Krakow, Poland 18.01.2025

 Krakow, Poland

Travel Day (18.01.2025)

First country of 2025, Poland with Bondy. Our flight was a bit later departing at 14.45 with Ryanair, we had a smooth on time flight which was nice, landing in Krakow at 18.05, picked up by our taxi driver and got to the hotel around 19.00. We decided to drop our stuff and walk to the old town which was about a 20/25 minute walk but nice and straight which was good.

The christmas tree was still up and had some lovely lights on, it looked really pretty in the old town, grabbed a drink and some food and walked back ready for bed after a long day.

Day 1 (19.01.25)

First whole day. We were in no rush to get up and out this morning but once ready about 10 o’clock we walked into the old town again to see it during the day. Some of the buildings looked lovely and is a well kept, clean old town. We grabbed some brekkie, I had a traditional Polish breakfast which was really good, It is almost like a continental breakfast with some scrambled eggs and chives. 

Once we had breakfast we decided to go up to the castle, this was about a 10 minute walk down the road, we didn't pay to go inside but we did walk around the outside and found some lovely views over the city before walking back.

The sun was out all day which was really good as kept us warm most of the day even though the temperature was about -2 out, in the sun it was lovely. We walked back around the old town and went to a local brewhouse called CK Brower, they had some lovely beers in there so instead of choosing one i had a flight of 5 to try, they were all pretty good bar the honey one which was mega sweet, we decided to walk back towards the hotel before finding an Irish bar called the bull. We settled in there for most of the afternoon, even deciding to eat there in the end as the food looked nice as it was coming out. Once we had had enough we headed back to the hotel as we knew we had a long day tomorrow with our visit to Auschwitz. We must have got back to the hotel around 5 so had a quick drink there before chilling in the evening.

Day 2 (20.01.25)

Earlyish start this morning for our day trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau war camps. Bus picked us up at 08.00 ready for the 1.5hr trip to Auschwitz. The journey didn’t feel too long. We got there for around 11am after a few other pickups on the way. To get into the camp you have to go through security which seemed odd but understandable. We went to Auschwitz one first of all which was the main camp, we got to see and hear a lot of interesting but incredibly shocking and sad facts about what happened for the 5 years of Auschwitz, it was horrible but everyone should visit to understand the magnitude of what happened during the war. We went into several different blocks which showed how people lived, what the Germans took from people, the room full of human hair, shoes and luggage, it was truly awful. We also went into the last remaining gas chamber, all others have been destroyed by the Germans before they left to try and hide the awful things they had been doing to the poor people that were sent there.

After the tour of Auschwitz one we were then taken to the biggest camp Birkenau, this was about 10 minutes down the road and where 100.000s of people were kept and transported to via train.The conditions people had to try and live in were awful as expected, the small blocks with the wooden slats used as beds for 10 people who only had their prison pyjamas to keep them warm, a lot of people died due to exhaustion, starvation, dehydration, the cold and the heat which was just awful, that including all the people that were gassed or executed.

This was such an amazing insight to what happened but you could still never imagine what is was like!

After the emotionally and physically draining day, we got back to the hotel at about 16.30, we sat in the bar for the evening having a few drinks and some dinner, before bed as we were both shattered after today.

Day 3 (21.01.25)

No rush to get up again today as it was a tiring day yest so we just chilled out this morning until around half 10/11 before walking into the old town again. We grabbed some brekkie before getting on what was like a golf buggy to do the tour of the Jewish quarter, Schindler's factory, the castle and old town. Our guide was very good and very informative and took around an hour to do. As it was our last day we found somewhere to eat and have a few drinks, I ended up having a couple of cocktails for a change as was lighter than beer and a lovely cheese and bacon burger.

Again as we knew we were travelling tomorrow so we got back to the hotel around 4pm to pack and get ready for our flights. Once we were all packed we chilled out and listened to some LuAnna podcast which we both were laughing our heads off at as they are so funny.

Home day (22.01.25)

Flight is at 15.45 today so we just chilled in the hotel until taxi picked us up at 11.30, got to the airport had a drink and a panini before flying home, got through pretty quick and actually landed 20 mins early so back to the car, dropped Bondy off and home by 19.00.

Ready for the next adventure.