Despite only arriving into Krakow the evening before we were straight out for a day trip the next day. This wasn’t ideal timing (and made for a late night unpacking and repacking for the day) but we were meeting up with my Dad and Kim. They had been in Zakopane for a week, after their time in the Swiss Alps. It was their last day in Zakopane (in the Polish Alps) before returning to Australia.
We had an unfortunate 5.30am alarm and it was definitely dark and cold, minus 3 with an apparent of minus 6. We had seen none of Krakow in daylight but found our way on the 1.6km walk to the bus station. It had snowed a lot overnight and not many people were out yet, so it was a trudge through snow.
The long bus ride to Zakopane….
Our coach left at 7.10am and it was still dark as we departed. The bus station was pretty busy on a cold and snowy morning and we weren’t overly looking forward to the 2.5 hour bus trip but were thanking our lucky stars we weren’t getting on the coach next to us that was headed for Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland. That was one very long bus trip!
Despite it still being dark we did get some good views of Krakow in the breaking dawn, with the castle lit up on the hill and snow lined streets. It looked like had snowed a fair bit overnight. The snow had been starting to fall as we were walking back from picking up our dinner the previous night.
It was so cold that there was still plenty of frost on the bus window as we started our journey!
The 106km to Zakopane took us out of Krakow and into the alps. We passed through a lot of villages and there was plenty of snow. Zakopane is South of Krakow and close to the border with Slovakia.
We made pretty good time on the bus until the last bit through the mountain passes where the last 25km took forever with the heavy snow overnight making the roads a bit treacherous.
Off to explore Zakopane…..
We finally arrived at 9.40am, and only 20 minutes late. My Dad met us at the bus station and as we hopped off the bus it was a lot colder than Krakow at minus 6 (feels like minus 10) so the snow gear was on and the hand warmers out.
Zakopane is very popular with locals, known as the ‘winter capital of Poland’ and it was very busy. Up until a couple of day earlier there hadn’t been much snow, but a couple of good dumps, with a cold blast and there was snow everywhere now. It was still snowing on us as we were wandering through the streets and visibility was pretty poor. The kids didn’t care though, they were just happy there was more snow!
We met up with Kim, who was in town having a coffee and had a quick wander down Krupówki St (the main shopping and restaurant street), where the crowds were already building. There were already plenty of horses out an about ready to take people on rides.
Alan (Gramps) and Kim had suggested heading up to Gubałówka as there were plenty of activities for the kids and we might get some views if the snow and cloud cleared. Kim and Alan recommended getting up the funicular early as the crowds were crazy.
So it was straight down Krupówki street to the funicular station.
Gubałówka
There was already a bit of a line for funicular tickets, but we made it to the top (at 1100m elevation) after about half an hour. It was snowing heavily still so we weren’t expecting a lot of views but thought we’d have some fun with the snow activities.
As we exited the funicular it was snowing pretty heavily and there were people everywhere. The sound of horses clopping through the snow dragging sleighs was pretty common, and there were various horses everywhere to attract the kids attention.
From the top of Gubałówka, there is a view of the amazing panorama of Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains. At this stage of the day, however, there was a cloudy view of white!
A lovely Polish lunch……
Kim and Alan had already been up to Gubałówka during their time in Zakopane, and said all the restaurants filled up quickly so we made a plan to grab an early lunch. We’d already been up for many hours so early lunch seemed like a great idea.
It was already very busy and we were getting turned away from restaurants by 11am but found one with a spot for us that had a good menu, a fire and was warm.
Astrid and I had Winter coffees and we all tried various Polish specialties including dumplings and Polish potato cakes. It was all very tasty!
Snow tubes and slippery dips
By the time we finished lunch the cloud had cleared a bit and snow slowed and we got some views! It was still a brisk minus 7 but we could now see some of those Tatra mountains.
The kids then wanted to go snow tubing. The minimum age was 5 but you couldn’t have adults ride with children. We weren’t sure Zinnia would be OK on her own and the older 2 tested it out and agreed, saying they spent time airborne and went on their sides and it was scary (but fun).
Both Astrid and Soren did a couple of tube runs and managed to avoid any serious injury. The adults, with bellies full of lunch were less inclined to hop-aboard.
Zinnia was very annoyed that we weren’t going to let her snow tube. We tried to placate her with another activity so Zinnia got some snow slippery dips instead.
Zinnia got 4 slippery dips and the others 2 each and they all had a great time.
Farm animals and snowball fights
Once we’d satisfied the need for speed it was off to look around more. There are endless market stalls and snow activities up here, plus sleigh rides (through the streets) so you have to watch out for horses everywhere.
Our animals need to up their game as you could pay 17 zloty (about $7.50 AUD) to feed a lamb and cuddle it for 2 minutes, or 30 zloty ($12.50) to pat some alpacas. Given our backyard menagerie we thought we should be making a fortune and just watched the people enjoying their paid pats.
The streets were super busy with horses, big crowds and kids being dragged on sleds. You could barely walk down some of the streets and the odd car would try to drive through which was somewhat chaotic.
We wandered around and played in the snow, with plenty of snowball fights. Apparently throwing snow at the grownups never gets old!
The line for the funicular was getting long so we had another walk past the market stalls and were not currently being tempted by the food smells since we’d just had lunch. It looked like most of the souvenirs up here were the same as on Krupówki St so we head back down towards the funicular station.
The line to go down was about 20 minutes. A few of us stood in line while Anto had to go and line up for a toilet with Zinnia, so by the time they got back we were almost at the front of the line. We had another squishy funicular ride, packed in like sardines, reminiscent of our Christmas day funiculars in Innsbruck. At least since the sun had come out we got some nice views on the way down.
When we got down the line for the funicular to go back up was stretching over 500m so we were very glad we’d already been up!
Krupówki Street….
Despite being January 4, there were plenty of Christmas decorations in the streets so the kids had fun riding on giant sleighs and patting some decorative sheep!
We had a wander through the markets on Krupówki St but with it now about minus 7 decided we needed warm drinks.
Kim’s favourite cafe on the street was also insanely busy and didn’t have enough seats but we found that the upstairs Art Cafe had seats for us (just) with amazing views of the church and snow, and very impressive hot chocolates and mulled wine. I think the drinks cost about a million zloty but were mighty delicious……
On the way out we stopped past the cake selection in Kim’s favourite cafe and picked out a few things for afternoon tea or late night bus ride snacks! Kim and Alan had discovered that the cafes seemed to have fluid pricing models and cakes and other treats would get more expensive in peak times.
With impending sunset we checked out the rest of Krupówki St and the very small Christmas market. The lights were all coming on now and everything was looking very festive.
There were plenty of horses to pat, which kept the children amused! The horses all seemed very friendly and more than happy for attention.
We were going to go to the illumination park but decided it was a tad expensive for the limited time we would spend there so head back to Kim and Alan’s apartment via an explore of the area. The kids mostly wanted to play in the snow! You think they’d be sick of it by now 🙂
We did have fun playing on the giant reindeers and sleighs and Soren found a reindeer that could have munched on him for lunch.
We saw a bit more of Zakopane away from the main tourist streets as we head over to the apartment that Kim and Alan were in. The streets were full of interesting houses. Zakopane is a resort town so there is plenty of holiday accommodation as people come for snow sports and winter holidays. We all thought it felt a bit like Bateman’s Bay on the NSW south coast in the Summer holidays but the snow version!
A final dinner together…
After some time in the warm, a coffee to warm up we had a last game of UNO. We’d played many on our earlier part of the trip together through Cologne, Strasbourg and the Swiss Alps. This was our final meet up for this holiday.
Despite it being only about 4.30pm we had a long trip back to Krakow ahead of us so we thought we’d do an early dinner together. Alan and Kim suggested a restaurant they’d been to before off the main tourist streets and on the way past earlier we agreed it looked pretty good.
It was back out into the cold and it was now getting dark and there were plenty of lights on. Despite it being only 4.45pm when we arrived at the restaurant it was rather busy and it seemed everyone was out having early dinner.
I had the most amazing goats cheese and pear salad, Astrid a giant burger, Anto schnitzel and the other kids dumplings. None of the servings were small and we all thought the food was excellent. My salad was one of the best I’ve ever had (and I’ve had some good goats cheese salads in France!).
The only issue was that despite us getting to the restaurant early they were so busy that they took awhile so we had to scoff our food down in the end in order to make it back to the bus station.
We then had say a quick farewell to my Dad and Kim as they were heading home the next day, so our next meet up would have to be back in Australia.
Farewell Zakopane….
We then had to walk rather fast through the snow the almost 2km back to the bus station. It had not gotten above minus 6 all day so the hand warmers were appreciated. There were plenty of lights out to look at on the way and the streets were still packed with people.
Once our bus pulled up right on time just before 6.30pm. The snow gear was stripped off and we were thankful for the comfy seats and the heating. The kids collapsed asleep pretty quickly out of Zakopane. It was now minus 8 and the bus was showing the outside temperature updates (which got as low as minus 10) and we were not sorry to be back in the warm.
There were not a lot of views on the way back due to the dark and snow, but we made pretty good time. Soren spent the entire trip sleeping on me, while Anto got a Zinnia and Astrid just stretched out in her own row. The bus was very empty so we didn’t have to worry about space or spending any time looking out the window.
It has been a very long day and we still hadn’t seen any of Krakow in daylight, but we’d passed the castle twice all lit up, so that was on the agenda for the following day 🙂
By 9pm we were back in our Krakow apartment and looking forward to some Krakow sightseeing (and more snow!) the next day.
Up next…..
A huge day exploring beautiful snowy Krakow. We saw the castle and it’s fire breathing dragon and had plenty of time wandering around the old town. We then did a late afternoon trip to the Wieliczka Salt mine which was fabulous.
