Above: a faded building in Krakow; the Wawel cathedral in central Krakow. Left, detail of the cathedral.
We had spent three months in Germany, so we were forced to move on to another country. We could stay in a European country for three months without a visa; hence, the three-month rule.
We wanted to visit Krakow, but boy, oh boy, the train ride was going to be nine hours! We looked at the map and saw that from Berlin to Krakow was a huge space. We decided to come back to Berlin for a couple of nights, because we would have had to come back to Berlin anyway from Dresden to catch the train east. We stayed at StadMitte because there are so many restaurants around there and very easy to get around.
The day we were leaving was November 3, the day after the mid-term elections in the US. Of course, on a travel day, I woke up about 5:00 am and turned on CNN - it was only about 11:00 pm there, and not many elections had even been decided. But it looked like the Democrats were losing the House badly. We watched the news as long as we could, but we had to leave in order to catch the 9:30 train at the Berlin Hauptbanhof.
We left for the train station about 8:00; had a quick breakfast at the train station and went to sit at the track. Jack and I have differences of opinion about catching the train: I like to get there early and scope the place out and figure out the ropes, etc. He would rather get there just before the train is ready to pull of the station (I exaggerate a little) but he does not like to wait. But I won out for this train.
It was going to be a long ride, but we had first class tickets and we did not have to change trains. So far so good. However, an announcement came over the loud speaker that our train was going to be one half hour late due to an accident... The half hour turned into an hour, then into two hours! Then it announced something - in German, of course - that we did not catch. The lady also waiting there said that they just cancelled the train, but they apologized for any inconvenience.
Jack went up to the information booth or the reservation booth - I am not sure - to find out what our options were. I stayed with the luggage. He came back with the news that there was another train leaving in about half hour to Warsaw, and then we could change trains there to Krakow. But no first class left on that train. The lady gave Jack some paperwork to send into Deutchebon to get our money back on our first class tickets. I carried all this stuff around for a couple of months but Jack said he was not going to fill it out - all in German - so to just throw it away.
We dragged our bags upstairs - they fortunately have escalators - and found the train to Warsaw. We took second class seats, stuffed our bags somewhere and settled down for the five hour train ride.
The second thing to go wrong was that this train was half hour late in leaving the station; our connection in Warsaw to Krakow gave us only a half hour, so already we had missed the connection. Of course, I worried about this all across eastern Germany and into Poland.
We did get in about six o'clock pm, too late to catch the other train to Krakow. When I tried to ask the conductor before we reached the station about which track we were coming in on, he could not answer me because he could not speak English, and I, of course, did not have a word of Polish. There was a young man who translated to me and he said that they have no idea what track they are coming in on and they have no idea which track is the train for Krakow...
We got there and dragged our bags into the station to see if there was another train to Krakow that night. I was struck by the condition of the train station. It was undergoing reconstruction, but the existing station was very old and in very bad shape and overrun by people trying to catch trains. We found a lady in a little booth selling tickets. She did not speak English and Poland does not use the euro. Fortunately I was standing next to an ATM machine so we got some Polish money and Jack went back to try to find out about a train.
There was a train to Krakow in about an hour. He bought tickets and we set out to find the track for this train. Somehow we found it and we stood there until the train came in. We happened to notice a couple also waiting for the train, and I recognized them from the station in Berlin earlier that morning. We ended up sitting with them in a compartment all the way from Warsaw to Krakow. We talked to them - they were Dutch and the woman had good English - about where they lived and where they were going, etc. In the meantime, the train was barreling down the tracks - it never stopped until we got to Krakow. It was pitch black so we could not see any of the countryside we were racing through.
We finally got to the Krakow station, which was also under construction, somehow found a cab, even though it was close to midnight, and got to our hotel. I looked up and saw the castle lit up and thought at least we are in a good location. I had picked this hotel because it was near the castle, but sometimes the distances are not as close as the advertisement would have you believe.
Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed for the night, so we had to go to bed hungry. But the hotel room was great; the bed was comfortable and it was quiet. The next morning the shower was hot and roomy and the breakfast, which was included in the room, was fabulous. I had nothing but praise for this hotel.
Next morning we got a map and walked to the square, about a fifteen minute walk from the hotel. I was really not prepared for Krakow. I had spent too much time in Germany, which is thriving, new and energizing. Krakow is none of those things. I will save the details in the next edition.
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