Warsaw – Krakow – 2019 Baradene History Tour

We started the day with an early start at 6:30am in order to have a quick breakfast and be on the bus at quarter to eight. Today we were moving on to our next city in Poland – Krakow. The drive was roughly four hours, with a few stops along the way. The length was soon forgotten as we had picturesque scenes on either side of us and most of us caught up on some sleep!

Once we arrived in Krakow we checked into our hotel which on the outside is a lovely, European style brick building with flowers crawling up the sides. We had a cycle tour at 3pm so we wandered across the road into what we came to see was a very Polish market for some lunch. Lack of tourists and English indicated we were in the heart of Poland in this market and we bought bakery goods and fresh fruit mainly through signing and the minimal Polish we do know.

We went into the cycling tour not sure what to expect as we hadn’t yet seen the beauty Krakow had to offer. A few wobbly starts and near misses with cars and teams saw us reach the Old Town in Krakow which really can’t be put into words and pictures don’t do it justice. We learnt about the rich history this area had to offer including Roman Catholic churches and a university that has over 70,000 students studying there. We rode through beautiful parks which were buzzing with people and budding artists sketching the historic buildings around them.

We moved through the south bank along Poland’s biggest river and then into the Jewish quarter, which before Nazi Germany’s regime was home to the Jewish population in Krakow. We saw synagogues in this area and memorials that honour the lives that once roamed these streets. We then rode through the city and to an area which was once a Jewish ghetto. Although not comparable in numbers to the Warsaw ghetto, the impact of lives lost was still so significant and this was commemorated by an installation of 63 chairs in the square that represent the 63,000 people that lived and died in this ghetto or concentration camps near by.

We ended the cycle tour at our hotel with a few stragglers coming in behind (Mr Coutts!) and had a quick dinner at the hotel.

Having all been in awe of the old town during the day we decided to head back at night to see it with all its lights on. The teachers let the reigns lose and extended curfew to 10:15 (!!) which allowed us to all go off and explore, get gelato, take photos, and generally soak up the atmosphere which was vast and varied from young families playing games in the square to spaces teeming with tourists.