Category Archives: Poland 🇵🇱

Our trip to Poland – Wroclaw, Krakow, Warsaw, Gdansk

🛳️ Baltic Cruise, Part 1: All Aboard in Warnemünde and a Wandering Day in Gdańsk

Wednesday, May 27 — Warnemünde, Germany to start our Baltic Cruise

Embarkation day has a rhythm all its own, and it’s pretty much the same regardless of the cruise line or the port. Our Baltic Cruise was no exception. Everyone arrives at the terminal at once, the lines shuffle forward in fits and starts, and there’s a frantic, slightly bewildered energy as two thousand people simultaneously try to figure out where they’re supposed to be. We were no exceptions.

Somewhere between Berlin and the Baltic, hoping the German rail system would be kinder to us than the Polish one.

Getting to the port was its own small adventure. Cruise lines love to market these itineraries as visiting Berlin. The reality is that there is no ocean anywhere near Berlin; the ship docks in Warnemünde, about two hours away by train. “Berlin” simply looks better on a brochure.  Despite what the itinerary says, Warnemünde is a solid two hours from Berlin by train — two trains, in fact. The German rail network, which we’d been hoping might redeem the reputation of its Polish counterpart, proved equally creative with its scheduling. A late departure from Berlin cascaded into a missed connection in Rostock, which put us toward the back of a very long check-in queue. From the moment we joined that queue to the moment we reached our cabin was forty-eight minutes. Not bad, all things considered.

On Board the Ship – Our Home for 9 Days

Once on board, we did what you do on the first day of a cruise. You get lost, wait for elevators, and slowly start mapping the ship in your head. We caught a yoga class, unpacked our bags — properly unpacked, for the first time in 10 weeks. We made it to the evening’s early show before dinner. The entertainment was a high-energy musical tribute spanning four decades, with great costumes and an equally great cast. After sixty-plus days of hotels and hostels, having dinner prepared and entertainment laid on felt like a small miracle.

This nine-day journey will take us through six countries, with only one sea day. We still have plenty of ground to cover before we fly home, but for now the simple pleasure of unpacking once and staying put is more than enough.

Thursday, May 28 our first port — Gdansk, Poland

We started the morning with back-to-back yoga classes — a thirty-minute stretch session that rolled straight into a second class when the instructor kindly offered to keep going. A good breakfast followed, and then we got ready to go ashore as the ship arrived at 10 AM.

First impressions of Gdańsk: colourful facades, cobbled streets, and a city that immediately won us over.

There’s a small asterisk on “Gdansk” as a port. The ship actually docks in Gdynia, an industrial city about thirty kilometres away. The smoke stacks and container ships weren’t exactly calling to us, so we focused on getting to Gdansk instead. The ship was running a shuttle for €60 return; we found a FlixBus leaving at 11 AM for €4.50 a person. The bus ride was uneventful, and we arrived at the main bus and train terminal just before noon.

From the station it’s a short walk into the old town, and the reward is immediate. The buildings are charming — tall, colourful, and elaborately decorated — the streets narrow and cobbled underfoot. Much of the city was rebuilt after 1945, yet it carries a genuinely authentic air. Rather than feeling like a reconstructed tourist attraction, it feels like a city rebuilt for the people who live there and only incidentally enjoyed by visitors. The area around the famous medieval water crane was buzzing with visitors from what seemed like half the ships in the Baltic, but it’s busy for good reason. We found a table at an open-air café, ordered something cold, and spent a happy hour watching the world go by.

We also spotted a handful of Solidarity signs. Quiet nods to the movement that began here in the 1980s and changed the course of European history.

Getting Back to the Ship (The Hard Way)

The water is the heart of Gdańsk

The return trip provided the afternoon’s entertainment. At the train station, we purchased tickets from a real person after the automated kiosk defeated us. We confirmed our platform, and boarded with confidence. Then, just before the doors closed, doubt crept in. We looked at each other, decided we were on the wrong train, and jumped off. We ran across the tracks and boarded the train going the other way — sitting down, quite pleased with ourselves — only to realize we were now definitely on the wrong train. At the first stop we hopped off, crossed the platform again, and boarded yet another train pointing in the correct direction. Ten minutes later, we were heading back to Gdynia. We were back on track — ha! — and laughing about it before we even reached the ship.

That evening the entertainment was a skilled violinist, and over dinner we received news that the clocks would be moving forward an hour overnight. Given the ship’s 07:30 arrival in our next port, that meant an early start by any measure. The travel tax — not the financial kind, but the accumulated toll of early mornings and busy days — is part of the cruising life too.

Next up: Klaipeda, Lithuania — quirky statues, a high school parade, and a brilliant afternoon on bikes in a national park.

Thanks for reading please feel free to leave any comments or reach out to us by the contact link. 

Quote – “Travel aspirations? Don’t put them on your bucket list, put them on your to do list.”

Cam and Meg.

🇵🇱 Three Days Warsaw

The Warsaw sign in Old Market Square

Warsaw: More Than We Expected

Poland’s rail network had already humbled us once our Wrocław-to-Kraków run a few days earlier. The Kraków-to-Warsaw leg offered no redemption. The train left late and arrived later, its carriages packed well beyond capacity — passengers standing between cars, sitting on floors, wedged into any available inch. We never did figure out the occasion. Whatever it was, Warsaw was clearly the place to be.

One of Warsaw’s Old Town Market Squares, rebuilt stone by stone after the Second World War

Our accommodation had its own ideas about timing. The host rang during the train ride to announce that check-in, already pushed to 4 PM, might slip further — a replacement cleaning crew, apparently. We arrived at 4:15 to find the cleaning still underway, dropped our bags, and set out into the city without complaint.

The old town rewarded the detour. It’s charming — energetic in a way that felt a step or two livelier than Kraków or Wrocław, the squares buzzing with what seemed a genuine mix of locals and visitors. Meg noted, with characteristic precision, that most of what you’re admiring was rebuilt after the Second World War: the streets look ancient, but the stones are relatively new. She prefers the organic character that only centuries of patchwork can produce. Fair enough — but the replica was still beautiful, and the energy was entirely real.

We provisioned at a local grocery store, got our bearings, and ended the evening at a milk bar. Polish milk bars deserve their own fan club: inexpensive, unpretentious, and generous to a fault. The cashier raised an eyebrow when we ordered just one side of potatoes for two mains. We held firm. Questioning if we should have doubted him — the plate arrived bearing somewhere between seven and eight good sized potatoes. which we struggled to finish. We ate well.

Day Two: Monuments, Markets, and More Milk

Warsaw’s Monte Cassino monument — Poland remembers the 1944 Italian campaign. So do Canadians.

Warsaw wears its history openly, and Day Two was a lesson in just how much history there is to wear. We started at the Monument to the Warsaw Uprising Heroes, commemorating those who fought the German occupation in 1944, then paid our respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before finding the Monte Cassino monument — a reminder that Polish soldiers, fighting alongside Canadians and others, took part in one of the harder-fought campaigns of the Italian front. Walking these sites in sequence, in the spring sunshine, among the flowers coming into bloom, felt like exactly the right pace for absorbing what they represent.

For lunch, we tried our luck at Koszyki Hall. It was, by consensus, too polished and too pricey — a market that had traded its original function for a food court aesthetic. Meg went looking for something more honest and found it in Hala Mirowska: vendors crammed into every corner, locals arriving with empty shopping trolleys and leaving with them full, proper butchers and bakers and cheese sellers doing proper business. No prepared food whatsoever, but a fascinating contrast with the gentrified version across town. Milk bar it was, again, and we had no complaints.

The afternoon took us across the Vistula river to the Praga neighbourhood — rougher around the edges, mid-renovation, not yet polished — and back again with enough energy left for kebabs from a local spot, eaten at the apartment. Cam logged over 30,000 steps on the day. A yoga class had somehow also materialized in there. He felt, improbably, pretty good.

Day Three: Parks, Chopin, and Stained Glass

Meg takes the advice to stop and smell the flowers literally — lilacs in full bloom, Łazienki Park

Sunday in Warsaw is a quiet affair — shops closed, streets unhurried — and we leaned into it. An early trip out to Łazienki Park set exactly the right tone. Seventy-six acres of forest, ponds, and palaces sitting in the middle of the city; within minutes of entering, the crowds thinned to nothing and we were walking among ducks and squirrels with birdsong for company. We’d hoped to catch one of the famous Chopin concerts held there on Sunday mornings, but renovations have pushed the season back to July this year. No matter: our apartment had been providing its own nightly recital, the building’s concert hall below sending every note of a Chopin programme up through the floors from 5PM to 6PM and again from 7PM to 8PM. Front-row seats, no ticket required.

Moses and the 10 Commandments – a modern and understandable stained glass window.

The afternoon brought us to the Holy Trinity Church, one of only two evangelical churches in Warsaw. The rotunda alone is worth the visit, but it was the stained glass that stopped us. Most church windows require some interpretive effort — familiar symbols rendered in colour and light, their stories legible mainly to those who already know them. These were different. One window depicted Moses carrying the tablets of the Ten Commandments; another, figures bearing the Ark of the Covenant. The images were clear enough that even we, wandering in off the street, understood immediately what we were seeing. Cam photographed them in detail.

Warsaw – A Capital City

Warsaw surprised us. We arrived with modest expectations — it was the third city in a Polish sequence that had already given us a lot — and left genuinely fond of the place. It’s harder to pin down than Kraków, less immediately picturesque than Wrocław, but it has a depth and an energy that reward patience. Given more time, we’d have spent at least another day in Praga alone.

On to Berlin.

Thanks for reading please feel free to leave any comments or reach out to us by the link above. 

Travel quote – Live life by the needle of a compass, not by the hands of a clock

Cam and Meg.

🇵🇱 Three Days in Kraków

Old Stones, Deep Mines, and the Best Ice Cream of the Trip

The Cloth Hall (shown above) has been conducting trade in Kraków since 1257.

This article is written by Cam and Meg with help from AI. All photos were taken by Cam and Meg.

Day One — Finding Our Feet in the Square

The sun finally made its first appearance in Poland as we dragged our bags across Wrocław toward the train station — Google Maps insisting, somewhat improbably, that walking beat transit. The train left late and arrived in Kraków even later, which we were beginning to understand was simply the Polish train (PKP) way.

After settling into our apartment, we headed straight for the old town. Kraków’s main square, Rynek Główny. It is often described as the largest medieval square in Europe. Standing there, it certainly feels enormous — although the grand Cloth Hall planted squarely in the middle does shrink it somewhat.

Saint Florian’s Gate, where Rulers would enter Krakow after battle.

Just after the bells rang on the hour, a lone trumpeter appeared high in the tower of St. Mary’s Basilica and played a short melody that ended abruptly mid-note. We later learned the tune commemorates a 13th-century watchman struck by a Mongol arrow while sounding the alarm. When the trumpeter waved from the tower, the crowd waved back instinctively. It felt less like a performance and more like a ritual the city has quietly carried forward for centuries.

Dinner was at a sidewalk pasta restaurant just off the square — warm air, clinking glasses, and a steady stream of people drifting home with shopping bags and souvenirs in hand. A lovely way to arrive somewhere new.

Day Two — Towers, Tunnels, and Freddie Mercury

We had intended to join a walking tour that morning, but Kraków proved distractingly good at pulling us off course.

The first distraction was the old Town Hall Tower, standing alone in the square since the rest of the building was demolished centuries ago. Cameron decided to climb it. Meg exercised better judgment and stayed below with the camera.

There are roughly 200 steep stairs to the top, and although the outdoor balconies are now closed, the views through the spotless windows were still worth the effort. Along the climb, an interpretive display included a replica of the city lord’s ring from the 1500s — a reminder that even seemingly modest museums in Poland tend to contain something unexpectedly fascinating.

Looking out over Kraków’s rooftops from the Town Hall Tower — earned one step at a time

From there, we descended underground into the Rynek Underground Museum, an archaeological site excavated beneath the square as recently as 2005. The museum traces more than a thousand years of Kraków’s history through buried roads, merchant stalls, graves, and medieval artifacts. One of the more surprising revelations was just how valuable salt once was — in the 1500s, half a ton of salt could buy a ton of gold.

The museum brochure suggested allowing an hour. We spent more than two and emerged considerably better informed than expected.

That evening brought one final surprise: a candlelit concert at the Royal Chopin Hall featuring piano, cello, and violin arrangements of Queen songs. Some translated beautifully into chamber music. Others felt slightly like Freddie Mercury had wandered into a conservatory by mistake. Either way, it was memorable.

Candlelight, chamber music, and Queen — not the combination we expected in Kraków.

Day Three — Salt, Jewish Memory, and Ice Cream

We were up early for the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a short commuter train ride outside the city.

More than two million people visit the mine each year, yet the operation runs with remarkable efficiency. English-language tours depart every thirty minutes, visitors wear headsets so guides never need to shout, and the entire route moves with near-clockwork precision.

Deep underground in the Wieliczka Salt Mine beneath chandeliers carved entirely from salt crystal.

The tour itself covers 3.5 kilometres and more than 800 stairs downward before a merciful elevator ride back to the surface. At 135 metres underground, we found ourselves standing beneath chandeliers made entirely from salt crystals in vast cathedral-like chambers carved directly from the rock.

Cam discovered that standing directly beneath one of the chandeliers creates a convincing halo effect in photographs — possibly the only halo he’ll ever claim.

Salt has been extracted here for at least a thousand years, with commercial production only ending around 1990. The carved chapels, underground lakes, and salt sculptures are genuinely astonishing, even if parts of the experience now lean heavily into tourism.

One guide told us between the 16th and 18th centuries, once a week, each worker could take home as much salt as they could hold in their hands. It was said, local ladies would seek potential husbands based on the size of their hands. We took that story with a grain of salt 😉

Our advice: book early and go first thing in the morning.

A Local Experience

Krakow from our rooftop bar

Back in Kraków, we stumbled onto a local farmers market with almost no tourists in sight. Google Translate handled most of the negotiations, cash was strongly preferred, and for approximately twenty minutes we felt extremely local.

Later that afternoon we wandered through the Jewish Quarter, eventually finding a rooftop hotel bar overlooking the neighbourhood’s red rooftops and church spires.

Then came Heroes’ Square.

The square commemorates the liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto between 1942 and 1945 and is filled with empty metal chairs scattered across the plaza. It is quiet, restrained, and deeply affecting. Some places ask for photographs. Others ask simply for pause.

On the walk back, we discovered what may have been the best ice cream of the entire trip. We ordered one scoop each. The woman behind the counter responded with cheerful disbelief and gave us two flavours apiece regardless of our protests.

It was far more ice cream than either of us needed.

We have no regrets.

Day Four — Planty Park and the Train to Warsaw

St Anne’s Church – A lovely church with an amazing organ.

Our final morning in Kraków was spent wandering Planty Park, the long green belt that traces the outline of the old medieval walls and moat. We drifted through the sunshine, ducked into a few churches, and enjoyed the rare luxury of having nowhere urgent to be.

Then it was back to the train station, where our train to Warsaw departed late and our reserved seats faced backward despite specifically booking forward-facing ones.

PKP, consistent to the end.

Kraków rewarded us more than we expected. Three days only scratches the surface — but what a remarkable surface it is.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to leave comments or contact us.

Quote – He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left

Cam and Meg

Wroclaw: Poland’s Unexpected Gem

We arrived in Wroclaw by train from Prague — five uneventful hours and, disappointingly, no RegioJet-style conductor appearing with Prosecco. Meg took the downgrade personally. Arriving in Wroclaw, we faced the classic traveller’s dilemma: bus or walk? The math said walk — barely a difference — but the cobblestones and construction sites made us earn it. Our host was waiting to greet us, patiently guiding us through two keypads, a lockbox, and the sort of apartment entry system that makes you question your own competence before we could finally dump our bags and meet our first Polish city.

The City of a Thousand Dwarves

We stopped counting after 45 dwarf photos. The dwarves did not stop appearing.

Wroclaw’s most whimsical claim to fame is its collection of small bronze dwarf statues — over a thousand of them scattered throughout the city, each going about some miniature business. We found our first on the walk from the station. By the end of day one, the novelty had settled into a comfortable rhythm: spot, photograph, move on. We managed 45 dwarf photos before declaring the project complete — or at least temporarily suspended. That evening, we tracked down pierogies — Poland’s great culinary promise.

Wroclaw by the Numbers

– 45 dwarf photos
– 0 complimentary train Proseccos
– 1 milk-bar pierogi disappointment
– 1 spotted lamplighter
– Too many pastries

The first spot was a traditional milk bar with a menu board like you would see at your high school cafeteria in the 1970’s. Unfortunately there was no English, and no pierogies available. Plan B brought us to the main square and an upscale option where they’re made to order. Results: the seasoned pork and asparagus dumplings in cream sauce were excellent; the classic potato and cheese, a bit doughy; the raspberry and white chocolate dessert version, more wrapper than filling. A fine first meal regardless.

History Rebuilt

Wroclaw’s main square – the kind of square that makes you stop every twenty metres for “just one more photo.”

Day two brought a walking tour that proved illuminating, if repetitive. Our guide focussed heavily on the architecture — and with good reason. Nearly everything that looks old was rebuilt after 1945. Wroclaw was devastated in the Second World War, and what you see today is largely a painstaking reconstruction. After the third or fourth ornate facade accompanied by some variation of “…destroyed, …painstakingly rebuilt”, we quietly pressed some banknotes into our guide’s hand, thanked him sincerely, and slipped away in search of something more aligned with our interests: food markets. We found our way to the traditional market, very much our style. Cheese vendors, fruit stands, a bakery — and one cafeteria lineup that rewarded us with schnitzel, potatoes, and two salads for the price of one plate of last night’s pierogies. We could not finish it between the two of us.

Night of the Museums

One of those rare artworks that photographs poorly because your brain cannot process where the painting actually ends.

As luck would have it, that Saturday evening was Night of the Museums — an annual event where Wroclaw’s galleries open free of charge until midnight. Despite the rain and a 45-minute queue, the Panorama Racławice was worth every minute. The painting is 80 metres long and entirely circular, depicting a 19th-century Battle of Racławice in such masterful detail that the painted canvas and the three-dimensional foreground merge seamlessly. Even standing inches away, your eyes struggle to locate the seam between painted illusion and physical foreground — and in photos, it is simply impossible. This national treasure was rolled up and hidden during the war, very nearly lost forever. We followed the Panorama with a tour of the National Gallery — the kind of place we likely would have walked past on any ordinary evening.

The Lamplighter

One of those wonderfully specific travel moments you could never have planned and would hate to miss.

Sunday morning gave us quiet streets and perfect reflections. We wandered Cathedral Island with no crowds, capturing facades and statues in the early stillness. But the evening was the day’s true highlight. One corner of Cathedral Island still uses gas lamps, and each night around sunset, the lamplighter makes his rounds. Dressed in a black cape and hat, propane tank on his back and a long torch in hand, he moves from lamp to lamp — turning the gas, touching the flame to each of four mantles. His route changes nightly and people try to find him. We happened to be standing in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. We followed him to the end of his route and managed a photo together to mark the moment.

A Day Trip to Sobótka

A day of birdsong, forest trails, and lily-of-the-valley discoveries — exactly the reset we needed after city wandering.

Our fourth day felt like enough of a foundation to venture further afield. The small town of Sobótka, about an hour away by bus, promised hiking. Getting there required navigating PolBus — a website in Polish only, resistant to Google Translate, and not entirely current. We went on instinct, arrived at the bus station, and caught a bus within five minutes. On board we met an American missionary, on a two year Polish posting, who shared local observations as fields and villages slipped past the window.

The woods around Sobótka were everything we needed: birdsong, forest trails, and a pace entirely unlike the cities. Meg spotted lily-of-the-valley, which brought back childhood memories. Getting home involved a kind Ukrainian woman who — entirely through gestures and Google Translate — walked us through a construction zone and pointed us to the relocated bus stop. We made the bus with minutes to spare, grateful for the reminder that communication transcends language.

Farewell, Wroclaw

Still water, empty paths, and one last quiet loop around the islands before the train.

Our final morning rewarded an early start. Blue skies and still water on the river meant buildings reflected perfectly in the ponds as we walked the islands in a long loop. No one else about. We said quiet farewells to the dwarves we’d grown fond of, stopped at the bakery for brown paper bags of pastries we probably shouldn’t have eaten, and made our way to the train station. Both of us agreed:  Wroclaw is the kind of place that sneaks up on you. The signage can be opaque, English surprisingly scarce, and tourist crowds refreshingly absent. Somehow those very things become part of its charm. The bike paths, the waterways, the green spaces, the layered history, the quietly eccentric dwarves. By the time we boarded our train, it no longer felt like a stop on an itinerary. It felt like a city we’d happily return to.