Slept well although Rosena claimed that the wrinklies woke her up at 6.30. Breakfast was buffet style and quite a scrum. Some of the vieux French types were very pushy and rude - must be Parisiens. Once we had fought our way through and grabbed a table it was a pretty decent breakfast. Today's plan was to hit the Wawel early, Krakow's ancient Citadel . This gets so busy that they limit the number of tickets sold each day but we weren't too worried as we only planned to visit the non charging areas. As we set off it had been raining but was now just overcast. There was a major tram intersection very close to the hotel and a machine selling day passes. What more could we ask for?
Once on the tram Rosena repeated her acrobatic performance last seen on a Prague tram in December, the difference being that Prague trams are red and Krakow trams blue. Polish women must be tougher than they look - R landed on three of them who hardly blinked. From the tram stop a short walk took us to the foot of the hill leading up to the Wawel. We fought our way up through the school crocodiles and guided tours to the cathedral which was impressive if you like that sort of thing but had a no photos policy. For a while we were trapped behind a vast guided tour but managed to slip out through a side exit, but not before we had seen a statue of a king with a beaver footwarmer. The copper gargoyles were also very impressive.
Once we had had our fill of medieval culture we took a short tram ride to Kazimierz, the Old Jewish Quarter. This has lots of little streets and squares, that made up the Ghetto in past times. For about £3 we got a beer, a coffee and 40 minutes internet in a pavement cafe letting us post yesterday's blog and giving Dave the chance to catch up on the football results. He wishes he hadn't bothered. We decided to look at the market in Nowy Plac and found a little stall selling earrings, which R has a problem resisting, she didn't, collecting a restaurant tip into the bargain. As some time had passsed since a refreshment we found a table at a pavement cafe opposite the market and watched the world buying lunch at a row of hot sandwich stalls. One seemed particularly busy and R decided that it would be our lunch venue. We dropped lucky as they spoke enough English to be able to take our money and the solitary table was vacated just as we got there. Zapiekanki are just the job for lunch.
In order to work off lunch we took a five mile tram trip east to Nova Huta,a Stalinist new town bulit to house steel workers. The central areas were quite impressive, including a tourist information office and signed walks. After a reviving beer we took a stroll and were stopped by a council tourism official who asked if we would mind answering a few questions. There were 3 pages of them. Dave got his own back by saying that the best thing about Krakow is the tram system. Once you get out of the centre Nova Huta is just like Cumbernauld or Corby so we hopped the next tram back to the hotel.
Our plan was to visit the Botanic Gardens on the way into town for supper but we failed to find the entrance so we went to see the big shopping centre instead. Dave treated himself to a couple of model animals for the railway. The recommended restaurant was across town so we hopped a tram to the general area and started to look for it. After 20 minutes walking up and down we showed our piece of paper to a couple of locals who pointed at a building we had walked past four times. How they laughed. We booked a table and went for a drink. R was unhappy with the first one - she said the tonic was flat so we had to go for another. On our way back to the restaurant we passed Julian and Sandy's place.
The Kampania Kuflowa (advertised as the Pod Wawelem which is why we walked past it) was brilliant. With our menus came sauerkraut and gherkins although Rosena lamented the lack of a small pot of lard. The starters were fine even though neither of us can remember what they were. We were too busy being entertained by a string and accordion trio playing the Light Programme's greatest hits. For the main course we ordered a shared meat platter with side salads. Even adjacent tables blenched as they saw it arrive. We enjoyed it up to a point at which we gave in and called a tram.
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