Dorothy's Diary April 8th Krakow

Wednesday 8^th April

Berlin Hauptbahnhof is a very modern station with a lot of shops and eating places. We went to the ticket office to ask if we could reserve our seats on the Krakow –Daugavpils train, but were told that we had to do that in Krakow. We then found the platform for our journey as we had 45 minutes to wait. German trains run to time and ours was no exception. It looked quite an old train with only four carriages so it was a good thing that our seats had been reserved.

The train made its way through the suburbs of Berlin and out into open countryside. We crossed the border into Poland and entered a Pine Forest. We were in the forest for about two hours. It just went on for mile after mile. It reminded me very much of Dr Zhivago on his journey through the Ural Mountains, but there was no snow.

The weather is glorious and even on the train we are wearing sunspecs. The train does not travel very fast 40 MPH at most

There is no refreshment car on the train, fortunately we had bought provisions. A steward with a trolley did appear about 2.00p.m with hot drinks and snacks, so we had a coffee and Mars bar each. It cost 14 PLN ( about £3.00 ).

As we neared Krakow I had a thought that this journey has taken us 10 1/2 hours, more than the flying time for Rachel & Peter and the girls from Manchester to Knoxville.

372 miles….10 ½ hours……….average speed 37MPH. 

We managed to get a taxi outside the station and arrived at our apartment at 9.05p.m. The representative arrived a few minutes later and showed us round. It is very clean and modern. Open plan in design with sliding doors so we can shut off the bedroom. There is a dishwasher and washing machine, iron and ironing board. The last two items will not be used.

It was still quite warm so we had a wander down to the main market square ( 2 mins ). It was still very busy even at 9.30 at night. We had a snack of potatoes, pork, mushrooms and veg, all piping hot. It was a little spicy but very enjoyable.

The apartment has internet access so we were able to speak to Rachel and Megan on SKYPE. Megan had difficulty understanding the time difference between Poland and England. We also managed to get through to Richard.

Polish is the 5^th most difficult language to learn. We can’t get the hang of it at all. It is so unlike any language that we have heard before. Alan reminded me that we will have to get used to that experience as Latvian, Russian, Mongolian and Chinese aren’t going to be any easier to understand.

Maundy Thursday

We had our first shopping expedition, to the supermarket. It was very small, more like a corner shop, but we managed to find everything that we needed.

Alan had been searching the internet for the Methodist church in Krakow and discovered that it is very close to our apartment, so it looks like we will be visiting on Easter Sunday.

I don’t suppose we will understand a word, but it will be an experience not to be missed.

We have arranged our visit to Auschwitz for Good Friday and then next Tuesday are hoping to visit the old Jewish Quarter and Schindler’s factory and also the salt mines.