12 November, 2023

A chilly 8 Deg. C and dreary start to our 250 kms drive to Krakow on the D1, 18 then 68 to the Polish border.

Driving up into the hills south of the border around Plavnica there is snow on the hills to our right as the temperature drops to 4 Deg. C. I think we are getting out of Slovakia and Poland at the right time!

Further on in the village of Stara L’ubovna we see several man-made platforms for stork nests – similar to what we saw in Hungary in 2015.

At the small village of Mnisek nad Popradom we can see Poland across the river which is the border with Slovakia.

But before we can get there we need to stop in the middle of the bridge and show our passports to the Polish Border Guard.

We are now on the 87 which will change to the 75 and A4 into Krakow.

Past Tegoborze on the 75 we drive up the hairpin bends which gives us a view of Lake Roznow.

Across the road from the unpronounceable village of Wytrzyszczka is Tropsztyn Castle. It’s a reconstruction of the defensive castle erected on a steep peninsula flooded on three sides by the Dunajec River. The stronghold was probably built in the first half of the 13th century on the initiative of the Ośmiorogi family. The first mention of it comes from 1231. Another mention comes from 1390, the property of the knight Chebda from Tropsztyn, Starykoń coat of arms, married to Zochna Gierałtówna, Ośmoróg-Gierałtów coat of arms. This family ruled the castle for 300 years. In 1970, Andrzej Benesz became the owner of the castle ruins. After 1993, the castle was rebuilt and then opened to the public.

Around 2:00 pm we pull up in front of our hotel on the edge of the Old Town. Conveniently I can leave the car parked right out front as I’d made an advanced booking.

As it gets dark around 4:30 pm we drop the bags and walk around the corner to check out the location of the nearest laundromat for tomorrow then venture up the road to the Main Market square.

We arrive in the Main Market square just as the sun is setting.

Unlike just about every other main/market square in Central Europe that we’ve visited these past 3 months, this one is the real deal, having avoided destruction during various battles and world wars and subsequent reconstruction in its former architectural style.

It dates back to the 13th century, and at 3.79 ha (9.4 acres) is the largest medieval town square in Europe.

Rising above the square are the brick Gothic towers of the adjacent St. Mary’s Basilica. Built in the 14th century, its foundations date back to the early 13th century and serve as one of the best examples of Polish Gothic architecture.

It is particularly famous for its wooden altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss (Wit Stwosz). Some of its monumental poly-chrome murals were designed by Poland’s leading history painter, Jan Matejko (1898–1891). In 1978 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the Historic Centre of Kraków.

One of the many streets off the Square is Florianska which leads, predictably, to St Florian’s Gate, the sole surviving medieval Gothic gate tower from the 14th century which adjoins a portion of the city’s fortified walls. It was the former main entrance to the medieval town of Krakow.

Looking back up Florianska is a view of St Mary’s church towers. As we are walking back to the Square we see a restaurant specialising in Polish food in one of the huge doorways on the footpath which is where we end up for an early, and delicious, dinner.

13 November, 2023

10:15 am is the start time for our 2.5 hour walking tour of the Old Town and Wawel Castle. Our meeting point is in front of the basilica in the Main Market.

The square space of the Main Market is surrounded by historic townhouses and churches. The center of the square is dominated by the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice), rebuilt in 1555 in the Renaissance style, topped by a attic or Polish parapet decorated with carved masks.

On one side of the Cloth Hall is the Town Hall Tower (Wieża ratuszowa). Kraków Main Square does not have a town hall – just its tower – because it has not survived to the present day.

In front of the Tower is a sculpture ‘Love is Blind’.

From here we walk to the oldest university building in Poland – Collegium Maius – the Jagiellonian University’s oldest building, dating from the 14th century. Poland’s first university, Akademia krakowska, moved into the building some time in the 14th century after King Władysław II Jagiełło had purchased it as an educational grant with funds bequeathed by his late wife, Queen Jadwiga.

The Collegium Maius was rebuilt in the late 15th century as a late-Gothic structure surrounding a large courtyard bordered with arcades.

It’s in this courtyard that we hear the chiming of bells at 11:00 am and witness a procession of wooden characters moving through one small wooden door to another accompanied by heraldic music.

From here we walk around the corner to another University building where over 105 professors were commanded by the Gestapo Chief to attend a lecture on 6 November 1939 by the Nazi Party only to find that instead they were to be arrested and transported to Sachenhausen and Dachau, known as Sonderaktion Krakau.

Many of those who went through Sonderaktion Krakau and the internment formed an underground university in 1942 in defiance of the German punitive edicts. Among the 800 students of their underground college was Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, taught by Prof. Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński (Univesity Rector Professor) among others.

Adjacent to this building is a statue of one of the University’s famous students. In the 1490s the Collegium Maius counted among its students Nicolaus Copernicus, the Renaissance astronomer and polymath who would revolutionize European ideas about the universe.

After walking past the Church of St Andrew we stride up Kanonicza then ascend the steps that run up alongside the red brick Castle wall.

The Wawel Royal Castle and the Wawel Hill on which it sits constitute the most historically and culturally significant site in Poland.

On the way to the castle entrance we walk past the equestrian bronze statue of Kościuszko—Polish and American hero of independence—which is located along the west side entrance to the Wawel Castle. The statue was cast in 1900 thanks to the efforts of newly formed Tadeusz Kościuszko Society and erected in 1920-24 once the Polish state reestablished its independence following World War I. Destroyed by the Germans in 1940 during the Nazi German occupation of Poland its current replica, erected in 1960, is a gift to the City of Kraków from the people of Dresden, Germany.

Mt Kosciuszko was named after this cultural and political hero by the Polish explorer, Paul Strzelecki in 1840.

In the small courtyard we witness the eclectic architectural styles over the centuries that compose the Royal Archcathedral Basilica of Saints Stanislaus and Wensceslaus – representing nearly all European architectural styles of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods. Royal because Krakow was the capital of Poland before it was moved to Warsaw and it is where numerous Polish kings worshiped, were crowned and buried.

Walking under an archway we enter the main courtyard of the castle. A fortified residency on the Vistula River in Kraków, it was established on the orders of King Casimir III the Great and enlarged over the centuries into a number of structures around an Italian-styled courtyard.

This is the end of the tour so we walk back to our starting point in the Main Square.

En route Lynn says, “What we need now is a gluhwein to warm up!” and, right on cue, a gluhwein shop appears. Talk about “ask and ye shall receive”!

Back at the main square we walk through the Cloth Hall which features a series of stalls on either side of its arcade.

On our walk back to the hotel we notice an unusual statue on one of the building’s facades at the corner of Florianska and Mariacki streets – an African male and female carrying a basket of grapes!

Must be laundry time so we chuck our washing into an overnight bag and walk the 10 minutes to the local laundromat. 75 minutes later we walk out the door. Lynn now has the pleasure of doing my ironing.

Yesterday we spied an Irish Pub in the Small Market square so we head there for dinner. Lynn orders “Bangers and Mash” and I, myself, order fried chicken. We are reminded once again that we should give Irish Pubs abroad a miss as their owners and staff just don’t have a clue!

14 November, 2023

After our busy day yesterday, today is a catch up day. But, we do venture out around 3:30 pm to have a closer look at St Florian’s Gate and the city walls.

The tower, first mentioned in 1307, had been built as part of a protective rampart around Kraków after the Tatar attack of 1241 which destroyed most of the city. The permit for the construction of new city defenses featuring stone watchtowers, fortified gates and a moat was issued by Prince Leszek II the Black in 1285. The gate named after St. Florian became the main entryway to the Old Town.

It was connected by a long bridge to the circular barbican (Barbakan) erected of brick on the other side of the moat. The Gate was manned by the Kraków Furriers Guild. According to records, by 1473 there were 17 towers defending the city; a century later, there were 33. At the height of its existence, the wall featured 47 watchtowers and eight gates. Also, in 1565–66 a municipal arsenal was built next to St. Florian’s Gate.

Kraków’s Royal Road begins at St. Florian’s Gate. Through it once entered kings and princes, foreign envoys and distinguished guests, and parades and coronation processions. They traveled up ulica Floriańska (St. Florian’s Street) to the Main Market Square, and on up ulica Grodzka (Castle Street) to Wawel Castle.

Until the 19th century, Kraków had massive medieval city walls. The inner wall was some 2.4 meters wide and 6–7 meters high. Ten meters outside the inner wall was an outer, lower one. The walls were punctuated by defensive towers 10 metres high. In the 19th century — just before they were demolished by the Austrian authorities — there were 47 towers still standing. Now there are only three Gothic towers left in all Kraków: the Carpenters’, Haberdashers’ and Joiners’ Towers, connected to St. Florian’s Gate by walls several dozen metres long, with Brama Floriańska the only city gate, of the original eight built in the Middle Ages.

Lynn is down with a cold – again! Which she believes she caught during the night town walk in Kosice. We stop by a couple of pharmacies and bought her some cold tablets. I just hope that she doesn’t give it to me, which she usually does! Keep it to yourself, girl.

As we are already in town we opt for the Trattoria in Florianska for an early dinner. Plus an early night tonight as we need to be on the road by 9:00 am in order to drive the 285 km to Warsaw, refuel the hire car and put it through a car wash before we return it around 1:00 pm.

15 November, 2023

A restless night due in part to Lynn coughing and sneezing all night and partly since I know that we have to get out of bed by an ungodly 6:30 am. I hate getting out of bed before 8:00 am, especially in winter. It is dark and raining outside as we drag ourselves out of bed. We are at breakfast at the opening time of 7:00 am and manage to be on the road by 8:07 am.

It is a 3-hour drive to Warsaw Airport and we have to have the car washed, refueled and returned by midday. Although, technically, since they were an hour late delivering the car 3 months ago I sent them an email yesterday stating that we would be returning the car by 1:00 pm. So that should leave us about 5 hours to get the job done (you would think).

As soon as we reach the next block from the hotel we sit in bumper to bumper traffic. The traffic gets progressively worse as we reach the outer suburbs. By this time we have traveled about 5 km in the last hour. At this rate we will be very late. Finally, we reach the traffic issue.

They are building a new freeway and widening the main arterial road from Krakow to Warsaw (the two largest cities in Poland) but nobody bothered to implement a traffic management plan for the construction phase. Even after we clear the road works the main road to Warsaw is a single lane highway for the next hour.

It continues to rain heavily as we reach the start of the actual freeway so visibility due to spray is low. I drive as fast as I legally can but we have to take a quick pit stop half way. I manage to make up some time and we get to the car wash about 11:30 am then refuel and return the car to the airport underground car park.

Lynn calls their airport office to say we are on our way but they just tell us to drop the car key in the return key box outside their office. Obviously the office is unattended, just like when we tried to pick up the car. If we had known that we wouldn’t have bothered to hurry this morning. We could have slept in!

We are booked in to the Airport Courtyard Marriott and have a room on the top floor. We have two nights here and fly out at lunchtime on 17 November back to Heathrow T5. This is all subject to Lynn having no issues with the border guards. Tomorrow will be a rest day to repack after 3 months on the road and to print boarding passes etc.

Once we are all unpacked I send a message to see if our UK Insignia car is operational back at the Burns’ residence at Anvil Green after three months of being parked up. The news is that the battery wouldn’t hold charge so Ross very kindly purchased a replacement battery but when installed would not start the car. Ross has organised road service for tomorrow morning. I just hope there are no major issues as we only have one day back at Anvil Green before we drive to France.

I need a drink so I crack my last can of beer. Luckily Lynn can’t drink while she is on her cold tablets. Dinner is in the hotel Bistro tonight and it will be an early night for both of us.

16 November, 2023

We wake to a fog-bound airport. And tomorrow’s weather report is for a maximum of 4 Deg C and a low of -2 Deg C with a mix of rain and snow during the day with snow tomorrow night, Saturday and Sunday (getting out of Poland just in time!) But, when we check the arrivals and departures board in the hotel lobby this morning there doesn’t seem to be any issues with delayed flights. Phew!

We both have a long list of tasks to complete today so after a leisurely breakfast we get stuck in.

First thing is to contact the Burns Clan to offer some possible suggestions as to why the car won’t run with the new battery. It may well be that since the car has been without a battery for some time that the ODB11 codes are showing too many errors or worse, the repairer hasn’t connected the electrics up correctly after the recent repairs. Nothing to do but wait for the Roadside Assistance guy.

Now that we won’t be returning to the Scandinavian or to non-Euro currency countries for the foreseeable future I sell back all the third currencies to GBP.

We get some good news from Ross. The Roadside Assistance guy sorted the car out very quickly this morning and it is fully operation (such a relief). Not sure what the problem was but Ross also took the car for a test run and all is good.

By 1:30 pm we have printed our boarding passes, added our information for the Channel train and printed our insurance documents for Europe. We have the remainder of the day to relax a bit. We only have to deal with Planes, Trains and Automobiles tomorrow to get from Warsaw to Anvil Green, Kent. And the fog has now lifted.

17 November, 2023

Just as we were about to leave the hotel at 10:00 am this morning we receive a message from British Airways that our flight has been delayed for two hours. Surprise, surprise. At least it hasn’t been cancelled completely like our flight from Malaga, Spain to Gatwick last December. And at least we are still in the hotel room when we received the information.

Still, we have to deal with border security and possible issues with them not knowing Directive 2004/38/EC so we decide to head over to the terminal at about 10:15 am to drop our bags. We will have to spend the extra couple of hours at the gate. Our flight is now scheduled for a 14:20 hrs departure.

It turns out that the original flight was going to be on Finnair but the plane broke down so BA had to scramble a crew out out of Heathrow to come and collect us. Since it was a last minute thing there will be no catering on the flight. Not that the food would have been noteworthy anyway but we will be very hungry by the time we get to Anvil Green.

We arrive at the bag drop area to find that there isn’t a bag drop capability at Warsaw Airport so we have to stand in the poorly-manned check-in desk queue for about half an hour. Then queue again for a poorly-manned security check and finally at the All Other Passports border security area. At least the border security is relatively quick and there are no questions asked about 90 days in any 180 days stay limitation for Lynn.

We find metal seats near a power point at the gate and settle in for a 3-hour wait for boarding but at least BA offers the passengers an inadequate food voucher in lieu of catering on the flight.

At long last the flight departs at the new rescheduled departure time and we are on our way to London Heathrow T5.

The pilot manages to shave about 30 minutes off the flight time to Heathrow.

Unfortunately we don’t get a bridge at the terminal so we have to be shuttled on a bus to the terminal but by the time we arrive at the baggage carousel our luggage is ready to be collected.

Next step is to buy two train tickets to Ashford International which entails an Underground train on the Elizabeth Line from Heathrow Terminal 5 to Stratford, a walk through the length of the Westfield Shopping Centre to the Stratford International train station, then a high-speed overground to Ashford International. All for an eye watering A$260.00.

Just as we walk into the Stratford International station the high-speed train pulls into the platform so we scurry down the escalator and just manage to board as the train departs. The next train would have been in half an hour.

At least the express to Ashford has free internet so we call Alex and give her an updated arrival time. Alex then tells us that Ross will meet us at Ashford station to collect us. What a godsend! It is about a 25-minute drive from Ashford station to Anvil Green Farm so we are warm and dry and into a glass of red wine by 7:00 pm.