Day 258 Sat 30 Jun 2007 Wroclaw to Krakow, Poland

We explore the centre of Wroclaw remembering to pronounce it Vrotswahf, finding a gnomes house beside two almost as tiny real baroque houses and the Salt Square which once was the forum for the town’s salt trade and is now home to a colourful flower market. Crossing to Cathedral Island, an area largely surrounded by rivers and canals and packed with churches, we ‘climb’ the tower of the gothic Cathedral of John the Baptist taking advantage of the thoughtfully installed lift, which offers panoramic views over the city.

On our way out of town we seek out the World Heritage listed Centennial Hall which isn’t in the guidebooks. It turns out to be part of an exhibition centre, a rather decaying remnant of the Stalinist era which we photograph briefly and then hit the road east. Then is on the expressway to the next stop at Oswiecim (pronounced osh-fyen-cheem – not sure we’re getting the hang of this language) where we visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, a grim and sobering reminder of the Nazi atrocities. Then by contrast we stop near where JP2 hails from and which is also on the world heritage list. It’s an important place of pilgrimage with a series of chapels laid out in the surrounding parkland.

It’s getting late by the time we reach Krakow, one of Poland’s most popular tourist destinations, full of stag parties on cheap flights from the UK so rather than tackle the tangle of pedestrian streets in the old town in search of a bed we tell Kenny to take us the Ibis which is the McDonalds of the hotel industry. It’s actually very suited to our needs, clean, functional and no frills. Dinner is in the old town square, more wild boar, venison, dumplings and this time pike. Again there’s the obligatory sound stage and rock bands although tonight it's mostly citizenship awards and speechmaking. As foreshadowed by the guidebook, it is rather overrun by stag parties and hen nights, attracted by the reputedly highest concentration of bars in Europe. Still as the largest medieval town square in Europe it’s large enough to cope and the horse drawn carriages are doing a roaring trade till after midnight so with a full moon rising over the Wawel castle we make our way back to the hotel.