Poland: The History, Culture & Cuisine of Kraków

We took a 2-hour flight on RyanAir from Naples, Italy to Kraków, Poland and the difference between these two countries, is more than just geographic, they feel different, have separate histories, cultures, language and certainly food. It’s a difference I’m looking forward to exploring. Why did we decide to pair the two? Alice mentioned Poland while we were all traveling in France last year and many of us thought…sure, why not.

I visited Kraków in 2016 on a Rick Steves tour of Central Europe for my 60-days of travel celebrating my 60th birthday and retiring after 28 years of working for the U.S. Department of Labor. I visited 12 countries in those 60 days, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Germany, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. Traveling was the reason why I retired and continues to be what motivates me.

Founded in the 7th century, Kraków is one of Poland’s oldest cities and served as its capital from 1038 to 1596. Key periods include its rise as a royal seat under the Piast dynasty, destruction by Mongols in 1241, and its golden age in the 15th-16th centuries. Though losing capital status to Warsaw, it remained a center of Polish culture, surviving World War II largely intact to become a UNESCO site.

From its inception in the 14th century to the early 19th century, Kazimierz was an independent suburban village outside Krakow, located on the northern bank of the Vistula River and south of the Royal Castle on the Wawel Hill.

For many centuries, Kazimierz was a place where ethnic Polish and Jewish cultures coexisted and intermingled. In 1941, during World War II, the Jews of Kraków were forcibly relocated by the German occupying forces into the Kraków Jewish Ghetto just across the southern bank of the Vistula River in Podgórze. The area was eventually sealed off by walls. It served as a staging ground before victims were sent to concentration and extermination camps, including the nearby Plaszow camp, most did not survive the war.

Kazimierz has since become revived as a cultural, culinary and bohemian hotspot and Podgórze has transformed into one of the city’s trendiest neighborhoods.

Come walk with us through the Kazimierz and Podgórze areas of Kraków.

It was a full day private walking tour, with our guide Monika, of Kraków  with the usual gang of Rosie, Alice, John and myself with friends of Alice and John, Eric and Karen who flew in from their home in Scotland.

The day included the Collegium Maius, the Jagiellonian University’s public museum; the Old Town or historic district of Kraków including St. Mary’s Basilica, the iconic 14th-century brick Gothic church located in the northeastern corner of the Main Market Square; the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Kraków and lastly for the day, the Sanctuary of Saint John Paul II located in the Southern part of Kraków, called Lagiewniki before returning to the Main Market Square for a delicious early dinner at the Piano Rouge.

Come see even more sites of Kraków.

The Sanctuary of Saint John Paul II

What should have been a train ride to see Our Lady of Częstochowa, the Black Madonna at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, ended up being a train fiasco that actually turned into a slow, easy day for me in the Old Town of Kraków. Feels like the Madonna had other plans in mind for me today. Hopefully our paths will cross in the future. But for today, it was an absolute pleasure to just roam around freely.

But I still got a chance to see the Black Madonna, at least a copy of her, on the ground floor of the bell tower inside St. Mary’s Basilica in her own Chapel. Who is the Black Madonna and why is she so revered and deeply worshipped in Poland? It’s because she’s viewed as the spiritual Queen and Protector of the Nation.

Here’s to a leisurely day in the Old Town of Kraków.

It was another easy day in Kraków, which was lovely. Taking time to slow down is actually the best way to keep going when I’m traveling for weeks at a time. Plus, the weather today was less than ideal, chilly and gray.

The only things on the agenda for today was a walk through the Princes Czartoryski Museum one of the country’s oldest museums is located just a few steps from my my hotel, the Hotel Polski Pod Bialym Orlem. Spent the afternoon taking it easy before having a nice dinner at The Black Duck then  taking a 15-minute walk to the Royal Chopin Hall for the Queen Classic Concert by candlelight.

Come join my leisurely day.

Stained Glass Workshop

I’ve always appreciated the art and beauty of stained glass so getting to visit a stained glass workshop and make a simple stained glass piece. And what better place to learn the basics of making stained glass than in Kraków, considered as the undisputed stained-glass capital of Poland.

Stained glass has been used for thousands of years, beginning with the Ancient Romans and Egyptians, who produced small objects made from coloured glass. Although the process of making a stained-glass window begins with a design, it is still difficult to pinpoint the origins of the first stained glass windows. It is suggested that the technique arose from jewellery making and mosaics.

The S.G. Żeleński Stained Glass Workshop and Museum in Kraków has been in continuous operation since 1902 making it the oldest stained glass studio in Poland. Its originator was Stanisław Gabriel Żeleński,  an architect by profession who decided to create the first significant stained-glass workshop in Poland.

The workshop functions as a “living museum” where traditional stained glass art is still being made. It  allows visitors to watch artisans create, repair and design stained glass. And, in our case, participate in a hands on experience of what it takes to make a small stained glass piece.

Come join us as we learn about and dabble in the art of stained glass making at the G. Żeleński Stained Glass Workshop also known as the muWi Stained Glass Museum in Kraków. And thanks Alice for arranging this tour and the workshop. This turned out to be a learning and creatively fun experience.

Kraków Food Walking Tour

Although it turned out to be a cool and gloomy day, it was certainly brightened by doing a food walking tour with Eat Polska. 

I left early for our meetup point at the Plac Wolnica in Kazimierz, the vibrant beating heart of the historic Jewish quarter in Kraków, so I could make a couple of stops along the way to see the two churches next to one another, the grand baroque Church of Saints Apostles Peter and Paul and the Saint Andrew’s Church. 

Let’s go check out some sites and eat some good, hearty food in Kraków. 

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Our last full day in Kraków turned out to be a long incredible day visiting two distinctly but remarkable UNESCO World Heritage sites near Kraków. Our first stop was the Wieliczka Salt Mine, one of the world’s oldest and fascinating operating salt mines with carved salt art showing the creative beauty of humanity to  Auschwitz-Birkenau the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camp complex,

The first stop of the day was the Wieliczka Salt Mine, located in the town of Wieliczka, just a 30-minute ride outside of Kraków, where we descended more than 800 steps into the salt mine. Considered as one of the world’s oldest operating salt mines, it was excavated beginning in the 13th century and produced table salt continuously until 1996.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau complex consisted of Auschwitz I (the main camp), Auschwitz II-Birkenau (the mass killing center) and one we did not visit, the Auschwitz III-Monowitz (forced labor camp) operating in occupied Poland from 1940 to 1945, showing the true moral depravity of humanity. It served as a primary site for the systematic mass murder of European Jews alongside forced labor and imprisonment for other targeted groups. The camp turned the killing of human beings into an efficient, factory-like process using gas chambers and crematoria. Out of at least 1.3 million people sent to the complex, roughly 1.1 million—mostly Jews, alongside Poles, Roma, and Soviet prisoners—were murdered there.

By the end of the day, I was completely worn out. I witnessed the very best and the very worst of us. And, yet I am so grateful for the opportunity to live, learn and travel.

Here’s to our last day in Kraków as we move on to Warsaw.

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum – Auschwitz I

We took the more than hour’s drive from Wieliczka Salt Mine to begin our tour at Auschwitz 1 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, which consists of two distinct sites, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

Auschwitz I served as the main administrative center and concentration camp for Polish political prisoners while Auschwitz II-Birkenau was built to hold Soviet prisoners of war, and both eventually functioned as mass extermination center.

Starvation, beating, backbreaking labor, awful living conditions, illnesses, and epidemics caused rapid physical deterioration for the people imprisoned at two camps are located less than two miles or about 3 kilometers away from one another.

Prisoners perished as a result of punishment, torture, and criminal medical experiments, as well as by execution. Those incapable of work by reason of illness or exhaustion were sent to the gas chambers or killed by phenol injection.

This is just some of Auschwitz 1 in Poland.

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum – Auschwitz II-Birkenau

After visiting Auschwitz I, the main administrative center and concentration camp for Polish political prisoners, we arrived at Auschwitz II-Birkenau of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum later in the afternoon in the height of the heat. This massive complex is a completely open site with almost no natural shade, which made for a really hot day.

Unlike Auschwitz I, where our tour group moved through brick buildings, Auschwitz II-Birkenau requires you to stay outdoors. The heat and the discomfort of Auschwitz II-Birkenau made me realize that the discomfort I was feeling was nothing in comparison to the human beings who suffered at the hands of the Nazi’s and whose lives were cruelly taken away.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau was built to expand the original Auschwitz camp as a large facility for Soviet prisoners of war and to serve as a massive center for the mass murder of Jewish people. This vast camp consists of 346 acres with 300 barracks and other buildings, 10 miles of barbed wire and four gas chambers with crematoriums.

This is Auschwitz II-Birkenau in Poland.