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| Cracow
Tours - Excursions |
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Tours of the city
Cracow’s Old Town is compact and easy to stroll around but a guided walking tour will enhance the experience. Guide Cracow (tel: (012) 422 2851) offer a selection of tours on foot, tailored to suit a variety of interests, from architecture to literature and famous people. Seasonal tours are available. Wedrowiec (tel: (012) 292 72 75) and Jan-Pol, Westerplatte 15 (tel: (012) 411 9964) offers guided tours of the old town.
Cracow Tours organise various bus trips to the
most popular attractions within and near Krakow, including daily
city tours, Jewish Krakow, Wieliczka Salt
Mine, Auschwitz, and even a day
trip to Zakopane. Stay
Poland (tel: 022 829 4072) offers 12 thematic tours
of the city, including royal Krakow, legendary
Krakow and papal Krakow.
Boat tours on the Vistula River offer wonderful views of Wawel Castle; and the café on the boat is a delightful place to relax. Departures are from south of Wawel from May to September.
In season, Rynek Glowny is overrun with horse drawn carts (dorozkis), brought in to entertain the tourist masses. Trotting across the cobbles, though, is something of an important experience for first time visitors. A relatively new sight on Cracow’s streets are the overvalued golf carts that now ferry visitors around the Old Town, Wavel Castle, Kazimierz and Skalka Monastery. Addtional information from Jordan Information Centre (tel: (012) 421 2125).
Excursions For a Half Day
Wieliczka
The Royal Salt Mine at Wieliczka is a distinctive underground town, located 10km (6 miles) southeast of Cracow, which dates from the late 13th century and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Among the chambers is the Chapel of St Antony, where the first Mass was held before the miners began work in 1698, and the 1896 Chapel of Blessed Kinga, which features sculptures carved from the salt, and is lit by chandeliers whose crystals are made of salt. Kinga¡¯s remains were placed in the main altar in the year 1994 and she was canonized to celebrate John Paul II¡¯s visit in 1999. The Muzeum Zup Krakowskich (Cracow Salt Works Museum) comprises exhibitions within the mine and in the Salt Works Castle. A 2 hours and 30 minutes tour takes in the chambers, caverns and underground lakes of the mine; visitors can also descend directly to the exhibit by lift. The temperature is steady at 14¢ªC (57¢ªF) and warm clothing is advised. Tours are available on daily basis, 0730-1930hrs from mid April to mid October or 0800-1600hrs during the rest of the year. Regular trains (as well as the Lux Bus) run from Cracow¡¯s Main Railway Station to the site, while coaches and excursion tours are also available. The Cracow Salt-Works Museum, ulica Zamkowa 8 (tel: (012) 422 1947) can provide more information. Admission is charged (non professional use of cameras is extra).
Excursions For a Whole Day
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Oswiecim (Auschwitz) concentration camp is situated 70km from Cracow and is an indispensable day trip, as it brings home the horrors of Nazi rule and the Holocaust perhaps more than anywhere else in the world. Auschwitz was actually three camps (Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau and Auschwitz III-Monowitz) with 40 sub-camps. Today, the preserved buildings of the first camp house displays of photographs and personal articles (from hair to shoes, suitcases and pots and pans), which evoke the misfortune of individuals. Many visitors never make the effort to go onto the second camp, Auschwitz II (Birkenau), but this is the extermination camp where 4 million victims of Nazi Germany were murdered, many were led straight from their cattle trucks into the gas chambers. It is at Birkenau that the sheer scale of the tragedy is most evident, though it has few of the visitor facilities of Auschwitz itself.
The Auschwitz Memorial Museum, ulica Wiezniow Oswiecimia 20 (tel: (033) 843 2022) is open 7 days a week from 0800hrs (closing time varies seasonally between 1500 and 1900hrs) and is free of charge.
Many operators in Cracow offer coach tours, there are also regular coach and rail services from the city. Bus travel is also available between the camps. |
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