Rick Steves in historic Kraków
While Kraków seems made for aimless strolling, those with a smart sightseeing plan are well-rewarded.
The city’s historic walls and former moat corral a full range of attractions — wonderful museums, captivating churches that evoke a powerful faith (including many sights relating to Poland’s favourite son, St. John Paul II), leafy parks, stirring Jewish heritage sights, and a burgeoning foodie and nightlife scene. The city also makes a good base for a compelling side-trip to the most notorious Holocaust site of the Third Reich (AuschwitzBirkenau).
Within its medieval walls, Kraków’s Old Town converges on one of the most charismatic squares in Europe, the Main Market Square. Anytime of the day, I enjoy choosing a café, sinking deep into my chair, and absorbing the gorgeously intact buildings around me.
Vast as it is, the square has a folksy intimacy. It bustles with street musicians, cotton-candy vendors, and the lusty coos of pigeons. A folk band — swaggering in their colourful peasant costumes — gives me a private concert. Feeling flush, I tip them royally.
I hear a bugle call. Glancing around, I pan up to see its source: a trumpet poking out of the tallest tower of the hulking, redbrick St. Mary’s Church. Just as I spot the sun glinting off of the trumpet’s bell, the song stops, causing the crowd below to chuckle and applaud appreciatively. This tune — performed every hour on the hour — comes with a legend. During the 1241 Tatar invasion, a watchman saw the enemy approaching and sounded the alarm. Before he could finish, an arrow pierced his throat — which is why even today, the music stops — subito — partway through.
Ready to move on, I toss a few coins on the table to cover my tab — and head into the Rynek Underground Museum. When the square was excavated about a decade ago, workers found so many coins, tools, and artifacts of archeological value that the city opened this excellent museum. Here, at four metres below street level, I get an intimate look at medieval life in Kraków.
Back on the street, I linger as I find my way through town. Curiosity leads me into Staropolskie Trunki (“Old Polish Drinks”), a friendly little place with a long bar and countless local vodkas and liquors — each one open and ready to be sampled. For about $3, I get a complete vodka education with a cheery local bartender who talks me through five different tastes.
After my private vodka tour (which makes me uncharacteristically giddy for so early in the day), I keep walking and end up in Wawel Hill. The most visited sight in Poland, this is considered sacred ground, a symbol of Polish royalty and independence. Though a castle has stood here since the 11th century, the highlight is Wawel Cathedral, which houses the tombs of the country’s greatest rulers and historic figures. A stony jungle of memorials, it is the Westminster Abbey of Poland.
My stroll takes me to Kazimierz, the historic Jewish Quarter. Once, most of Europe’s Jews lived in Poland. Kraków was their social and political base. This is where the big events of the Second World War intersected with ordinary, everyday lives. The businessman Oskar Schindler ran his factory here, saving the lives of more than 1,000 of his Jewish workers. Now, one of Europe’s best museums about the Nazi occupation fills Schindler’s building. The museum tells more than the story of Schindler and his workers, it explains the full experience of Kraków during the painful era of Nazi rule.
The market square of Kazimierz retains the gritty flavour of the town before tourism and gentrification. While travellers come to see Kazimierz’s historic sights during the day, it isn’t a “preserved” neighbourhood like the cute town centre. Throngs of young clubbers bring the streets to life after dark, and an everchanging array of bohemian-chic restaurants make Kazimierz an evening foodie destination.
This mingling of a rich historic and thriving contemporary scene makes Kraków the ideal place for the traveller to feel the beating heart of Polish culture.