Day 15 - We picked up tickets last week for our day trip to Kraków. This morning we were sure to be on Platform #4 in Warsaw's Central Train Station at 9:20 am. We'd booked a convenient departure time and got cheap ones, even though they were marked first class. It took around a half hour longer than the usual PKK Intercity but we are retired and own our own time!
The trip turned out to be the same as second class seating in a fairly old train car. It had shared seating in compartments for six people. It was pretty hot. There were no fans and it was not very nice when compared to all our train journeys so far. The lighting was poor too. Still, it was far from awful. An older Polish fellow who was keen to practice English, told us this particular car reminded him of the Communist era.
The ride was nice and I enjoyed the rolling hills as we got nearer to our southern-Poland destination. We walked out, on time, into the shopping mall part of the train station in Kraków!
Directions were easy to get to Old Town. We just followed the signs out of the train station.
We didn't make it inside St. Mary's Basilica and the tower was closed due to construction anyway. We substituted a visit to St. Peter and Paul's Church. We also went inside Cloth Hall (Sikiennice) but didn't buy any crafts. In Kraków's Main Square, we stopped to photograph the Eros Benadto Sculpture, usually called, "The Head." Oh, and another, more historical statue, the Adam Muckiewixz Monument of an important 19th century Polish poet.
It was quite a hike to the other end of town and the castle but our sore legs made it.
We found an Indian restaurant for a quick, late lunch. It was in the basement of a building that was over 600 years old. They were trying for cuisine and chic but we are pretty tough customers. I did like the server helper robot that brought the dishes.
We had a very good train car coming back. We were at a table for four but only Jay and I had the window seats. Jay was looking forward and managed to see quite a number of deer and hares. He saw one fox that I didn't see. The train would have been just two and a half hours. However signaling problems kept us delayed by about ten minutes. Then, at a Warsaw station before our arrival at Centrum, we were unexpectedly stopped for twenty minutes. So although the ticket showed 2:20-minute journey, it took us three hours.
We stopped at our favourite Turkish restaurant on the way back to the hotel.