Day 3 - Tour Day 1 – Friday 5 July - Krakow

Sunrise:         4:37am                                              Sunset:          8:51pm

Forecast 14 to 24 and cloudy

I woke around 6am and decided to get up instead of waiting for the 7am alarm to go off.

Went down to breakfast but didn’t eat much at all. An okay spread.

Left the hotel around 9ish and using MapsMe, found my way the Barbican.

To get to the Barbikan from the hotel, I had to walk through part of Planty Park. It encircles the famous Old Town of Krakow. 

Apparently when it was decided to knock down the Medieval city walls in the early 19^thcentury, the park was formed to replace them.

The Barbikan is the only remaining gatehouse of the medieval fortifications that once encircled the whole city. It’s redbrick bulwarks and formidable turrets helped to fend off the Mongol hordes during the 13^th century. Today there are occasional theatre productions and other art shows hosted inside. 

Nearby is St Florians’ Gate.

It marks the start of the so-called Royal Route.  The street running from St. Florians’ Gate is Florianska Street.  It hosts everything from craft beer bars to souvenir emporiums to vodka tasting joints.

I continued onto the main square and then decided to visit the Wawel Castle, even though it is included in the tour tomorrow.  There are some really lovely looking old houses that I passed along the way. The walk up to the castle is good heart exercise. 

I had a walk around the grounds but didn’t visit any of the exhibitions.  Too many people about.  Walked to a view point overlooking the river and took some photos.

After that I headed back to the main square and bought a ticket to visit the Underground Museum. No photos allowed.

After that I walked back to the hotel. The wind had been blowing during the day and I couldn’t find my comb, so decided to visit the shopping centre/mall across the road to buy a new one.  Couldn’ find a shop that sold any, so back to the hotel and got ready for the meet and great at 4:30. After that, we all walked into the Old Town for a small orientation, mainly for the people who only arrived today and then we all met up again for the included dinner at the hotel.

Greg handed out luggage tags and an Insight bag (I already have 2 or 3 of them, so I gave mine back to him later on) plus there was some info about a couple of optionals in the next 2 days that he needed to know the numbers for.

After that, I enjoyed a 3 course meal and was chatting to the woman that I had met earlier, Nicole (not sure of her last name) from Byron Bay.  Also, former neighbours and friends of my friend Mary, are on the tour. I met them when we all did a Wendy Wu tour of India back in 2013. Small world.

After dinner, it was back to my room and catching up with the journal.

I’m having internet problems tonight, so will post this tomorrow morning, my time.

Steps walked                      14,620