but a sample joke includes: "two tourists go up a hill with their guide, and the guide falls off the hill and dies. The tourists go to the bottom of the hill and get another guide." He's not bitter, then. The river weaves down a gorge, meandering through forests along the Slovakian border. The calm water occasionally ups tempo to a torrent of white water, which is fun.

I think I've found a short-cut on the way home, and get us completely lost. Oh well. Dinner at Tesco again!

Thursday 22th

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Friday 23th

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