Pierogi’s and More
When I knew we were going to Germany, I really wanted to add a couple of days to our trip to visit Krakow to learn of its history and visit Auschwitz. Learning the history of the entire area is very sobering but the people are so nice and we had a really great time.
Krakow is an old city. A historic city that was once 25% Jewish before WWII, having the fourth largest Jewish settlement in Poland around 65 000. In 2023, only 4,500 Jews now live in all of Poland who once housed almost three million Jews, the second-largest community in the world before the war. Today, Krakow is approximately 70% Roman Catholic.
There is a lot to see here and we only touched on a few things, electing to relax a bit and just walk around enjoying the company and the city. Here are a few suggestions.
Take a Pierogi Cooking Class
Pierogi’s are famous in Krakow and you can get them at most restaurants. They are basically a dumpling made from flour, salt and sometimes with an egg added. The stuffing varies and traditional pierogis will have potatoes, cheese and grill onions in them. There are many variations of pierogis. We had pierogis with cabbage, some with spinach and cheese, a dessert pierogi filled with plums for desert pierogis and a very non-traditional variety with shredded pork. The last ones were amazing and my favorite. The dumplings are boiled and usually served with sour cream. Cooking pierogi’s takes a while as you need to make the dough, then fill and stuff each one. Olga, our teacher and pierogi expert, met us at the farmers market to select the freshest ingredients, including cheese that had just been made. -So creamy. We then moved to her
personal kitchen to make our delicious dumplings. While this was happening, she shared a lot of the local knowledge and made sightseeing suggestions. The whole process from buying the ingredients to getting our pierogis was about three hours. Thanks to Olga, one of my favorite parts of this trip.
Wawel Castle
Wawekl Castle sits on a hill like most castles. It was built in the 14th century, and expanded during the next hundreds of years. You can see the differences in architecture as the building developed over the centuries. In 1978 Wawel was declared a World Heritage Site and it’s now an art museum. We didn’t go in but walked around the castle grounds for free and ended up at the dragon sculpture that breaths real live fire.
The legend of the dragon varies but he terrorized the inhabitants of Wawel castle and demanded cattle as a ransom. When one day, a bright, young man decided to fill a cow with sulfur and provided the cow to the dragon as an offering. When the dragon ate the cow, he exploded, saving the people from the ravaging beast. In some legends, the young man is the king’s son(s) and in others, it was the shoemaker’s son. Additionally, sometimes the cow is referred to as a ram instead. Either way it’s fun to watch fire spewing from the dragon’s mouth and now I know what to do if I ever run into a fire-breathing dragon.
Sheraton Grand Roof Top Bar for Sunset
A short walk along the river and you’ll find a roof top bar at above the Sheraton hotel that overlooks the river. This is a terrific place to sit outside and watch the sunset.
River Cruise
Afterward, we went on a boat cruise of the Vistula River. We caught the boat for our hour-long ride near the dragon and dropped into the bar next door to grab a warm cocoa to take with us. The cruise goes up river and then back down passing underneath the Lover’s bridge. We sat up top in the open air.
Rynek Underground Museum
Present day Krakow was built upon the ruins of the old city and you can visit the Rynek Underground Museum. We spent about an hour walking underground viewing the old walls and looking at some of the items they have found when excavating, including knives, horseshoes and bones. The Museum wasn’t dug out until 2008.
Wolf Pit Tavern
For gamers and medieval fantasy lovers, Wolf Pit Tavern is for you. The highly popular restaurant is themed after the Witcher video game and books. You can buy ducats to pay for your food and drinks. We bought potions (drinks) that you make on your own from bottles of ingredients and then add dry ice to make them bubble and fog up. They don’t take reservations. We stood in line the first night only to leave and come back the next day to get in during opening without waiting too long.
Food Tour
I was a little hesitant to do a food tour in Krakow because it seemed a bit expensive but after considering that you are not only paying for the food but also the tour experience and the local knowledge, I thought it would be worth it and it was. The tour we signed up for was Krakow Food Tasting Tour with Delicious Poland.
Konrad was a terrific guide taking us to four different restaurants in the Jewish district. The portions were huge and we learned a lot, both about Krakow’s history and present-day experiences. In addition to eating locally made sausages and cheese, we stuffed our bellies with more pierogies, a Polish type pizza served as street food, soup, potato cakes and goulash and an apple fritter for dessert. We also tried a local beer and two types of vodka. We rolled out of the last restaurant with very full bellies groaning as we took the train back to the hotel.
Auschwitz and Birkenhau
As I noted before, one of the reasons I selected going to Krakow was because of Auschwitz. I wanted to tour the site to see with my own eyes what it looked like. Auschwitz is a 99-minute bus ride from Krakow. You have to book the bus and the tickets to the museum separately. The tour consists of two locations. The first is Auschwitz itself and the second is Birkenhau, the larger of the two camps and where the main furnaces are located. We were able to book a 9:00 bus from Krakow, take the 11:00 tour and still have about 30 minutes at the end to take the bus back. Below are our bookings. To help brush up on my history before I went, I watched Schindler’s list again. Oscar Schindler lived in Krakow and you can still tour the factory which is in Krakow.
Pastry
Also, try checking out a few of Krakow’s delicious pastry shops. I can’t resist a good croissant and there are many options. Even the sandwiches in these shops look delicious.
Shopping
In the town square is a market hall with shops to browse. Many of them sell amber jewelry along with Krakow souvenirs. Amber is found in this area. It’s not actually a stone but a resin exuded from tree bark. The red is the more sought after color but all amber gets darker with time
Geese
What’s with all the stuffed geese in Krakow? Apparently, there is no significance for all of these cute Krakow stuffed geese other than they are adorable and make you want to hug them or at least carry them around by the neck swinging them around. Poland is one of the largest producers of geese in the European Union but does this really have to do with anything? Probably not. Social media has made these little enticing guys very popular so now there are whole kiosk selling these little geese.
Transportation
Lastly, transportation is Krakow is relatively easy. There are trains going everywhere at all times of the day and night. We used Google maps the entire way. The only trouble we had was paying for a ticket. We couldn’t get the credit card machines to work at any of the stations so finally traded in some dollars for zloty and paid cash. (Poland is not on the euro). You can purchase timed or trip tickets.
Hotel
We stayed at the Hyatt Place in Krakow. There is a train stop about ¼ mile away that will take you into the city. It is a little bit out of the way and not near a lot of amenities but I will say, the food in the restaurant was the best I had in Krakow.
Currency
Poland uses the Zoity.