After breakfast a hotel taxi took me to the train station. The man was waiting with a cart. I let him look my bags on the card and showed him my train ticket. He took me to the right platform and stayed there until my Kraków train arrived. He carried my bags onto the correct car and to my reserved seat. I gave him a good tip. An airport it's easy to get directions from an English person but had a bus or train station there was almost no one spoke English.
The compartment I was in had five Polish people and myself. I asked the girl next to me if she was going to Kraków. She could speak a few English words and said, “yes.” We she got off so did I. The landscape was flat or slightly rolling. Or were small villages on the way. The land was producing all types of grain and produce and there were fruit orchards. The Polish farmers were putting their acreage to good use.
At the Kraków train platform a man wanted to take my bag. I wasn't sure whether he was supporter or taxi driver. He carried my bag up and down steps to the taxi stand. A taxi took me to the form hotel on the banks of the river across from the city center.
The hotel was modern, new, and busy. My room was very nice with a nice bathroom and a television with a couple of English-speaking stations. TNN had the latest world news.
The concierge told me what number bus could get me to old town. I joined a throng of sightseers and shoppers. One could spend many hours wandering about the shops. The one shop a woman said, “if you need help I speaks Polish and English.” She lived in Chicago and after her husband died she took her nine-year-old son back to her homeland. She had been born and raised in Kraków and thought it was nice to visit the place where she was born and raised. She would be glad to get back to the conveniences of America.
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