Prague and Poland Trip Report Contined
 

We saw the ballet 'The Taming of the Shrew" at the National Theater, which was excellent! Also saw the play "Romeo and Juliet" in Czech at the Estates Theater. We don't speak Czech but figured it didn't matter since we know the story!! I know that many people have questions about what to wear at the theater. I wore an ankle-length black skirt with red silk top and dressy jacket. My husband wore a sports coat with nice shirt and slacks, and my daugther wore dressy black slacks with a nice top. I felt that the majority of the people were dressed similar to us, with a few who were dressier (fancy dresses) and a few who were in jeans. Even many young boys wore white shirts,ties and nice pants.

After 3 days in Prague, we took a day train to Krakow, Poland. Took the 11:05am train from Prague and arrived in Krakow at 7:20pm. We enjoyed being able to see the Czech countryside while on the train. We stayed at the Hotel Saski, which we enjoyed very much. Excellent location: 1/2 block from the Main Square. Lovely Old European lobby. Our room was large but plain. Price was $90.00 including breakfast. We had a drink at the Pollonia while waiting for our train back to Prague and I was not impressed with what I saw. Don't like the area around the train station, either.

SIGHTSEEING: We spent 3 days in Krakow which I felt was fine unless you want to take more day trips from Krakow and visit all of the national museums throughout the city. We spent time strolling around the Main Square and browsing through the Cloth Market stalls. We spent about 3 hours at Wawel Cathedral and Castle. Visited the Cathedral, which is free, and bought tickets for the Royal Chambers (staterooms) and for the Royal Private Apartments (which includes a guided tour in English), and also bought tickets for the Dragon's Cave. While waiting for the tour to begin, we took photos, and had drinks at the outdoor cafe.
Visited the Gallery of 19th Century Polish Painting, on the 2nd floor of the Cloth Market, which we all enjoyed. Wanted to visit the Czartoryski Museum but it was closed when we got there and didn't have time to return. St. Mary's Church is a must!! It is one of the most ornate churches I have ever seen. Went to the Salt Mines in Wielicka, which I think are worthwhile. The cathedral in the mine is fabulous! Went on our own by Lux Bus, takes 20 minutes. Cost of bus is about 70cents one-way and tickets for guided tour of Salt Mine is about $7-8. We went on a guided tour of Auschwitz/Birkenau, which was very depressing but I feel that because it is such an important part of history that it is necessary to go. The English guided tour cost about $80 for 3 people. Including a 15-minute film, the tour of Auschwitz took 2 hours and then we spent about 20-30 minutes at Birkenau. The tour group was small - 7 people, which made it easy to hear our guide.
Another day, we walked to Kazimierz to visit the old Jewish Quarter. Had drinks at Restauracia "Arka Noego".
RESTAURANTS: Pod Aniolami - cozy and warm decor. $60.00 for 3 people, including appetizer, main meal, beer and vodka.
Smak Ukrainski, #15 Kanonicz St., close to Wawel Castle. Rustic atmosphere. Accordionist and Violinist. $35.00 for 3 people, including soup, main meals, wine, vodka and tea.
Domowe Przysmaki, 24 Slawkowska - small cafe,great for lunch, you order your lunch at the counter. Food was delicious - traditional Polish - we ordered 4 dishes that we shared - $8.00 for the 3 of us!
After spending 3 days in Krakow, we rented a car from Avis and drove through the beautiful countryside to the village of Krasiczyn (near the Ukraine border). Drove past rolling farmland and saw cabbage fields, cows and chickens. We shared the road with Polish farmers driving their tractors and wagons. Stayed at the magnificent Krasiczyn Castle. We had a suite for $125.00 including breakfast. The next day we drove through the mountains and back to Krakow. Saw more beautiful countryside, villages and roadside shrines. We made it as far as Nowy Sacz before we had to return to Krakow. We didn't have time to see Zakopane. Then we took the overnight train from Krakow to Prague. We had a compartment for 3 people, which I preferred over the 6-person compartment.
WEATHER: We had wonderful weather for sightseeing. It was cold at the beginning of the trip but not bitterly cold. The last 3 days were warmer than when we first arrived and we didn't need our scarves and gloves. Most days were sunny; sometimes cloudy. We had one day of rain, the day we went to Auschwitz.
If anyone has any questions, I don't mind answering them. I'd love to help!

Hi
You might want to cut and paste this into a reply to your orignal part 1. That way all the information stays together.

Kwoo,
How was the overnight train? How was the Krakow train station that late at night? (I plan to take that train in 3 weeks.)
Thanks,
Kate

If I may put my oar in, Krakow main station at any hour has pickpockets who work in groups of three. The solution is in your hotel room to keep your rail tickets and a little money out, in a pocket or purse, put all other valuables including passport deep down in your heaviest bag, and board the train like that. Then in your compartment you take out your passport, reading matter, and on a sleeper your night things, for use on the journey.

You need to ask your hotel staff to find in advance from which platform your train leaves. Then when they order your taxi to the station you can ask them to ask the taxi to take you to the car park on the station roof and draw up by the lift that goes to your platform. You and your bags drop down to the platform (peron). This is one of the neatest rail departures in Europe. But there are still pickpockets on the platform.

There is a note on getting the best from sleepers at http://www.twenj.com/tipsnighttrains.htm/. I hope you are taking a sleeper: seats cars are subject to theft by travelling thieves, but you can lock and bolt the door of a sleeper.

Please write if I can help further. Welcome to Europe.

[email protected]

Message to Kate1:
Hello, We kept all our valuables in our neck pouch. Somehow we missed the car park and lift that Ben Haines suggested. So we walked to the platform. First, we dropped off our rental car at the nearby Avis office on Lubice St. Then we walked to the train station. One mistake we made was having a late lunch that day. It was a lot of food and very filling. So when we returned to Krakow to get our train, we weren't hungry for supper. We bought pastries. The shops were closed due to the All Saints Day holiday so couldn't do last minute shopping. So we arrived at the train station early and went to the one restaurant there, bought drinks, ate our pastries and read. The restaurant closed at 9:00pm, so we went to the Pollonia Hotel for a drink and stayed there until it was time to board our train. If I had to do it over again, we would have had an earlier lunch, and then had supper in Krakow before we boarded the train. The station was not crowded at night, and it was easy to find our platform. The platform is listed on a schedule board in the main part of the station. The conductor showed us to our compartment. We had a 3-person compartment (there were 3 of us) which was nice. It had a wash basin. I didn't want to share a compartment with strangers so felt it was worth it to reserve the 3-person compartment. The door locks from the inside. The conductor woke us up 20 minutes before we arrived at the Prague station, which was exactly enough time to get ready. We slept in our pajamas because we had our own compartment. I was initially nervous about the night train but everything went very smooth. Of course, you need to follow precautions like Ben Haines suggested.