By this Author: Deb Godley

An uneventful and only slightly late flight to JFK via Frankfurt. Uneventful is always good when it comes to international travel. Nice 3.5 hours in the airport lounge, including food and rest. We could have even used a sleeping pod, but we chose not to. Luggage arrived after only a small delay and we Ubered to our hotel in Brooklyn. Significant difference in the cost vs Uber in Poland about 4 times the cost for a similar time/distance.

First a few pics from my Sunday morning walk through downtown Brooklyn to the river. You can just see the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.

In the afternoon, we enjoyed cheering on the Mets to victory over the Phillies, including a home run and a good hitting game by both teams, although the Mets posted a shutout.

Near Citi Field where the Mets play is Flushing Meadows Corona Park and the site of the 1964 World’s Fair. You might recognize the towers from the Men in Black movie.

Did a few loads of laundry at a great place around the corner, so we are all set for our cruise, with clean clothes and everything.

Next post from Caribbean Princess, which will be our first on that cruise line.

A final walk around Wieliczka, including a visit to the “graduation tower” for some brine therapy (Prophylactic inhalations permit to cleanse the respiratory tracts and that is why they are also referred to as nebulisation therapy, according to their website.) Salty water flows constantly down the sides, which are made of branches.

The the very efficient and comfortable train from Wieliczka to the Krakow airport and a short Uber (although we could have walked) to the nearby hotel. We decided to stay one less night in Wieliczka because we have a morning flight and need a Covid test beforehand (this test - thankfully negative- was nit required for the flight or entry to the US, but is required for our cruise out of NY on Monday). Some picks from my morning walk and I liked the roof on the train station.

After dropping the luggage at the new hotel - google maps still shows it as a forest in the satellite view -

we walked to the train station and took the 20 min trip to the old town, hoping to secure last minute tickets to the Rynek underground museum, which was closed last time we tried. Unfortunately, we were not successful, so we walked across the river and we’re lucky enough to find late tickets to the Oskar Schindler museum, which was very well done, although we were disappointed to be too late to see the film with individual’s stories.

Now, Friday morning, We are just about ready to board our first flight to Frankfurt. Gotta go…

Easy 30 minute train to Wieliczka from Krakow and Marcin met us at the station. We dropped the luggage with a family member (thank you again!) and drove to Wisnicz Castle.

And then picked up Urszula and ate at the nautical-themed restaurant at Kuter Port Restauracja, about 40k from Krakow. Very nice park, beach and cabins. And, of course, great food at the restaurant. No English on the menu, but they translated for us and a few items had QR links to see pics of the food, which helped us decide.

Today (Thursday), we had pre-purchased tickets for the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a UNESCO site. We took the tourist route and had a great 2-hr guided tour in English. Going down a few hundred steps - we started with 40 flights of 8 stairs (64 meters down) and after more passageways, large rooms and sloped paths ended up 130 meters down and walked about 2km. This represents only 2% of the mine’s distance and depth. Very cool salt sculptures and exhibits.

We rested up after the tour and then Marcin picked us up to take a look at another castle, this one in Niepolomice. Nice paintings and displays in the first section and then I was surprised by a display of successful hunts.

And a few pics from walking around…

One more day before we fly to NY…

Sunday we explored the Wawel Castle (Zamek Królewski na Wawelu). Each venue has a separate ticket starting at 5 zloty (<$2). We prepurchased guided tours in English of the Royal Apartments, State Rooms, and Crown Treasury. Each tour was about an hour. In retrospect, we could have just done one guided tour and then toured the other areas on our own. The castle is on a hill,with some good views and ends with an exit down a steep staircase and through the “dragon’s dungeon” to the river. Some pics from Wawel:

We returned in the evening to hear a concert, which included music by Poland’s favourite son, Chopin, as well as other classical music. There were three sets. The first was Chopin piano pieces, then a quartet of 2 violins, a viola and a cello. The third set included both the quartet and the piano. Very nice. I enjoyed watching the cellist’s fingers move to create the different sounds. The venue was a small outside courtyard in Wawel, set up for about 150 people.

We’ve also wandered around Krakow old town and surrounding areas, including my climb up Krakus Mound and passing by Zakrzowek Lake, this morning and wandering around the Jewish area of Kazimierz.

Steve found the dark lemon Czech beer, Litove, to be surprisingly good. And I’ve had no trouble finding dark beer to enjoy, especially porters. Yum.

This afternoon, we listened to the audio guide of the Wawel Cathedral including areas dedicated to Jean Paul II, the Pope from Krakow.

Tomorrow, we’ll train to Wieliczka, about 30 minutes away, and spend time in Marvin’s “hood”.

We spent the day on a tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Difficult to see and hear. Important to understand.