Krakow, Poland

We travelled to Krakow in Poland for the Easter Long Weekend. Having had the bad experience in Madrid we hoped this trip would make up for it. Arriving around midday at Balice John Paul II's international airport we travelled by shuttle bus into the central krakow. The shuttle bus stops near the Krakow Glowny Railway station (Main Central station) opposite the Galeria Krakowska (a large shopping centre). We negotiated a cheap transfer to our hotel which made is easier than finding the taxi rank.

After checking into the Sheraton, we caught the tram nearby back to the central railway station which was about 10-15 minutes from the hotel. We decided our first place to visit would be the UNESCO listed Wieliczka Salt Mines about 30 minutes train ride away. We popped into the Galeria Krakowska before boarding the train and got ourselves a shish kebab which was only 10 zlotys (about £2). The salt mine is a short walk from Wieliczka Rynek station. The Wieliczka Mine was created by nature 15 million years ago. It contains numerous chambers with salt sculpture and carvings by previous miners who used it during its active years. The mine features 9 floors ranging down to 327 meters in depth. We purchased tickets and waited for the english tour which ran every hour. You had to go with a tour guide as individual visitors are not allowed inside without one. As it was Good Friday, the mine was fairly busy and so the tours moved very quickly through the mine. To get underground, we had to climb down about 380 steps. The tour took us through a series of chambers full of carvings, statues, two underground chapels, all completely made of salt, and the salt lake. The most magnificent chamber was one which contained 3 large chandeliers made of salt. It also contained a salt carving of the famous 'Last Supper'.

After visiting the mine, we caught the local bus back into town as we had no idea when the train would be coming. The bus stops back near the Galeria. We then walked to the Market Square (Rynek Glowny) which is one of the largest medieval squares in Europe and features historical sites including St Mary's Basilica. The Krakow Easter Markets were on in the square so we had a chance to walk around there. Most of the stores were already closed but we ended up finding our dinner for that evening at more of the stores selling potato cakes and different kinds of pierogi. These are basically dumplings filled with all kinds of fillings. We tried the cheese & cabbage; spinach; and cheese & mushroom.

On Easter Saturday, we visited the main square again to try and catch the Easter markets and pick up something to eat. Most of the stores were selling sweet cakes or cheese filled pastries. We walked around the markets as most of the stores were starting to open.

We then headed to the main train station like the day before but this time to catch the bus to the Auschwitz (Oświęcim) concentration camp. This was about 1.5 hours outside of Krakow. The bus was packed and we were glad to have pre-purchased tickets from the ticket counter prior to boarding as many in front of the queue did not have tickets and didn't end up getting on. They only run one bus every hour or so and so there was limited space on the bus.

The concentration camp is free to visit and the Musuem was closed on Sunday so hence we travelled there on Saturday.

Words can not describe the horror of Auschwitz (Oświęcim), a city where Jewish life and culture flourished for 500 years and which became a grave for more then 1.1 million people. The Memorial and Museum present the silent blocks, torture cells, belongings and photographs of many nationalities murdered here. There are two camps to visit of which Birkenau is much bigger. This is where the railway tracks led straight to the infamous gas chambers were many, many innocent people were murdered. This visit was eye opening and although it is a must-see when visiting Krakow, it really does give you a sense of realisation of how things have changed since then. The whole visit will take at least 3 hours.

As most of the shops were closed for Easter Saturday and Sunday we were glad the Easter markets were around as that kept us busy during the nights. After visiting the Easter Markets again, we went back to the hotel and had some nice desserts which included a nice polish apple pie.

On Easter Sunday, we joined the Free Walking Tour which meets outside the Main Square. It took us around to all the top sites around Krakow city. This included walking along the Royal Route starting at Florianska Gate, past the Sukiennice (Cloth Hall) and St Mary's Cathedral in the Main Square down ul. Grodzka passing the Church of St. Peter and Paul. The walk concludes at Wawel Castle. Wawel Hill where the castle sits on dates back 50,000 years ago and during centuries it was the seat of Polish Kings. The castle consists of numerous cathedrals (built by different kings during their reign), medieval tombs and the Wawel Dragon.

At the end of the walking tour, we went for lunch and then headed to the Jewish Quarter (or at least tried to). Never actually think we found it.

The whole trip was good and definitely think Krakow was worth visiting. The people were generally friendly and most spoke English (which helped alot). Not forgetting all the nice food we had (and cheap), I forgot to mention that the Polish bagels and pretzels are really good and there are little karts all over town which sells them. Same price for all of them.

Looking forward to our next trip.

Kat & Will

Madrid

BEWARE OF PICK POCKETS!!!!!! Thats the very first part of my advice for Madrid. The metro system looks very clean and you tend to let your guard down as there are police and station guards everywhere. But of course in any packed train there are always these risks and I happen to have been one of those unlucky ones. Happened on the first day of our trip so we were left to wonder around the streets of Madrid looking for the Police station. After searching for 2 hours, we finally managed to file a police report. There were dozens of others waiting to do the same thing!

Not to be deterred by this experience, we still tried to enjoy the day and the rest of the weekend. The first thing we actually did was find lunch.

Our first place we tried was Botin (which is the World's Oldest Restaurant as recognised by the Guinness Book of Records). The restaurant was closed by the time we got there for lunch.

So we walked up the road and stopped at this cafe near Plaza Mayor (in Sol) as it seemed to have a good selection of tapas. After being seated it took a while to get the menus and then we were wondering why we had been seated at a table for 8 rather than for 4. It appears the waiter thought we had 8 people (how that happens when you only hold up four fingers is a bit of a mystery). He could tell we were pissed off. However, what did make up for his lousy service was the really good tapas (which were served in normal plates for most of the dishes as opposed to small tapa plates). Calamari, tortilla, garlic prawns, potatos and egg, Yum! It was good and we were all starving!

After eating lunch we explored Plaza Mayor and Gran Via and there were so many hawkers around dressed up as Micky, Minnie, Winnie the Pooh, bull fighters, bulls, monsters and so forth. We then proceeded to the Royal Palace (in Opera). On the way there we passed Plaza de la Villa which is a historic square and home to the 15th Century Torre de Lujanes, 16th Century Casa de Cisneros and the 17th Century Casa de la Villa. These are essentially all town halls in their times.

The Royal Palace or Palacio Real is Madrid's largest building and possibly its most beautiful. it was located next to the Plaza de Oriente square. This is a big garden with white statues surrounding manicured lawns. These statues were meant to be placed on top of the palace but due to their weight, they left it around the palace instead. The Palace is suppose to be the biggest palace in Western Europe. However, cause we couldn't get any closer, it didn't look very big.

The palace faces Madrid's most famous church - the Cathedral de Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena. There was a service happening when we went inside so only stayed for a short time inside.

That evening we explored Puerto de Sol and before long we were searching for our next venue for more eating... the recommendation for Paella was at a local restaurant called Restaurante La Baracca. They did a nice Sangria and the Seafood Paella was good as well...however it wasn't as crunchy or crisp as we wanted...rice was slightly soggy but still was good.

So after an eventuful Saturday we retired to our hotel rooms and tried to forget how our trip started...another day ahead in Madrid.

On Sunday, we caught the 'dreaded' Metro to Ventas to visit the famous bullfighting stadium (Plaza de Toro) where the famous bullfighting happens every week on Sunday evening. We joined the guided tour which ran for about 45 minutes which made it much more informative. You are considered a bullfighter if you manage to kill the bull with single strike of the sword. There are only a handful spainish bullfighters who have been successful in doing this a number of times over the years.

After visiting the bullfighting ring, we went back to Sol to find this churros place called Chocolateria. Must admit we were really looking forward to churros cause funnily there weren't alot of places which were selling them in Madrid. The churros weren't covered in any sugar so it tasted pretty plain even with the chocolate drink.... so I'd recommend trying something else. Churros isn't that tasty.

Just before heading to the airport we visited the Plaza de Cibeles and Retiro Park. The plaza's most famous sculpture is in the middle of a roundabout opposite a bus station at the end of Retiro Park. Its of a horse drawn carriage but we couldn't get closer cause it was cordoned off.

Definitely recommend Retiro Park as its got a really nice lake in the middle of the Park and there's heaps of entertainment, tourists (of course!) and food. It was a great place to finish our trip cause it was nice and relaxing. I actually thought it was nicer than Hyde Park in London. There's no animals around though so don't expect a squirrel to come up and eat your food. Kat & Linda picked up a pack of sunflower seeds and did as the locals did, munch and throw onto the ground! haha.

Another trip added to our list and again until our next trip.

Kat & Will

Malta & Gozo

Returned from Malta today after spending 3 days here to celebrate Kat's birthday. Malta is south of Sicily and one of three Islands (Malta where the capital Valletta is; Gozo & Comino). We arrived at Luqa International Airport and caught a taxi, which is prepaid so fixed price, to our hotel in St George's Bay. The Corinthia Hotel was really nice and if only it was hotter we would have made use of their pools.

Travelling around Malta, public transport wise, is either by taxi or bus. I'd hire a car if it was hotter as you can get to alot more places much quicker. We hoped onto a bus outside our hotel to take us to the capital Valetta. It was an experience cause the bus didn't have any doors and when you wanted to get off you had to pull this string hanging on the top of the bus. The bus takes the only route around the island passing by all the bays including St Julian's Bay. We hoped off alot earlier than we should have but we managed to get some great shots as we walked towards the capital, Valletta.

The capital of Valletta is the usual touristy town but wasn't overcrowded. Because it was winter when we visited, most sites like churches and musuems either close early, close during lunch times or are not open at all. Definitely would like to have seem the difference if we came during summer.

We visited a number of churches including the St John's Co-cathedral (in St John's Square) which was in the centre of town. After strolling around town we found the ferry terminal which took us from Valletta to Silema. The cost of the ride was like €0.93 each (very odd prices but cheap!). Silema was pretty much another populated tourist area but not as big as Valletta. We searched for our bus stop and finally found it. Dinner our first night was at a place called the Paparazzi in St Julian's Bay. We had pizza (which was better than what we tried in Italy) and seafood. The prawns were finally decently sized but all the dishes were huge so we didn't have any more room for dessert.

On our second day in Malta, we travelled by bus (again) to the Cirkewwa Ferry Terminal to catch the boat across to Gozo. This was a ferry carrying both passengers and cars. I must admit I didn't expect it to only cost only €1.60 for a return ticket but thats good. When we arrived in Gozo we hopped onto the Gozo Sightseeing Bus which took us around most of the sights in Gozo but cause we arrived in the afternoon we ended up very short on time so stayed on the bus most of the journey. We hopped off at Gozo's capital Victoria, but everything was closed so it wasn't worth the stop. All roads in Gozo lead into Victoria (also known as Rabat) where the fortified citadel sits atop a summit. The bus drove by Mgarr and the fishing villages of Marsalforn and Xleindi as well as the famous Azure window - which is a cliff on the ocean with a massive gap through it. We also drove past the Statue of Christ which looks like the very famous Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Gozo was cold though but after a few hours on the sightseeing bus we head back to the ferry terminal to catch the boat back to Malta. We had a nice dinner around Paceville (which is Malta's party area) at a place in Bay Street. Again, the food servings were huge as we tried a very puffed up pizza and grilled meat platter.

There's quite a number of popular bars around Paceville including Plush, Havana's and Footloose. You only need to be over 17 to drink in Malta or at least gain entry into the bars & clubs. There were alot of teenagers out at night and some looked alot younger than 13 but its safe anyhow.

We caught an midday flight out of Malta on Sunday but did get a chance to take in a massive breakfast at Cafe 24 near the Corinthia Marina Hotel (we stayed at the Corinthia San Gorg) very close by our hotel. The scones were the size of your average buffet plate!!

Definitely would go back to Malta when it gets much hotter. We don't recommend going there in winter as most things are closed but we still had a good time. A holiday is a holiday after all =).

Until our next trip.. in two week's time!

Kat & Will.

Luxembourg

We travelled to Luxembourg this weekend. First time we used the London City Airport and check in was a breeze. If only all the other airports were the same...check in 15 minutes before boarding! Kat was going to Luxembourg for a short work trip so I decided to go along with her for the weekend. We travelled in a Fokker 50 plane which had about 12 rows with 2 on each side but the flight was full and took just over an hour to get there.

Luxembourg was a very small city and wasn't the most interesting cities to visit in Europe. But we picked up a tourist map at the hotel and decided to see as much of the city as we could. By Sunday, we had ticked off every photo in the tourist map which included visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral, Bock Casemates (which was closed during winter but had a great view of Castle Bridge and is a UNESCO World Heritage site), Luxembourg City History Musuem, Petrusse Valley, Place d'Armes, the Three Towers and so on. Our hotel overlooked the Petrusse Valley and it was probably the most scenic part of the weekend visit. You could wander all the one down to the valley where historical houses and the old town was.

We definitely recommend going to a B&C Restaurant Grill in Place d'Armes. It did a really filling variety of kebabs. The service was great and Kat was able to practice some of her French as they don't just cut you off like they do sometimes in Paris.

Definitely a good city as a stopover but not to spend too much time in. Kat ended up staying there for the rest of the week but brought back these really nice chocolates and pastries which was really good.

We're off to Malta next, so hopefully some warmer temperatures there.