Leave home

Relaxing at the airport

Lunch and drinks in Hounslow

Our first stop after landing was a few tube stops down the way in Hounslow where we visited a Wetherspoons we'd been to previously. Good cheap food and booze was had, although I made a poor mistakeLue lisää
Heathrow hotel

We went back to Heathrow to relax before dinner. Dinner was at the hotel's own restaurant although we also had a massively overpriced drink beforehand. We enjoyed the food that night although perhapsLue lisää
From the air

The morning gave us an unexpected level of excitement as none of us noticed we needed to transfer to Terminal 3. A spectacular level of complacency on display from us there but we still arrived at theLue lisää
Arrive into Krakow

Krakow airport was a very relaxed place to land. Quite a compact feeling airport which meant the car hire place wasn't too far away from anything and nor was the car park we got our car from.
TheLue lisää
Check into Oswiecim hotel

After stopping off at a small shopping mall where the locals were revving and skidding cars outside, popping in to get some great value clothes at H&M and food and drink at Carrefour.
Then we wentLue lisää
Pub Vinyl & De Grasso

We walked into the centre of the town on this evening, initially looking to pick somewhere to eat but actually firstly ending up at what looked like the main town square and what I guess was a pop-upLue lisää
Hotel for the night

Our hotel was the Hampton in Oswiecim and it was very comfortable indeed. We had a lovely stay.
Running around Oswiecim

I was planning to run once on this trip but made a late decision the night before to repurpose a daytime top as a running one meaning I could add a second run. I found a nice route on Strava taking meLue lisää
Auschwitz

We drove along to Auschwitz which was easy to find and first impressions were along the lines of "what are all these people doing here!". It was mobbed like any other tourist site would be in theLue lisää
Auschwitz-Birkenau

A shuttle bus took us across to the second camp where the same guide walked us around including through one of the dormitory buildings where it was explained to us 6 people shared this tiny bed, whichLue lisää
Lunch in town

We were back at last night's pizza place at lunchtime making sure we had a good meal early on.
Hotel for rest, dinner and drinks

We had dinner that night in the hotel and ate very well indeed. After the mental effort of visiting the Auschwitz camps, we wanted to just relax and do nothing for a bit.
Krakow Arcade Museum

After another excellent breakfast, we checked out of the Hampton and had the 90 minute drive across to Krakow and our first visit of the day to the Krakow Arcade Museum.
This was an excellent placeLue lisää
Lunch and relax

The original plan was to have lunch at a burger place but that was closed and it later became apparent that a fair few places were because of the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.
Where we did endLue lisää
Creepy Krakow walking tour

Our evening entertainment for our first night in Krakow was a Creepy Krakow tour. Our guide was really excellent entertainment with some great stories I obviously won't repeat here. Suffice to say oneLue lisää
First night in Krakow

In Krakow we were staying at the Q Hotel Plus, which was a good half hour walk out of the main part of the old town, but actually pretty well located as well really. We had very comfortable roomsLue lisää
Krakow riverside run

I went for a run the next morning along the riverside of the Vistula. It was quite a hot day actually but I enjoyed it and had a great run.
Cruising the Vistula

We booked a cruise along the Vistula as well which had a fairly informative backing track English guide although the boat captain also shared a couple more stories with us after he realised we wereLue lisää
Zablocie & Oscar Schindler's factory

From the main square, we got a team to the Zablocie district and before going for our afternoon tour popped into a modern looking bar named Saluté. Slightly more expensive than the bar in the townLue lisää
Dinner & final night in Poland

That night we had dinner in our hotel and it was delicious. Viener Schnitzel was very much enjoyed.
Krakow airport

After another lovely breakfast, we had the relatively short drive back to the airport to drop off our hire car. We managed to confuse ourselves as to where the car drop was but it didn't take long andLue lisää
Land in London

The flight back to London was dead easy and enjoyable although the in-flight meal choices today weren't perhaps as well thought out as they could have been. It was possible you could have hadLue lisää
Land in Jersey

The final flight of the trip was a little more cramped than I'd got used to and the landing felt fairly sketchy but it was ok really.