Welcome to Krakow

In theory, night train travel is very efficient. You get to sight see in one city all day, then just about when you would be settling in for the night, you go to the train station instead, board your train, sleep, and wake up ready to hit the streets sightseeing in a brand new city, without the cost of a day of transport. Unfortunately, it isn't quite that simple sometimes. between the heat and the noise from the open window, we slept poorly. The result being that we had to spend about four hours in the middle of the day today (when it was hottest) showering and napping. Not that it was a total loss, but we didn't accomplish as much today as we had envisioned when we made up our itinerary. It wasn't really the fault of the train. It was the heat.

Fortunately, Krakow is the perfect place to visit if you want to see the old town sights quickly and efficiently. I don't think I've ever seen a city with as much packed into a very small, yet quaint and thoroughly enjoyable area. The old town is surrounded by a ring-shaped park where the old city wall used to be. In the very center is the market square and the spire of the St. Mary's cathedral. So you don't even need a map to avoid getting lost. You can head for the square and the cathedral spire, see what there is to see there and in the market hall, then wander in the charming side streets. Once you hit the park, you know you are on the edge of the old town and you turn back toward the center down a different street. It really couldn't be simpler.

Krakow (and other Eastern cities) is also a haven for private or "boutique" youth hostels - meaning they are not part of the worldwide hosteling organization, are small, and not always grimly institutional looking. We are staying in the cleverly-named "Greg and Tom's" hostel, just a block outside of the ring. The building is a bit ramshackle, but the atmosphere is charmingly homey, they provide great service, and have food and refreshments (and wifi) available for free, which is rather stunning. We just returned from spending $50 on dinner and ice cream (not a bad price, either) to find that we could have eaten at the hostel for free! Tomorrow...

So we did a great deal of wandering it what remained of today. We saw much of the old town streets (top photo), St Mary's Cathedral (middle) and lots of funky civic artwork (bottom). We also took care of getting our train tickets to Prague two days from now (another night train, this one with AC, I hope {fat chance}), and our bus tickets for tomorrow's excursion to Auschwitz. It will be another day of hard lessons for the children, but worth it, I hope...