After my visit to the Wieliczka Salt Mine I headed up to Krakow for a final night before flying home. Judy and I spent 4 nights in Krakow in the spring of 2025 (some posts over on my Poland page, if you're interested). Really enjoyed it, even though the weather wasn't terrific. I was looking forward to seeing the city again and having a productive final day in Poland.
I came in through the south side of the city, took some vibe shots along Wielicka, the big avenue / thoroughfare that feeds into town. I was around the level of the Krakus Mound, for reference.
Waze then sent me on a little cut through (Swietej Kingi), where I was apparently pretty close to a LEGO museum. Nice little side street.
Then I think the route took me over ti Il Obwodnica to get me up to the north side of Stare Miasto. Generic urban artery type scenery.
The apartment I rented was through Cracow Rentals Zacisze, and I saw on Google Maps that this parking lot looked like my best bet. Super rare for a parking lot to have a 4.6 star rating on 1200+ reviews, so I put my faith in the internet. When I got there it was essentially full. Think I lucked out and snagged literally the last spot.
I still had maybe 90 minutes before I could check into the apartment, so I left everything in the car and found me a Bolt scooter for a spin around the city. I aimed myself for Henryk Jordan Park. My path should have looked something like this:
I say *should have* because (a) who knows how efficiently I navigated my way over there as (b) there were marathon related roadblocks all over old town. Yes, it was marathon day in Krakow. Something I learned when I hit the roadblocks. But eventually I got over to the park. I'm learning now as I drill into the geo data for my fotos that this is the National Museum.
Good amount of funky wooden benches outside in case you need to regroup and reflect on the exhibition you just strolled through.
Did a big loop around the park, which is very nice. Reminded me of the vibes in the parks along the northside of Lake Shore drive. i.e., closer to the 5600N block where we used to live and things were a bit more chill than what you see as you get closer to the Diversey / Fullerton / Oak Street stretch where it's lively.
From the park I didn't have a great plan. Or, if I did have a plan, it got disrupted by the marathon related closures and the like. I wound up zig zagging around the Dębniki area, which is circled below.
Nice and quiet down there. People out enjoying a nice Sunday along the river. Side streets seemed chill and family friendly. Nice part of Krakow to live in, I would think. Very close to the center, but separate enough to feel a world apart. Was busy scooting for the most part, but took a few scenery pics.
Having killed enough time that I could head back to my apartment, I eventually navigated to somewhere close to Wawel Castle, dropped the scooter off, and started making my way up through the heart of old town. It was a busy Sunday, amplified by the marathon situation.
I was hungry so, yes, I dropped into another McDonald's for another McCrispy.
Satiated, I grabbed my bags out of the Renault and let myself into the apartment. I had one of their superior suites, which you can see on Booking.com. I was happy to see a tidy building and an apartment with good space. Would definitely stay there again.
Even the limited view out the back over parking lot and toward other buildings had some charm to it.
A couple of my colleagues agreed to meet up for a quick bite while I was in town. They suggested Bunkier Cafe, which was perfect. I had noticed its location during my previous trip and really liked the setting and vibe. So I ducked into the center-center by the Barbican.
And then worked my way counter clockwise around Planty Park from around 12 on the dial over toward 9. It was cool but not yet rainy, so a nice walk.
Got some sweet potato fries and a ginger lemonade, I think, and we caught up on what I had been doing and seeing the past couple of weeks zipping around their country.
It was a Sunday night and rain was coming, so we kept it brief. Plus, if I hurried, I could still squeeze in one more sight to see: The Historical Museum of the City of Krakow (aka, Muzeum Krakowa), which was just a couple blocks away. So I walked through the mist across a quieter city center.
(Marathon tear down had progressed quite a bit in just a couple hours)
Paid my 45 PLN and walked around the circuit on my own. I can see that it would probably be very interesting with a guide. For something like that, even with all the great explanatory materials provided, I need someone to tell me the story. If you are into history I would expect that you'd enjoy this. I did a fast loop and snapped some pictures.
From there I ambled a bit, checked some hotel locations, took some vibe shots, and if I remember correctly, picked up food from Zabka to eat in the apartment while I packed up.
As a postscript to my trip, I did take note of just how crowded and cramped it felt departing from the Krakow airport. The year before we departed from Gdansk. And in between trips I'd been through a handful of other airports and don't remember anything quite like this. It's a small airport and not a great time hanging out.
Then during my connection through Munich I experienced first hand the rough rollout of the EES program. What a shitshow that was. This is one of the check points where we were all bottle necked. A line to get into a line. German airport military people and the dude in the sport coat did not care about anyone's flight connections.
Once we got past the lower bottleneck, we got into the upper bottle neck, where our biodata was to be taken.
And then finally you could get into the actual immigration line to have your exit from the EU processed.
I had a 2hr layover and barely made my connection. Good times.
Very unrelated tangent, but when I typed 'biodata' above it called to mind the classic viral video, Curry and Rice girl, circa 2005. Doubt this is the original upload, but glad it's still online. Was uproarious at the time. Skip to the 2:28 mark for the biodata connection. B-I-O-D-A-T-A!
