Wieliczka Salt Mine and Kalinka Restaurant

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Wieliczka Salt Mine is another UNESCO World Heritage Site and was first mined in the middle ages. The mine contains three thousand chambers covering over 300 KM. The highest chambers (where the tour really begins) in the mine are located at about 64 metres below ground or 378 steps down. The deepest chambers are 327 M. Fortunately, we didn't have to walk back up the stairs at the end of the tour.

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Wierzyneck 1364 Krakow, Poland

The visit to Auschwitz was our last stop on the WWII history portion of our trip. I'd wanted to see Nuremberg and the Nazi party rally grounds and the Congress Hall and then Auschwitz. Now it was time to move on  to  the happier portion of our trip and dinner always makes me happy so we set out to find a restaurant.

One of the nice things about Krakow is the great value for your money and even in the old city centre prices were more than reasonable. 

We were walking around the Main Town Square menu browsing when we came across a very nice restaurant called Wierzyneck 1364. It is beautiful. We were seated in the main dining room, which is decorated with sumptuous carpeting, linens, drapes and gorgeous stained glass.

After browsing the menu we decided to have the duck, which is flambed at your table. It is served with apples cooked in honey and a ginger cranberry cake. It was delicious, and quite the showstopper to see it prepared.
For dessert I had a beautiful frozen pear mousse with a dark chocolate sauce. Again, it was delicious.

www.wierzynek.pl

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Model of Wawel Castle Krakow, Poland

 

I've finally got a decent internet connection here in Switzerland so I am going to try to share some of the video clips from the trip. 

Pod Wawelem

Pod Wawelem is a pub/restaurant in the Hotel Royal and just a couple blocks from our hotel, in the old city, across from Wawel Castle. We thought we were entering a posh restaurant and were surprised when we came into what was basically a beer hall.  Big steins of beer were everywhere, sauerkraut, sausage, cherry vodka shots and cute boys and girls serving the happy crowd. filled the room .They were surely growing big muscles under the massive platters of food they were delivering to hungry patrons. 

I had a bread bowl with sauerkraut and sausage and pork ribs that were divine in their simple deliciousness, and a big stein of beer that would make Homer Simpson drool.

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Please leave your comment or reaction below. Your feedback is appreciated!    ~ Mark Daye

Dragon's Den

Went to up the hill to Wawel Castle and took some pictures and video. Originally we had planned to take the indoor tour, but decided to just shoot outside. We came upon something called the Dragon's Den tour at the top of the rampart. It only cost something like 6 zylot, which is about two dollars Canadian per person, so not expensive.

We entered the little booth on the rampart and were presented with a staricase spiraling downward. The stairs seemed to go on forever and after awhile I thought we must be deep in the earth.

Suddenly the stairs ended and we entered a small cave, which opened into a much larger cavern and passageway that eventually brought us out to the river level and the famous firebreathing dragon.

David was scared, so I reassured him and urged him to try getting some video of this legendary beast. At great risk to life and limb, David managed to get some footage of the monster, know as the Wawel Dragon, but mine is better (lol) so here it is....

Like this post? Hate it? Please leave your comment below, all are appreciated!    ~ Mark Daye

Krakow, Poland (Eat, Pray, Pray, Pray, Love)

Krakow, Poland: October 16, 2010.

There were several nice little bistro type places on our street near our hotel, so we thought we'd try one of them. One italian place very close by looked nice and had a live jazz band playing so we decided to go inside. The place was packed and a frazzled waiter brusquely told us "NO", followed by some Polish which was unintelligible to me. I have come to realize that the Polish and Germans have a bit of an edge when they speak English and can come across as being bit abrupt, but I think it is generally not intentional, just a different inflection than what the average English speaker is used to. In this case, the guy was very busy and overwhelmed, and I can certainly understand.

We made a hasty exit and decided to try out the Horoscope Restaurant on the corner at the end of our street. The place was a quaint Polish bistro with plenty of candles, low red lights and interesting wall decor. We did some quick math and realized the prices were more than reasonable compared to what we pay in Canada for a meal at a restaurant of similar quality.

Krakow maple leaf. I have maple leaf pics from Paris, London, Rennes, and a few other places.

We ordered appetizers. David had the fried camembert with almonds and a raspberry compote. This was more than enough for two people and reasonably priced.

For mains I had the 'rabbit, in it's own sauce', beetroot and gnocchi. David went for the 'chicken in it's own sauce' with a side of roasted potatoes.

To drink, we chose a Chianti, the best one on the menu, which we would never normally do at home, but the price was right, and we are on our honeymoon after all.

The busy little restaurant served delicious food that was inexpensive, and had a homemade and robust quality to it.

The staff were friendly and helpful, spoke some English and the restroom was tiny, but clean and pleasant

My first impressions of Krakow are good. I'm an atheist, but if I was a praying man I'd have a difficult time deciding which church I'd attend. There are literallly some 31 churches shown on the map of the area immediately surrounding our hotel.

I do enjoy the architecture of churches, let's face it, they cost a fortune and the faithful don't mind spending on their places of worhsip, and I get to enjoy the visual result.

Krakow is VERY Catholic, the late Pope John Paul II was the archbishop of Krakow and he is the main man here. You will see him all over the place, along with other various saints, martyrs and other religious types. 

I covered the eat and the pray.

The love is for my husband, and I now also love Krakow and can't wait to return and see the rest of it.

Like this post? Hate it? Please leave your comment below, all are appreciated!    ~ Mark Daye

Hannover, Germany To Warsaw, Poland

Poznan: It is now 10:00 am local time, or 4:00 am EST. This train is very late. We are still a couple of hours west of  Warsaw.

The ride thus far was uneventful, with the exception of the seemingly randomness of the lights turning on and off throughout the night. It was disruptive and not conducive to sleeping.

The old woman in front of me has the right idea. She is fully reclined, sleeping mask on, covered with a fluffy blanket and snoring a deep resonating snore that is full of sleep satisfaction.

The last time we had an overnight trip on a train we booked a couchette (a sleeping car that sleeps six in bunks) and didn't sleep well at all. This time around we booked regular seating with big upholstered seats and were looking forward to a comfortable ride.

When we boarded the train, our car was pleasantly dark and everyone seemed to be fast asleep.
The large seats recline so far back, with their attached footrest that they almost become beds. We quietly settled in, ready to depart. Then we waited some more.

Finally, we began to move.

Nobody was coming for our tickets so we decided to try and sleep, they could wake us if necessary. Sleep was more important now.

Suddenly the lights came on. I thought the ticket guy was coming for my ticket. I thought wrong. The lights were on for no apparent reason, they stayed on for awhile, then after several minutes, off they went.

Suddenly they were back on again.

This was getting ridiculous and being the only two who were awake, it seemed we were the only ones on board who were bothered, although I suspect others were getting annoyed too. I see a strongly worded letter (SWL) in the future.

I used my jacket sleeve to cover my eyes and I played Mozart on the ipod. Soon I was asleep. I was out cold until I felt David poking me in the side: His remedy for loud snoring.

I slept soundly until I awoke in Berlin.

When I woke up again around 8:30 am we were in Poland and many people had left our car. It is rainy and overcast outside, which is just the way I expected Poland would be.

11:45 am Finally, an update! We will be arriving at Warsaw Central Station at 12:20 pm. I just had the best cup of tea ever, and met a lovely young lady from the UK who is also going to Warsaw.

Frankfurt Again (or the Night of 1,000 Boys).

We made it back to Frankfurt in time to shower and check out. Now we have to wait until 9 pm tonight to catch the first train on our journey to Poland. It will be a three train trip taking all night and a big chunk of tomorrow.

We arrive in Warsaw around 8 am and our final destination Krakcow around ten. (I think, we need to check our tickets for the exact time). This won't be fun since we haven't slept yet, other than a nap in the hotel lounge earlier.  We are going to stay a day or two and get rested before we travel to Auchwitz.

Ist Stop: Hanover 

I was just advised by my fiance husband to think of something fun to do in a German train station in the middle of the night for two hours, that we won't get arrested for. Hmmmmm......

We are finally on our way to Poland after the Nuremberg/Frankfurt mixup.

Hanover: We arrived after sleeping for the entire two hour train ride. I fell asleep as soon as we started to move. Once in Hanover we had about two and a half hours to wait for our next train to take us to Warsaw.
The train station here is large with a two level shopping complex inside, which was packed with drunken young people.

The ratio was about one girl for every ten boys, and none of them seemed to be over thirty. We did a bit of investigating and saw that there are a few clubs around the station, and I don't think they close until... I have no idea, but fortunately there are lots of police and security people around. They kids are rowdy but seem pretty harmless.

(later) We are waiting on the platform, tired with sore feet from walking around for the past couple of hours. It is 3:00 am local time. We should arrive in Warsaw for 10:00 am and then we have another couple of hours on a different train to get to Krakow. I hope we get some sleep on the way and can get back on a normal schedule after this.

Nuremberg, Germany/Nurnberg, De

Oct. 14th, 2010. 1:20 pm, local time or 7:20 am EST.

We are on the Deutschebahn ICE train headed to Nuremberg. We left the very large and impressive Frankfurt main station at 12:54, much later than we had expected due to us  sleeping much later than expected, but we are feeling refreshed and looking forward to seeing the rebuilt medievil city of Nuremberg and the museum at the old Nazi Party Congress Hall.

David tried to find a hotel here about a month ago with no luck, it seems there is some large convention in town or something like that, so we are doing a day trip by train. Tonight we will return to Frankfurt and then tomorrow night we take another train (or several different trains to be precise) to Krakow, Poland.

Green Germany

We just passed a large array of wind turbines, which are huge, much bigger than any I've seen.  I saw a field full of turbines when we were decending on the plane, I wonder if these are the same ones?

They are several kilometres away and tower above anything around. We aslo saw a large field packed with a solar array, but I didn't get a picture of it. It is very common to see homes covered with solar panels as the government here will buy your extra electricity, as they do back in Ontario.

Here's a few more pictures, there will be some of us to come, stay tuned!

 

Hillside wind turbines, between Frankfurt and Nuremberg, Germany.

This is what passes for a double in Europe. Oh well, as long as my sweetie is with me, I'm happy!

The view from our Franfurt hotel room.

Polish Tragedy In Russia

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country’s highest military and civilian leaders died on Saturday when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia, killing 96, officials said.

Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the 26-year-old Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Katyn forest of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.
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