Day 2: Krakow Old Town: Wawel Castle, Wawel Cathedral, Kanonicka Street, St. Andrew's Church, St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Grodzka Street, Passage 13, Market Square, Cloth Hall, St. Basilica Maria, Town Hall Tower, San Adalberto Church, Florianska Street, Barbican, Plenty Park
Today is our first day in Krakow and although we went to bed quite late yesterday, after approximately 1 am, after coming from the airport to Krakow with a private transfer, we get up when they are about 6 o'clock: 00 in the morning at which time as usual in the rest of the trips we do, we take the opportunity to work for a while, since today we are going to visit the most emblematic and tourist places of the Krakow Old Town.
After this time working, coffee in hand prepared with the kettle that we have in the Logos hotel, where we will stay the next few days, and that we use so much, when it is 8:00 in the morning we go down to the breakfast room where we are With a fairly stocked breakfast, that feels great after these hours.
After charging energies, we begin the route we have planned to go to the Vistula River area, where after crossing it we reach Wawel Castle, one of the symbols of Krakow, where we are in the part of the river with the dragon sculpture.
A good option to learn more about the history of the city is to book this private tour in Spanish or this free tour of Krakow with a guide in Spanish. Free!
Krakow dragon
Something that catches our attention is that although it is 9 am, we are already in the area quite local tourism, so we intuit that at this time especially when we reach the historic center, we will find everything quite crowded, although we hope to enjoy it to the fullest and that is that after all, we are also part of those agglomerations that we often complain about.
Another thing that surprises us is the temperatures. From what we had read, although in summer the temperatures are higher than at other times of the year, we did not expect them to exceed 30 degrees, today's forecast and that we are sure will be fulfilled, especially seeing that the morning has just begun We are already over 23 degrees.
After a brief stop in front of the dragon sculpture, we follow the route approaching the area where Wawel Castle and the Cathedral are located, from where we also have a beautiful Krakow perspective, with the river at its feet.
The Wawel Castle can be visited, but in our case we decided not to do it, at least this first day, since this visit would take several hours that we want to take advantage of to know other areas of the city.
Wawel Castle
After enjoying a few minutes in this area of Krakow, we arrive at the area where the Wawel Cathedral is located, another of the places to see in Krakow that you can not miss, and from which you have spectacular views once You get it in perspective.
Wawel Castle in Krakow
It is at this point of the route through the old town of KrakowWhen we pay attention to another of the things that are attracting a lot of attention from Krakow, and despite the little we have traveled, we are seeing that it is a city as well as very tidy, very clean and quiet. We may have this impression because it is still too early, but we cannot deny that the first impression we are taking is very good and we can already say that we believe that Krakow will become part of the list of our favorite cities in Europe .
We follow the route of today approaching to Wawel Cathedral, entering the crypt, free entry and then approaching to the entrance of the Cathedral where we find that today is a holiday in Poland, something that we had not even looked at We had not contemplated it. And it is that August 15 is the day of the Armed Forces in Poland, therefore also a holiday in Krakow, so there are several more masses throughout the day and the cathedral can not be visited until they have Mass celebrations are over.
A good option to get to know the history better and not miss anything in this area is to book this tour through the cathedral of Krakow and Wawel Hill with a guide in Spanish.
Wawel Cathedral
Since there are approximately 15 minutes left before the mass ends, we take the opportunity to walk around the area and check that the entrance to the Wawel Cathedral is free, the only thing you have to pay is 12PLN per person to visit the tower and the graves.
Crypt Wawel Cathedral
But as usually happens in these cases and when you are traveling, there are times when you have to opt for a little improvisation and that is when we arrive at the door of the Cathedral, after doing a little queue, we find that There is Mass at 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11:30 in the morning, so visits are only allowed from 12:30 until 16:45 in the afternoon. With this option, all we have left is to go to the historic center, changing the plans we had a little and plan to return this afternoon to visit the cathedral
So after making this decision, we start the road to the center, passing through Grodzka Street, one of the most famous streets in Krakow and one of the best places to buy souvenirs, skipping the visit to Wawel Castle, how about As we discussed earlier we will not visit, leaving it for another occasion.
Grodzka Street. Krakow
Route through the old town of Krakow
Today's route will take us through the Historic Center of Krakow, knowing places like Wawel Castle, Wawel Cathedral, Kanonicka Street, St. Andrew's Church, St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Grodzka Street, the Passage 13, the Market Square, the Cloth Hall, the Basilica of Santa Maria, the Town Hall Tower, the Church of San Adalberto, Florianska Street, the Barbican and the Plenty Park.
To get closer to the famous Market Square, we take Kanonicza Street, where we begin to see the characteristic architecture of Krakow, encountering the first milk restaurant, which we discovered by the word pod in the cartel, and they are restaurants of traditional Polish food, in which dishes and menus are served at very tight prices.
Milk restaurant Krakow
We continue on the street until we reach the Plaza Santa María Magdalena, where is the church of San Andrés and the church of San Pedro and San Pablo, which are next to each other and are two of the most visited churches in the city. Being a holiday we find that as in the Wawel Cathedral, Mass is being celebrated at 10 in the morning, both in one and the other, so we enter without being able to access the entire church, but we we find that they have a kind of viewpoint, so to speak, from where you can see the interior of the church even though they are celebrating Mass, something that allows us to get an idea of the interior and what we have to say, that as many other things in the city, it is surprising us very much.
San Andres Church
Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
We follow the route of Krakow Old Town continuing our walk along Grodzka Street, one of the best known streets in the city, which you can not miss and more in a day like today at which at this time of day is when shops begin and you start seeing quite atmosphere in the city, giving us some beautiful images of this city.
Suddenly and almost without warning, we arrive at the Market Square, the most famous in Krakow and also in Poland, which we have to confess, is one of the most beautiful we have ever seen.
More practical information to prepare your trip to Krakow
- 10 essential places to visit in Krakow
- 50 things to see and do in Krakow
- The 5 best tours and excursions in Krakow
- 10 essential tips for traveling to Krakow
- 10 restaurants to eat in Krakow cheap
- The best free tours in Krakow for free
Marketplace
With 200 meters x 200 meters, this square is considered the largest medieval square in Europe and also one of the most beautiful. Although the simple walk through the square, justifies the visit to this incredible place in Krakow, in the Market Square, we can find a variety of places, which we advise you not to miss and to which you should spend some time, since Together they shape this charming square, in which the atmosphere is always present.
Marketplace
Cloth Hall
Located in the central position of the Market Square, this building is one of the best places to do your shopping in Krakow, since inside you will find many stands where you can find many souvenirs, more or less conventional.
Cloth Hall
Basilica of Santa Maria
Considered as one of the main visits of the city, in addition to being one of its best known images, the Basilica of Santa Maria is fully recognizable in the square, both for its profile and for its two towers, of different heights, to which You can climb one of them, and from where you have incredible views of the city.
Basilica of Santa Maria
Tower of the Old Town Hall
This impressive tower, 70 meters high, is another of the most representative images of the Market Square. In addition, you can climb to the top from where you have beautiful views of the city, from another perspective to the tower of the Basilica of Santa Maria.
Tower of the Old Town Hall
Church of San Adalberto
In the southern corner of the Market Square, we find the Church of San Adalberto, a small church, which at some point could even go unnoticed and in which it is said, San Adalberto preached.
Church of San Adalberto
At this time of the morning that the sun begins to squeeze a little, in the Market Square, which is completely surrounded by small terraces of restaurants and coffee shops, which are already full, even being only 10:30 in the morning, something that gives an incredible atmosphere to this area of Krakow and that we have to say, that despite taking only a few minutes, we have to confess that it is really spectacular. Although we imagine that being August and also being a holiday, there are probably many more people, but still with that, it is certainly a place that is very worth visiting calmly and for what we are seeing and as we have said before, it will happen to Be one of the corners of one of our favorite cities in Europe.
Marketplace
One of the first visits we make in the Market Square is to the Cloth Hall, where we take a tour of its many stands, which despite being festive are mostly open and where we can not avoid buying a couple of souvenirs, that we will take home to not forget this amazing city.
Cloth Hall
After the first purchases, we approach the Basilica of Santa Maria, finding ourselves, as in the rest of the churches, that are celebrating a Mass, so that we cannot visit it, we leave the visit for later and go directly to another of the areas of the square where, by chance, we find more than 20 places in which they celebrate the Pierogi Festival, traditional Polish dish.
Pierogi Festival
And how could it be otherwise we stopped at one of the stalls, with several awards, where we ordered three varieties, in this case fried, for 7PLN that we tasted in one of the tables that are in the middle of the square and that serve us to entertain the stomach until mealtime.
Pierogi
After this somewhat express stop and with the stomach already able to follow the route through the Krakow Old Town, we return to the central part of the Market Square, where we are at the back of the Cloth Market, a handicraft market, with many stands, which give the square a very special and charming atmosphere in addition to be a claim and a danger, since they have very original things, but also very different handmade souvenirs to what we are used to seeing in most stores, so it is a temptation to walk around here.
Craft shops in the Market Square
Another thing that attracts us a lot of attention now that we are in the historic center, is that despite the amount of people we are here right now, everything is very clean and tidy, in addition to not perceiving at any time a chaotic environment, however many people there are. Even in the public toilets that are in one of the areas of the square, and that we will find in several areas of the city and where you have to pay 1PLN per person, we find services full of people, but very clean and with one person that enters each of the services to clean it every time a tourist leaves. It is because of this type of detail that it is not surprising that the city looks so clean and tidy.
Like the cleanliness and order, another of the things that attract our attention and that we want to highlight, is the number of Tourist Offices that we are seeing and it is that practically in the area of the historic center we will have seen as 12 Offices of Tourism, which although they are quite small, are all open despite being festive.
Basilica of Santa Maria. Marketplace
It is practically 1 noon when we decide to leave this special area of Krakow, where we will return one of the nights of this trip to Krakow in 5 days, to take pictures and also at some other time of the day to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria and its tower, to get us on our way to the wall, the next point we will visit on this route along the Krakow Old Town.
To get there we take Florianska Street, another of the most famous streets in Krakow, which despite being quite short, is one of the main arteries of the city and goes from the Market Square to the San Florian Gate.
Florianska Street and San Florian Gate
As it has happened to the rest of the sites we have visited, despite being a holiday today, many of the venues remain open, so the atmosphere is even more lively throughout the city center and more in these commercial arteries , which at this time of day are already beginning to be full of people.
Once we reach the wall we find one of the most beautiful and most charming corners of Krakow, with the Florian Gate, from where if you are located just below the arch, you have incredible views of Florianska Street with the Basilica from Santa María in the background.
Views of Florianska Street from Florian Gate
This area of the city, in which in addition to the city wall, of which currently only a 200-meter fragment is preserved, we find the Cabinetmakers Tower, the Carpenters Tower and the Barbican, which was also part of the Krakow defensive system.
Today, in the place of the wall we find one of the green lungs of the city, the Plenty Park, which was built in the place that once occupied the wall, forming a ring that surrounds the city, in which many locals They enjoy walks and outdoor sports and we will visit later.
Krakow Wall
The best tours and excursions in Krakow in Spanish
If you prefer to forget about preparations or have little time, you can book the following tours in SPANISH
- Excursion to Auschwitz-Birkenau
- Wieliczka Salt Mine Tour
- Private guided tour of Krakow
- Free tour of Krakow Free!
- Offer: Auschwitz + Salt Mines in one day
- Excursion to Zakopane and the Tatras Mountains
- Many more excursions and tours in / from Krakow here
In this area of the city there is also one of the most charming places and it is that in one of the walls of the wall, we can find an exhibition of paintings, of different styles and artists, that give a really impressive touch to the place, In addition to a beautiful color note.
It's just after 2 in the afternoon when we say that the time has come to start looking for somewhere to eat and start charging energy to continue with the visit to the Krakow Old Town.
After reviewing the restaurants we have in the surroundings, we decided on Szalone Widelce, a highly recommended restaurant, where we ordered a meat pie, a pork scallop with mushrooms, more beer, soda and two coffees for 91PLN.
Szalone Widelce
And in this case: total prick. The tartar, a dish that is one of our favorites and we have tried many times and in different restaurants, we have to confess that both visually and taste level, it is the worst we have ever tasted and the scallop passes without penalty or glory. If we add that at the moment they bring us the letter they let us choose between all the dishes without telling us anything, for later when we choose the pierogis, one of the most traditional and most commonly requested dishes, they tell us that today unfortunately They don't have something that they could have told us directly at the beginning and saved us the wait and time having to choose another dish. This is why being honest, this is a restaurant we would not return to, nor can we recommend.
It is three in the afternoon when we return to the itinerary of Krakow Old Town, although after the two coffees we had in the restaurant and that we have to say, they were dirty water, we cannot resist making a technical stop at Zarowka Café, on Florianska Street, where we order a homemade lemonade, an iced coffee and a cake for 29PLN, with which we reconcile totally with Polish cuisine and what we have to say, It is one of the most charming places we enjoy in the city.
Zarowka Coffee
Zarowka Coffee
After this stop, we return to the streets of Krakow to return to the Market Square again, this time and to go directly to the ticket office of the Basilica of Santa Maria, located just in front of the entrance for visitors, where we take The second surprise of the day is that when we arrive at the box office they tell us that today the tower is closed, but that tomorrow they open at 9 in the morning and we will not have problems getting tickets. So we decided to leave this itinerary visit for the Krakow Old Town, leaving her for tomorrow when we come to do the tour of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
And so, we decided to turn around and go again the way we had done this morning, approaching again to Wawel Cathedral, where we are lucky to arrive when it is about to close, since we did not remember what we had seen this morning It closed at 4:45 p.m. and we arrived at 4:30 p.m.
So we have to make a quick visit, without stopping too much, but seeing the most important places in the cathedral, where photographs are not allowed.
After a walk around the area, which is still as lively as it is tomorrow, now even more, since we find many organized groups, and also with many people who do the free tours in the city, we return to the Market Square , again, where we want to go back to tour some of the most emblematic streets of this area of the city, in addition to the adjacent streets, which are the same or more charming than the best known.
After this walk, aimlessly through the historic center of the city, one of the things we like to do on the trips and that we could not stop doing on this trip to Krakow in 5 days, we arrived at Plenty Park, one from the green corners of the city, which as we mentioned earlier, today occupies the place that the walls once occupied, surrounding the city.
Plenty Park
After a very pleasant walk, through one of the lungs of the city, in which we return to verify that for many people who have practically no one is heard and people are super educated, we arrive again at the nerve center of the city when it's almost eight in the afternoon, at which time after having slept only 5 hours and today's tour of the Krakow Old TownWe decided that it is time to look for somewhere to have dinner.
After reviewing the recommendations of the area in which we find ourselves and without wanting to get too far from the center, we opted for the Bianca restaurant, an Italian restaurant, in the middle of the Market Square, where we ordered a soup of the day, mushroom gutters, ravioli, Beer and water and dessert for 116PLN.
Bianca restaurant. Krakow
After the experience we have to say that although it is a bit more expensive than the restaurants where you can find traditional Polish cuisine, if we take into account that we did not feel like eating too much, and that the product is top quality, although it is a bit more expensive than average in Krakow, it is more than recommended!
And so, being 8 pm, we make our way back to the Logos hotel, where after working for a while we fall like children, dreaming of waking up again tomorrow in Krakow, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Day 3: Visit Auschwitz from Krakow, Market Square, St. Mary's Basilica, Collegium Maius
