Day Nineteen

DAY NINETEEN

We stayed up late last night and watched the movie – The Rock – after debating at length our intended route from Krakow down south. We woke late – for me that is – at 7.20am and after breakfast in Betsy we proceeded to drive onto Poland and our camp for the night in Krakow. Thankfully it stopped snowing yesterday evening and so the driving conditions were a marked improvement from yesterday’s hazardous drive through Slovakia. We left at around 9.00am and drove through a beautiful setting again in the hills of the Tartra mountain range. Once we had crossed the now defunct border crossing into Poland, we were surprised yet again by the scenery that awaited us. Poland is a prosperous country with excellent roads and houses that leave little reminder of the communist regime that once ruled this beautiful country.

The houses are completely different in style and construction from anything we have encountered in Europe thus far. The vast majority of the homes are three or four stories high with sharply pitched A Frame roof lines. The homes are brightly painted and there is a great deal of construction going on around Poland in every little town that we drove through on the way to Krakow. The country is a pleasure to travel in and we thoroughly enjoyed our drive today. The one thing about the poles is that they love their Speed cameras and the speeds change so rapidly that you have to keep your eye firmly fixed on the speed limits as you drive through towns. We arrived at the campsite in Krakow at around 1.30pm and after a quick check in and look around, we decided to drive into Krakow for a scout trip to find out where we can park Betsy in the morning since we intend on going to visit the extensive Castle complex in the city centre in the morning.

The traffic in the city centre is hectic with Buses, Cars and Trams sharing the narrow streets of Krakow. Glenn came up with a brilliant idea in that since it is Sunday, it would be a good idea to visit the Castle this afternoon since the roads are most likely to be far more hectic on a Monday morning. We found a parking for Betsy right on the outskirts of the Castle walls and proceeded to explore the ancient fortifications’ of this once medieval city dating back to around 900AD. The City Square/Market is the largest in Europe and must be a hive of activity during the summer months and was surprisingly busy even for a weekend in winter. The castle and other 17th and 18th century buildings are spectacular in size and design and although it was extremely cold outside, we enjoyed wandering around the Castle grounds and the numerous churches that adorn the squares. We stopped at a restaurant for a Large Cappuccino and once again were impressed by the friendliness of the polish people that we encountered. Poland is a cheap country to visit with food and restaurants costing around the same as back in South Africa. This is a pleasant change from the costs we have endured through Western Europe.

We stopped in at KFC for a quick bite to eat before heading back to the campsite for the night.