Chris | Postcards From Here and There

15 Things to do in Kraków

The city of Kraków in southern Poland is an absolute gem and is well worth visiting for a short break or long weekend. I have just returned from a five day trip and could easily have spent more time there as there is so much to see and do. Kraków is Poland’s second largest city and attracts some 12 million visitors a year. Here are just some of the things yo can do in the city.

Walk the Old Town. I always like to take a guided tour when first arriving in a new city as it helps with orientation and shows you some of the places that you might want to explore/investigate further. The old town of Kraków is compact and so a walking tour is the best option. I chose Walkative which offer a number of different tours in the city, many of which are free, and are available in a number of languages.

Wawel Castle. Sat atop Wawel Hill it was home to the Polish monarchy for centuries. You can walk up the hill and enter the grounds for free but if you want to visit the royal and state apartments, cathedral and other important buildings you will have to purchase tickets all of which are purchased separately. If you are on a budget or simply short on time a visit to the grounds will give you an idea of the importance of the monument.

Cloth Hall. The Cloth Hall sits proudly in the middle of Rynek Glowny which is itself the largest medieval town square in Europe. The main building dates back to the late sixteenth century but the arcades were added on much later. The hall was once the centre of the clothing trade but today is full of souvenir shops.

Rynek Underground. This underground museum is below the main square and was opened in 2010. Telling the history of the city it is an interactive and engaging experience. Some of the artefacts found during excavation of the site are fascinating and were for me the highlight. Entry to the museum is by ticket which needs to be purchased from the shop on the opposite side of the Cloth Hall to the actual entry point to the museum. Tickets are 21 Zloty and for specific times. I went in the afternoon and my ticket was for entry half an hour later but this could be longer at weekends when it is much busier. Admission is free on Tuesdays but tickets do go very quickly.

St. Mary’s Basilica. Dating back to the thirteenth century the Basilica is unusual in that it has towers of differing heights. A small charge is payable to enter and an additional charge is made if you want to climb to the top of the high tower from where the views are splendid. It is worth being around the basilica on the hour to hear the trumpeter play a five note tune the last note of which finishes abruptly. The reasons behind this are a thing of legend. The tune is played four times, one from each side of the tower, every hour of the day.

Eat traditional Polish Food. There are many traditional restaurants in the Old Town and the Jewish Quarter. They offer wholesome traditional foods such as Pierogi dumplings, vegetable soups and various cuts of pork. I particularly enjoyed U Babci Maliny located in a courtyard at 17 Stawkowska. You must go through the building into the courtyard and then down to the basement. It is well worth the effort to find it.

Collegium Maius Courtyard. The oldest university building in Poland has the most perfect courtyard and you can enter for free. A popular spot on all tours of the Old Town but if you are lucky enough to be there between tours it is a remarkably calm and peaceful place to sit and reflect for a few minutes. You can also purchase tickets for a guided tour of the museum but for me the courtyard is the star attraction.

Visit Kazimierz and take a tour. Also known as the Jewish Quarter it was once a city in its own right before incorporation into Kraków. It is easily reached from the Old Town with a walk of about 15 minutes. The area is steeped in history and the best way to see it is with a local guide. I choose a tour with Walkative who run three tours a day starting from The Old Synagogue at 24 Szeroka Street. The tour lasts 2 hours and is free but you can make a donation to your guide if you feel the tour has been worth it.

Galicia Jewish Museum. A museum with a difference in that the main exhibition is based around photographs with written commentary that examine Jewish life in southern Poland. It uses space well and has a calmness about it which is most welcome. There is also an excellent bookshop.

Oskar Schindler’s Factory Tour. The story of Oskar Schindler is well known as a result of Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List. The factory manufacturing enamel pots and pans no longer exists so the tour is actually based in the factory’s administration building. It covers much more than the role Oskar Schindler played in the survival of 1100 Jews during the Holocaust and it should be a must on any visit to the city. It is located in Podgórze which is across the Vistula River from the Old Town and Kazimierz. I walked there from the Old Town in about 25 minutes. Get there early as it gets very busy.

Pharmacy Under the Eagle. A small museum located on Heroes of the Ghetto Square which tells the story of the role played by the pharmacy and its owner Tadeusz Pankiewicz in supporting Jews in the Ghetto between 1941 and 1943. The interior of the pharmacy has been recreated as it would have been when workers risked their lives to help those more unfortunate than themselves. There is a small charge, entry is free on Mondays but it does close at 2pm.

Heroes of the Ghetto Square (Plac Bohaterów Getta). This was part of the Jewish ghetto that was created in 1941 and housed 17000 people in exceptionally crowded conditions. The square was the place of executions and the point from which Jews were sent to concentration camps. The 33 empty chairs are a memorial to all those that were held here. When Jews were forced into the ghetto in 1941 they brought furniture and possessions with them. As living condition were overcrowded many pieces of furniture were left on the square hence why chairs were chosen as the memorial. Most chairs face the same direction but one faces in the direction of Auschwitz and one in the direction of Schindlers factory.

Ghetto Wall. Just a short walk from the square is a small section of all that remains of the wall which surrounded the ghetto, it was made in the shape of tombstones. It is located on Lwowska and there is a small plaque which explains its significance.

The final two suggestions are outside the city but can easily be reached by public transport or by taking an organised tour.

Wieliczka Salt Mine. The town of Wieliczka is about a 30 minute drive from the Old Town. Salt was mined here for centuries before operations ceased in 1996. It is now a tourist attraction and UNESCO World Heritage site. Guided tours of the mine take two hours and are conducted in several languages. Expect the unexpected as you see remarkable salt carvings, chapels of worship and huge caverns where weddings and private functions can be held.

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. The death camps of Auschwitz – Birkenau are about a 90 minute drive from Kraków. It is also possible to get a train with a very similar journey time. However you choose to get there you must start at Auschwitz I where guided tours of the site begin. For most of the year it is compulsory to join a tour and I would recommend this anyway as the guides are excellent and ensure you get the most out of your visit. Following the tour of Auschwitz I it is only a short walk/drive of a few kilometres to Auschwitz II Birkenau which is much bigger but few buildings there now remain. I joined a tour from Kraków to the camps and it was a seven hour round trip so be prepared to allow a full day for your visit.

Bunch Winemakers Tasting

The August tasting at Bunch Natural Wine Bar in Liverpool was given over to three visiting winemakers from Swartland in South Africa. Each presented two wines, (one white, one red) from their portfolios and talked through their experiences making wine in the Swartland today. Living in the north west of the United Kingdom it is a rare opportunity to attend such an event without having to travel to London. This was an absolutely fascinating evening and I learnt so much. The wines on show were all excellent and choosing a favourite proved to be very difficult indeed.

The Blacksmith.

While working as an assistant winemaker in The Swartland Tremayne Smith began to make his own handcrafted wines under The Blacksmith label. This was in 2014 and his initial production that year was only four barrels. Things have moved on in the following five years and he now produces a range of wines using fruit grown in the Western Cape. His philosophy is simple, to make wines with minimalistic intervention, that exhibit a true sense of place and are delicious to drink.

The Kings Spirit Chenin Blanc. 2018. Darling. The Darling region is coastal with a warm Mediterranean climate with cooling sea breezes across the vineyards in the afternoon which help to cool the grapes and preserve freshness. The Chenin Blanc is from old bush vines planted in the 1960s. Bush vines are well suited to the dry, poor quality soils found here as they grow deep roots and so are more resistant to drought. Two barrels were made in 2018 representing only 580 bottles. Drought in the region has seen this fall by half in 2019!

Whole bunch pressed into barrel and a natural fermentation before a ten month maturation in old oak barrels. This has produced a fresh, aromatic wine with apple, pear and peachy stone fruit. It is complex with lovely texture and is perfectly balanced. It has a captivating almondy notes on the finish. Excellent stuff. The label is pretty good too.

The Basilisk. 2018. Paarl. Petite Sirah, also known as Durif, grown in the Paarl region of the Western Cape. 100% whole bunch with a cold natural ferment at 18 degrees Celsius. It spent ten days on the skins with pumping over every day. The fruit really does shine through here, it is a big, brooding, robust wine with blackcurrants in abundance along with an underlying raspberry freshness. It has lovely texture and is is savoury and meaty on the palate with a gentle touch of warming spice on the finish.

Swerwer Wines.

Swerwer was started by Jasper Wickens and is now into its seventh vintage. Swerwer means drifter or vagabond in Afrikaans and represents the notion of moving from place to place and gaining something from the experiences you have at each location. Jasper has worked at several wineries in South Africa as well spending time in Europe. His experiences have seen him move from a conventional style of wine making to one which is more hands off, allowing the terroir to shine through. His wines are generally unfined and unfiltered with the addition of only a minimum addition of sulphur required to keep the wine stable.

Rooigroen Semillon. 2018. Swartland. Semillon were some of the first vines planted in South Africa at the end of the seventeenth century and became the most dominant variety. However it fell out of favour following Phylloxera and only small pockets now exist. Rooi groen means red green in Afrikaans and this gives a clue to the origins of this rare Semillon Gris. Random mutation in the vineyard produces Sémillon vines with red bunches, these have then been cloned by cuttings to produce this varietal.

The wine has seen some skin contact with three different regimes in operation, 3 days, 5 days and 12 days. The wine is golden in appearance with good concentration, nice balance and hints of orange and almond on the palate. The finish has a distinct savouriness which is very appealing.

Red Blend. 2018. Swartland. A blend of 50% Cinsault, 40% Grenache and 10% Tinta Barocca. This blend works so well, the wine is well made and so good it demands your attention.Masses of dark cherry fruit with dried herbs, medium bodied and with a serious grip on the finish. Excellent stuff.

Silwervis Wines.

Winemaker Ryan Mostert is the driving force behind Silwervis. He loves to experiment and sees the Swartland as the perfect place to make his wines. It’s a dynamic region, full of like minded winemakers who are independent and innovative. Ryans approach may be seen by some as radical, he takes risks in his unconventional, experimental methods. It is an approach that large scale commercial wineries would never risk taking. For Ryan it has yielded some intriguing and fascinating wines that many people enjoy. Deliberately encouraging oxidation in a wine may well create some flaws but to Ryan you simply have to look for personality in the flaws themselves.

Smiley. NV. Swartland. This wine perfectly sums up the methodologies used at Silwervis to produce an innovative and distinctive wine. The Smiley is a blend of five different vintages of Chenin Blanc which have been made in different ways including skin contact, kept under flor and leaving barrels outside the cellar in the sun. The resulting wine walks a tightrope and does it perfectly. It has peach and apricot stone fruit with a pleasant salinity and great balance. There is some reduction but it adds and doesn’t distract. This wine breaks the rules and is a good example of it just might be a good idea from time to time.

Cinsault. 2017. Swartland. Perfumed red fruits, dried herbs and warm spice sit perfectly alongside a delicately savoury core. Medium bodied, round and with nice texture. The finish is lovely with herby red fruits. A beautiful expression of the grape.

Entrecasteaux

The Provencal village of Entrecasteaux is a short 9Km drive from Cotignac. Despite being so close together they couldn’t be more different. Entrecasteaux is smaller, quieter and is a place where you can almost believe you are stepping back in time. The pace of life here feels gentler, the café in the centre of the village is where locals stop and chat over their morning coffee before going about their daily business. Even the conversation is respectful of the peace and tranquility of the place.

The Chateau dominates the centre of the village and was built in several phases between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Much of the rest of the village dates back to the sixteenth century.