Krakow Places

I last visited Krakow over a decade ago and the city immediately captivated me with that sense of an almost forgotten and slumbering grand past. Those huge merchant houses dating from the fifteenth century when Krakow was the capital of Poland, stood slowly crumbling and peeling, while the cobbled streets were underused and dark. I enjoyed Krakow because it wasn’t pretending to be anything, and because it most certainly wasn’t pandering to the tourist perception of tidy, cute and preserved in aspic.

For my recent visit, I was anxious for Krakow; would the massive influx of tourism and cash over the last 10 years have changed the atmosphere of the place? Would Krakow now be a mass of burger bars, with streets thronged with the masses of drunken stag parties? While there have no doubt been changes, Krakow is larger than the lager louts. There are plenty of dark alleys, cellar bars, and nooks and crannies for everyone.

For the general visitor, Krakow can be separated into three parts: the dour and generally unexciting suburbs, the old town of Krakow, and the old town of Kazimierz. I can’t speak of the suburbs as I didn’t visit them, but apparently Nowa Huta gives you an impression of the old Stalinist master plan. Having recently visited Moscow, I didn’t feel I needed the architectural history lesson.

The old town of Krakow is dominated by the Wawel (the Royal Palace, and Cathedral in the south), and the main Market Square in the North. A grid of streets and squares separate the two. Aside from the two main buildings, there aren’t really any “must see” tourist attractions, but the streets have an atmosphere of their own. Just wander and explore, you won’t get lost.

To the south of the Wawel is Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter, a place with the ghosts of the Nazi occupation. Don’t expect to find many images of the Jewish past, the Nazis were far too methodical for that. However, as the Galicia Jewish Museum explains, some of the paving stones beneath your feet were grubbed from the Jewish cemetery, squared off, and turned face down. Just south from here was the Jewish ghetto, and Schindler’s factory (the gates are still here).

So, this is Krakow. Some visitors will no doubt be a little disappointed at the state of gentle disrepair, and that the cities nightlife isn’t particularly vibrant. However, I love Krakow for its everyday feel, and its myriad of tiny cellar bars and restaurants to explore.

Quick Tips:

For day trips out of the city, I can recommend Auschwitz, just to get a perspective of what the Nazis did to the area. Sixty years on, the occupation casts a long shadow over the region. Auschwitz isn’t as harrowing as I imagined, although the sheer brutality of the place is beyond belief. The Nazis had a cold efficiency, which made the camp a self-sufficient resource.

The first camp was housed in a cheerful looking series of red brick barracks. These days, if things were different, you could imagine bars and boutiques along the tree lined rows of huts. The displays inside the huts tell the truth of the regime, and the sheer inhumanity shown towards the jews, the roma and the political prisoners.

On a brighter note, I can also recommend a trip to Zakopane, a town in the heart of the mountains, a couple of hours bus or train-ride to the south. Ideally, I would stay here a night or two at the very least. Here, we enjoyed walking in the meadows looking at the traditional wooden farmsteads. This seems a million miles from the oppression from Russia or from Germany, and I can imagine that families lived much the same way for generations. Likewise, we took the cable car to the top of the local mountain, for a hiking trip.

Best Way To Get Around:

Getting around Krakow is easy for most of us; just put one foot in front of the other. As long as you are reasonably fit, and have the time, you will need no other mode of transport. Just beware a little, as some of the paving stones are cracked and uneven. It might just be worth getting one of the trams from the top of the old town down into Kazimierz, if you don’t fancy the 20 minute walk.

The airport is about 7 miles from Krakow, and as long as you arrive between 6:00am and Midnight, there is a little train (literally a couple of carriages), which runs every half hour or so from the edge of the airport, to the main train station in town. This is the cheapest and nicest way into the city.

We also caught a service bus to Auschwitz, saving an absolute packet on the cost of the organised tour, although of course, it took us longer to get there (about an hour and a half). You can do a halfway house, and catch an organised mini-bus if you prefer. All of these go from the main bus station (near the main train station).

Krakow’s Wyspianski Hotel is just around ten minutes walk from the main train station, so assuming you aren’t too heavily laden with luggage, it means you don’t need to pay for a taxi from the airport.

Unfortunately, the Wyspianski Hotel isn’t in one of those beautiful Krakow buildings; instead, it is a bit of a concrete monstrosity, built in the early 1960s. There are around 160 rooms on six floors in the hotel and a roomy lobby, with about a dozen sets of tables and chairs. The hotel bar is nothing to write home (or to igougo) about. It just lurks in the corner of the lobby but makes a convenient place to meet.

Check in was effective, but not super friendly. We were offered an upgrade to a luxury room for around £4 ($8) a night. We refused it, and I’m guessing by the shocked face of the receptionist that most people go with the offer. We ended up with the upgraded room as they had allocated us the room in any case. It might be worth refusing to pay for the upgrade should they offer you one (although you might risk them calling your bluff!).

Our room was on the second floor, and we appreciated the view from the balcony facing towards the Old Town although we couldn’t use it, as it was cold. Despite the room facing onto the ring road, the traffic wasn’t too noisy with the window shut. In any case, the traffic noise was fighting a losing battle against the noise from the school parties staying in the hotel. I couldn’t remember ever having enough energy to run and giggle endlessly for hours up and down the hotel corridors. Fortunately, things quietened down after 10:30 or so each evening, so it was irritating rather than a huge disturbance.

Our room was large (about 22’ x 12, and with another 8’ x 14 entrance alcove), with a couple of very comfortable twin single beds, a sofa bed, and a little area with a couple of comfortable chairs and a table. We also had a small old-fashioned box TV, with two British language news channels.

We found the room clean, if just a little battered. Oat was the colour of the day, and furniture was of chipboard and Formica. We were comfortable with the room for the price we paid.

Our wet room tiled bathroom was small but modern, with no window but a walk in shower provided. Basic soap dispensers, a hair dryer and slightly old red towels were provided. It was a fairly standard three star quality.

Breakfast was a little unfamiliar as there was some unrecognisable food with the usual staples. Items like cold battered fish, cold pork, beef, gherkins, red pepper, Russian salad and fish pate joined cereal, fruit juice, sausages, bread & cheese. I didn’t venture to discover it all, but suffice to say there was no shortage of choice.

The restaurant does evening meals, but the fairly posh but boring set up couldn’t compete with the excitement of wandering the Krakow streets each evening.

To sum up, the Wyspianski was a good choice as we don’t linger in hotels. The cheap, clean and central hotel suited us. I managed to get a room booked well in advance from lastminute.com with breakfast for £40 ($80) a night, which is something of a steal for Krakow. The hotel is about 10 minutes walk from the centre of the old town.

For all its charms, Krakow is still under the dark shadow created by the inhuman and atrocious crimes of the Nazis. Auschwitz is around 30 miles away, and Krakow lost over 90% of its pre-war Jewish population of 65,000 during the war. To me, it seems almost disrespectful not to spend at least a little time thinking about the dead, and pulling out the lessons of history.

This time around, we visited the Galicia Jewish Museum, with its contemporary look at the Jewish past in Poland.

Entrance to the Galicia Jewish Museum is 12 Zloty (around £3 or $6). My first thought was that it was inappropriate to have to pay for entrance to a Jewish memorial, but the Galicia Jewish Museum is a tiny charity that just would not otherwise survive. According to the official website, the museum is operating at a loss, so there is no profit here. The small museum took us about an hour and a half to explore.

The first part of the exhibition explains the slaughter of the Jews in and around Krakow after the Nazi occupation in 1939. Life simply got worse for the Jews, as they slowly lost their right to be ordinary citizens. It wasn’t long before the Jews became forced labour for the Nazi war machine. The Nazis wanted more, and forced the Jews from their homes into a cramped ghetto (in the next suburb out of Krakow), before its liquidation in 1944. The few survivors moved to death camps.

The story is told in storyboards, and a few photos. I found there was a lot of reading, which in this general era where people have the attention span of a flea, could be a problem for some. Obviously, it is difficult to tell this historical event sensitively, honestly or without a sense of ghoulish voyeurism, and the simple storyboard is probably the way to go.

The next section of the museum honours some ordinary people in Krakow who risked their lives helping the Jews survive. In return for their hard labour, the Nazis provided food rations of around 250-300 calories daily.

The Nazis were surprised (and no doubt disappointed) that more Jews didn’t die in the Ghetto, but some locals were helping. Food was shared, and one Polish pharmacist, refused to move his shop from the centre of the new Ghetto. He and his family bravely spent the early war years dispensing drugs to the needy, before the Nazis murdered them. I can only imagine how brave and frightening this defiant act must have been.

The museum stresses that an act of resistance only needed to be small. It is an act of resistance nevertheless, and enough to give heart and resistance to others.

The final and most moving exhibition showed a collection of 150 or so photographs. These record the last remnants of Jewish culture in Galicia (the area around Krakow). These large contemporary colour photographs were the result of 12 years research. Sadly, the photographer (also the director of the museum) died just a few days before our arrival.

The photos demonstrate how comprehensively the Nazis managed to achieve the final solution in this area. Most of these echoes of local Jewish culture are beautiful but ruined synagogue buildings and the odd piece of Hebrew writing on the walls of shops. I was particularly struck by the image of a paving stone on the streets of Krakow made from a Jewish tombstone. The Jewish inscription lies face down into the dirt.

I found I loved this little museum, as it didn’t seem to be a dusty archive about a long ago atrocity. Instead, after placing the events in context, it honoured the positive aspects of humanity. I particularly appreciated the display of photographs, which give a record of the ghosts of the Jewish culture in the area. This museum attempts to bring back some of the individuality of the Nazi victims. All were different, and all behaved differently to the challenge facing them.

The museum finds space for a well-stocked bookshop, offering a large number of published witness stories of the era, together with postcards and prints of the photographs. Overall, this is a positive and informative museum.

I love looking at old tapestries, so one of our Krakow "must see’s" was the Castle (the former Royal Palace) at Wawel Hill. The Royal Apartments (14 ZL, £3, $6), and the Staterooms (19Zl, £5, $10) are priced separately.

If you are keen to explore all of the Wawel area, you can also visit the Oriental pottery display, the cathedral, the Armoury and the Dragon’s Cave. You need to buy separate tickets for each attraction.

Our tour focussed on Wawel Castle, which was built in Italian form almost 500 years ago. Unfortunately, the Castle suffered very badly at the hands of the warring Swedes and Austrians. The latter ransacked the palace and turned it into an army barrack stronghold. In the courtyard, you can see some old photos of the Castle in the early 1900s. I think the locals have done well to restore the old place.

You can only visit the Royal Apartments by tour guide. The English speaking tour departed at noon when we visited. While I usually prefer to go at my own pace, I must confess the guide was very helpful, and gave us a lot of specific historical information.

None of the furniture currently on display in the royal apartment is original. Following the 400 years since it was used as a Royal Palace, the Swedes, the Austrians and the Nazis took over and used the Wawel. During restoration, rich local families provided the current furniture to restore the correct look and feel to the palace. Most of the furniture here dates from the 16th century, and is mainly Italian, so although not originally used by the Polish royal family, it is at least in keeping with the building.

The tapestries are original. They are Belgian and Dutch and date again back 500 years or so. While the colours have faded, the sheer quality and artwork is still there. Each square yard of tapestry takes about a year to produce, so a 40-50 square yard tapestry is equivalent to a lifetimes work!

The tapestries are often themed on a biblical or mythical story such as the tasks of Odysseus, and the story of Noah and the Arc. I enjoyed the plants and animals depicted in the tapestry, and of course, the workers had very little opportunity to check whether their images match the wild animals they were depicting (they don’t!).

The tapestries were smuggled out of the castle in times of invasion, and although around half the original number was lost over the centuries, around 180 remain. During the most recent evacuation, the tapestries were safe in Canada, while the Nazi Governor arrived to find his new home stripped bare.

I also enjoyed the chance to view the grand rooms. The Royal Apartment tour took us through around 12-14 rooms, and the staterooms tour perhaps another 20.

During the Austrian takeover, the original grand frescos in the rooms were whitewashed over. Fortunately, restorers discovered many of the frescos underneath, although some have been replaced with lesser modern versions. Like the tapestry, there are familiar themes from stories, religion, and myths.

Our tour of the royal apartments took around an hour, as did our "self tour" of the staterooms. I appreciated the information we picked up with the guide, as it meant I had a better understanding of the staterooms. These contained just wallboards and sheets of information, and so didn’t come alive as easily.

Krakow’s Wawel Hill attracts more tourists than any other site in Poland, and while the attractions may be a bit dusty for some, at the very least, a quick stroll around the outside of the lofty buildings at the Wawel is worth the time. In particular, to get a feel for the scale and grandeur of the place, don’t miss the open courtyard outside the Castle itself. If you are like me, and enjoy your history, then an additional tour inside the palace is a worthwhile experience.

One of the more important Krakow decisions for any visitor is around Auschwitz. Should you visit?

On the two occasions we have visited Krakow, we have been two minded about visiting Auschwitz. On the one hand, we wouldn’t want to turn the death camp into some "must see" tourist venue, on the other, is ignoring the place even worse? In the end, we decided we had a sad duty to pay our respects to the deceased and give the place a little bit of purpose. Perhaps we would learn a little from Auschwitz.

In practical terms, Auschwitz is just a little awkward to visit from Krakow. Either you can go on a tour, which to me turns the visit into something of a distasteful tourist circus, or you can make your own way there by service bus. The latter is far cheaper, but beware that it takes around an hour and a half to get there. Arrive early, as the bus can be at standing only spaces (or indeed turn people away). You can also catch a mini-bus which might be a little quicker.

Auschwitz is divided into two main visitor sections today. The original camp is on the edge of town (Oswiecim), while the far more chilling Birkenau is up on the hill, where more deaths took place. There is a free shuttle bus between the two parts of the museum.

Auschwitz

I’m always surprised how cheerful Auschwitz looks from the outside; bright red brick barracks originally built by the Austrian Army look solid and bright. If the history of the place was any different, it could be a row of café bars and swanky clothing boutiques by now. I’m not trying to detract from the sheer horror that lie within during the war years, but don’t expect to see a dark cloud hovering over the place (and yes, the birds do sing).

The entrance hall is a bit of a pantomime with a whole series of tour groups and chattering schoolchildren passing through. You can stop for a coffee (probably the worst coffee in Eastern Europe), and there is a bookshop available. The actual entrance to Auschwitz is free, and small parties are able to access the site without a tour guide.

The most famous sight of Auschwitz is near the front door; an entrance gate with the telling slogan of "Arbeit Macht frei" (Work makes free). Likewise, most of the security fences, watch towers and barbed wire is still here, giving the visitor a feel for the caged in quality of the camp.

Inside, there are around 30 barracks in the camp, and many of them are open for display. Here, you can see how the Nazis turned the inmates into a scarily effective factory farm. Inmates processed new incomers, separating out valuables from luggage, and even extracting gold fillings from corpses, and using hair for suit lining. The inmates even worked at the factory that produced gas to kill the unwanted incomers. Here, the sheer scale of the inhumanity becomes clear, and you will walk past piles of human hair, shoes and luggage.

The various displays show what happened to the prisoners, how they were "processed" and what life was like for the survivors. As it started snowing during our visit, the tales of the 10-hour outdoor parades where prisoners froze to death in the cold were particularly affecting. Some of the barrack displays are dedicated to particular prisoners, for example, the Belgian Jews, the Roma or the Polish Political prisoners. Not all is negative, other displays tell the small efforts of resistance that some of the prisoners were able to effect, and the tale of the Polish Resistance Army.

Auschwitz was the place where the final solution was perfected, and you can visit the furnaces, and a reconstruction of the original gas chamber. The wall of death where the Nazis killed prisoners by a single bullet (rather than by the "wasteful" firing squad I imagined), is now a shrine to the dead. On the day we visited (the 63rd anniversary of liberation), the wall was a sea of wreathes.

Birkenau is a couple of miles out of town, deliberately placed here away from prying eyes. This was the death camp built to deal with the volumes of Jews coming from the ghettos of Poland and Germany. I didn’t have chance to visit Birkenau on our most recent trip, but from my previous experience, I know this is a soulless place.

Behind the camp wall, stands a huge sea of brick chimney stacks; all that remain from the original huge wooden sheds used to house the prisoner workers. A train took in new prisoners, and the gas chambers stood beneath the platform, to ease the process of the murder of the unwanted (the unhealthy, the young and the old).

There is simultaneously less and more to see at Birkenau. There is less explanation, but the horror needs no description. A couple of the huts remain; one the toilet block for the prisoners (rows of concrete holes), and the other a cellblock where the cramped and terrible conditions can be easily imagined.

Overall, I am pleased to pay my respects to the dead of Auschwitz. Our tour seemed informative rather than ghoulish, and I particularly appreciated that the displays covered both the terror and the resistance to life in the camps.

While the camps still exist and are well visited, there has to be some hope that people will appreciate the dangers of dehumanising sections of population. In these migrant fearing, war-on-terror paranoid times, this is clearly a history lesson that needs re-teaching.