Alsguth Travel Blog

 Hello from Frankfurt! We are flying home today but have some time to finish up the last blog of our tour of Poland! We left Krakow and headed to Zakopane for a week of "nature". Bucolic scenes away from cars and people is just what we are looking for after the three city tour. Well... that is not exactly what we found in the touristy town of Zakopane near the Tatra National Park. We did some hiking, saw a castle, visited a spa, got a massage and ate some good food! We also dealt with lots of traffic, tons of tourists and an apartment that was right next to the very busy fire station! Enough complaining .... here are the pics: Our first hike was to a little waterfall. It was a nice day, hot as usual. The next day we went to Niedzica Castle. It sits on a little lake.  The castle is quite old - 13th century but is in decent shape having been lived in until 1945. This is the potty chair that would have been used by the lord of the manner... kind of like a potty-training toilet f

Hello from Zacopane, Poland.  We have a car now so I did not have a chance to blog backwards on the train. We had five days in Krakow and saw a lot! Where to start? Well, as usual with a free walking tour!  Big Tom was our excellent guide from the North end of the Old Town to the South. Tower of old city wall. This is the Barbican (basically a fortified gateway). Market Hall This old church with uneven towers is interesting. One of the towers belongs to the church, complete with church bells ringing on the hour.  The other tower belongs to the city and has a trumpeter playing a tune four times each hour.   The University At the southern end of the Old Town is the original Krakow.  Krakow was once just a small city on Wawel Hill with a castle and a cathedral. The Wawel Cathedral Pope John Paul II is much revered in Krakow, where he once served as Archbishop of Krakow. Inside the Cathedral: From the bell tower: Czartoryski Museum was interesting. We went in to see the painting by Leonard