if you visit Poland I highly recommend this as the top one or two cities to visit. You will need at least two days, maybe three days if you’re going to visit the concentration camps which in themselves are a whole day tour.
Walking around Krakow
Religious Krakow
The city is interesting from a religious perspective since there have been a lot of different groups passing through, staying and then moving on. The best known of these groups is the Jewish population that has been here for so many hundreds of years, was expelled, came back, was working closely with the governing people and then again on the wrong side of governance. The Jewish quarter in this city has a lot of memorial areas worth visiting. You should take the time to walk around, go in the synagogues and look at all the different buildings, markings and signs. From that perspective this is a very interesting city. The Christian churches are also fascinating. The most interesting might be the one at the castle which is a separate paid entrance but very worth the time.
Bankin’ on Banksy
I bet you didn’t think a place to see Banksy Art was in Poland but if you go to Krakow, across from the supermarket where I bought my food, I noticed there was a big sign for the Banksy museum. It wasn’t expensive so I decided to go in and see what few works of art they have but actually they had quite a few. Here are the ones I found entertaining.
Short Warsaw Visit
I was surprised by Warsaw, such a huge and impressive city. But it wasn’t the quaint place I imagined so I saw what I found interesting and moved on to Krakow.
Visiting Auschwitz
When you come to Poland it is a good idea to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau. It seems you need to book individual entry up to a month in advance and they probably put you in a group? Most everyone was in a group tour which is advisable since there is a progression of buildings to visit and the details are extremely important. The camp you visit is just one of many built to house and mass murder people. There were more than 900 concentration camps built for the NAZIs to house and kill their victims. You will see the living quarters, execution walls, extermination showers and all other buildings preserved by former victims housed here. You will see collections of clothes and personal things left from those killed there as well as tons of hair shaved off before execution, used to make coats and blankets.
Poznan, Poland in winter
Poznan in winter is still a small town. But it’s almost halfway from the German border to Warsaw so it seemed like a good place to stop over for a few days, see how the trains work and cut the trip to Warsaw in half.
