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An independent visit
to the
charming city of Tarnów
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We did not follow the published programme
for today. Having been taught at school about the horrors
that occurred in these camps, we didn't feel that we needed
to visit them as tourists. Their continued presence clearly
plays a part in educating younger people today, but the
lessons for us are well understood.
Instead, after a recommendation from our
friend, Victoria, who follows a blog from a lady with
extensive knowledge of Poland, we planned an independent
day trip to Tarnów, a forty minute train journey
from Kraków's central station.
We started by having breakfast in the
Tribe's dining room, located in the basement of the hotel.
This was also the place where we would rejoin the group
for dinner this evening.
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It was a gorgeous sunny day as we walked
the short distance from our hotel to Jan
Nowak-Jezioranski Square and then towards what we
thought was the station entrance directly ahead of us.
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Our assumption turned
out to be wrong. The building ahead of us had once been
the station entrance, but no longer serves that purpose,
as this aerial view makes quite clear. The old station building
is now occupied by shops and offices, while the station
itself can only be accessed from the bridge spanning the
railway lines towards the top of the picture. Clearly, we
weren't the only people to have been caught out, as there
were signs in English on the old buildings saying, “This
is not the station!” with arrows pointing to the left.
Fortunately, we had plenty of time to spare and found the
correct entrance without too much difficulty. Had we walked
to our hotel after arriving yesterday, rather than taking
the taxi provided, we wouldn't have been caught out in the
first place. |
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We were pleased to have
visited the square anyway, because it is a lovely open space. |
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On the side of the square
is one of many entrances to a vast shopping centre, which
also provides a direct link to the station, as we discovered
when we returned from our trip later. |
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Once at the station,
the signs were a bit confusing but a uniformed lady, who
looked a member of the train crew, kindly helped us to find
the right platform. Geoff even had time to take pictures
of trains... again! |
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Our train turned up on
time. |
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We were quite proud
of ourselves that we had been able to book our e-tickets
before leaving home and that everything worked out exactly
as planned. |
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Although we had reserved
window seats, we needn't have bothered because we had the
compartment to ourselves. |
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After a very comfortable
ride, we arrived at our destination on time. |
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Outside
the station is this monument to Lech
Kaczynski, Poland's (4th) president from 2005 until his
death in the Smolensk
air disaster in 2010. Researching him later, we discovered
that he was deeply opposed to LGBTQ+ rights and we find it
quite disturbing that he is still being honoured in this way. |
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The distance from the
station to Tarnow's Old Town is 1.3km. We enjoyed the walk.
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We walked along Krakowska
Street, taking in some of the interesting sights along the
way. |
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Arriving in Tarnów’s
Old Town, we could immediately see why it had been so highly
recommended. It looked clean and loved, with plenty of interesting
things to see. Amazingly, during the entire time we were
here, we hardly saw another tourist. It is, of course, much
smaller and has less to offer than Kraków’s
Old Town, but it was well worth making a special effort
to visit. |
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Close to the cathedral
is the main square. |
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We paid a visit to the
Tourist Information office, also on the main square, where
we were greeted warmly by a lady, who gave us a map of the
Old Town, along with advice about the best walking route
to get the most out of our visit. She suggested that we
walk in a north-easterly direction from the main square
to Walowa Street and then to follow its pedestrianised crescent
towards the west, before returning to the square from a
north-westerly direction. She said that there wasn't a lot
to see on the south side of the square. |
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We followed her advice.
The first point on the map was the remaining bimah of the
Old Synagogue of Tarnów, which had been in this place
since 1630, but destroyed by the Nazis in 1939. |
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General Józef
Bem (1794-1850) – A native of Tarnów and
a hero of both Poland and Hungary. |
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Roman
Brandstaetter (1906-1987) was a writer, poet, playwright,
journalist and translator who was born in the city. |
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Seated sculptures of
three popular 20th century Polish writers and literary figures;
Agnieszka Osiecka, Jan Brzechwa and Zbigniew Herbert, created
by Tarnów-based sculptor Jacek Kucaba in 2004. We
didn't spot them all, but there should have been a box placed
next to each of them, containing examples of their works. |
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A statue of Wladyslaw
I Lokietek (also known as "Elbow-high" or
Ladislaus the Short) who was King of Poland from 1320 to
1333. |
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Returning to the main
square, it was time for coffee at a local cafe/restaurant. |
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After a little more strolling,
we decided to have an early, light lunch at one of these
restaurants. |
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...at a table overlooking
the square... |
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...just in time to hear
Tarnów's twelve noon trumpet call. It was similar
to the one we had heard at St Mary's yesterday, although
slightly more mournful, we thought. A pity about the background
noise on this video. |
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Our light lunch had evolved
to become a delicious plate of goodies. |
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After a final walk around
the square... |
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...we walked back to
the station. |
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The train back was delayed
because of an incident further up the line, which gave Geoff
even more opportunies to take photos of trains! |
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The journey back to
Kraków was uneventful. After we arrived, we walked
through the large shopping centre before returning to our
hotel in time for dinner with the group in the hotel's restaurant.
It was a somewhat uninspiring meal, but we enjoyed talking
to some of the others and hearing about their experiences
today. After dinner, we retired to our room for a reasonably
early night as we began looking forward to more adventures
tomorrow. |
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